All of those influential, important, smart, and LONG books hang over our culture, but when you check out those Greek epics, Dickens, Dostoevsky, Bronte, and such, they’re all a huge time commitment. Why not just get the good parts and know enough to fake your way through a conversation the next time you’re at a cocktail party, hitting on an English major, or acing a college paper (ok, maybe not the last one) .
So, we’ve assembled the world’s greatest cheat sheet for the world’s greatest literature summing up these classic works with a few simple GIFS! Embiggen your mind while experiencing the most moving works in human history in mere seconds!
The Iliad
A bunch of roided-up Greeks go to war that decimate both sides because…of a chick? Oh, that’s not the only reason to kill a bunch there’s also the great reason that the gods are dicks,
And because testosterone ruins everything.
Also, this is the one by Homer,
and has the famous Trojan Horse scene.
Hamlet
Sure it’s the greatest work in the English language, but it’s The Lion King…
Except if Nala goes crazy and kills herself,
and, every other character dies at the end.
Crime & Punishment
Do some people deserve to die and is morality consistent and existent outside of humans?
Also, a lot of sad cold Russians, dreams, and too much of the color yellow.
War & Peace
Russians battle Napoleon,
and a bunch of rich, privileged, aristocrats have a bunch of feels.
Then there’s 400 pages of philosophical musings.
Wuthering Heights
No, there’s no such thing as ghosts,
but being a dick has consequences on the people around you for a really, really, long time.
Also, “wuthering” is a word?!
David Copperfield
Not that David Copperfield, this one from the Dickens book.
And Charles Dickens got paid by the word if you’re wondering why this book is so gee-dee long. So, lets break it down for you: Victorian England is a super-sad place,
and a boy grows to a man through extreme poverty and mostly everybody in the country being a dick to him.
But he then marries a sensible woman and lives happily ever after.
Finnegan’s Wake
Oh, f@#k I’ve read this twice now and I have no idea.
Here stare at this for a week and it’ll be liking reading James Joyce’s Finnegan’s Wake.
The Bible
Spoiler alert, the hero dies at the end (but he gets better).
Share this now so that everyone you know can hack the classics!
