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
![war](https://bestgifs.makeagif.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/war.gif)
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,
![alongcamezeus](https://bestgifs.makeagif.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/alongcamezeus.gif)
And because testosterone ruins everything.
![bodybuilder](https://bestgifs.makeagif.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/bodybuilder.gif)
Also, this is the one by Homer,
![homer](https://bestgifs.makeagif.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/homer.gif)
and has the famous Trojan Horse scene.
![trojan](https://bestgifs.makeagif.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/trojan.gif)
Hamlet
![hamlet](https://bestgifs.makeagif.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/hamlet.gif)
Sure it’s the greatest work in the English language, but it’s The Lion King…
![lionking](https://bestgifs.makeagif.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/lionking.gif)
Except if Nala goes crazy and kills herself,
![ophelia](https://bestgifs.makeagif.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/ophelia.gif)
and, every other character dies at the end.
![silence](https://bestgifs.makeagif.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/silence.gif)
Crime & Punishment
![snow](https://bestgifs.makeagif.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/snow.gif)
Do some people deserve to die and is morality consistent and existent outside of humans?
![absenceofgod](https://bestgifs.makeagif.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/absenceofgod.gif)
Also, a lot of sad cold Russians, dreams, and too much of the color yellow.
![blackempty](https://bestgifs.makeagif.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/blackempty.gif)
War & Peace
![warandpeace](https://bestgifs.makeagif.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/warandpeace.gif)
Russians battle Napoleon,
![naploean](https://bestgifs.makeagif.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/naploean.gif)
and a bunch of rich, privileged, aristocrats have a bunch of feels.
![hellothere](https://bestgifs.makeagif.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/hellothere.gif)
Then there’s 400 pages of philosophical musings.
![philosphy](https://bestgifs.makeagif.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/philosphy.gif)
Wuthering Heights
![gothic](https://bestgifs.makeagif.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/gothic.gif)
No, there’s no such thing as ghosts,
![ghosts](https://bestgifs.makeagif.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/ghosts.gif)
but being a dick has consequences on the people around you for a really, really, long time.
![heathcliffe](https://bestgifs.makeagif.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/heathcliffe.gif)
Also, “wuthering” is a word?!
![whoknew](https://bestgifs.makeagif.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/whoknew.gif)
David Copperfield
![magic](https://bestgifs.makeagif.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/magic.gif)
Not that David Copperfield, this one from the Dickens book.
![davey](https://bestgifs.makeagif.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/davey.gif)
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,
![victorian](https://bestgifs.makeagif.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/victorian.gif)
and a boy grows to a man through extreme poverty and mostly everybody in the country being a dick to him.
![lifeispain](https://bestgifs.makeagif.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/lifeispain.gif)
But he then marries a sensible woman and lives happily ever after.
![happy](https://bestgifs.makeagif.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/happy.gif)
Finnegan’s Wake
![surreal](https://bestgifs.makeagif.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/surreal.gif)
Oh, f@#k I’ve read this twice now and I have no idea.
![truppy](https://bestgifs.makeagif.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/truppy.gif)
Here stare at this for a week and it’ll be liking reading James Joyce’s Finnegan’s Wake.
![trippy](https://bestgifs.makeagif.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/trippy.gif)
The Bible
![lovinggod](https://bestgifs.makeagif.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/lovinggod.gif)
Spoiler alert, the hero dies at the end (but he gets better).
![jesus](https://bestgifs.makeagif.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/jesus.gif)
Share this now so that everyone you know can hack the classics!