I hope this site is tongue-in-cheek (it seems to be). But if you want to read all of the Classics and then some in, well, about an hour, then you might want to head tot the Book-A-Minute Classics site. They explain it this way:
“We’ve taken all kinds of great works of literature and boiled them down to their essence, extracting all the filler (and believe me, there’s a lot of it sometimes). In just one minute, you can read entire books and learn everything your teachers will expect you to know.”
Here are a few that popped out at me and reminded me of how much I loved these books when I first experienced them:
Hemmingway’s A Farewell to Arms
Frederic Henry
I’m separated from my true love in World War I Italy.
Catherine Barkley
Here I am. Let’s hide in Switzerland, whoops, (dies).
Frederic Henry
War has made me cynical.
— the end
The Collected Works of Virginia Woolf
Life is beautiful and tragic. Let’s put flowers in a vase.
— the end
One Flew Over the Cookoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey
Nurse Ratched
I destroy my patients psychologically so I can have power and control.
Randall P. McMurphy
But freedom and happiness are good things.
Nurse Ratched
Lobotomy time for you, buster.
(McMurphy DIES but inspires HOPE so OTHERS may LIVE.)
— the end
Peace (in concise words),
Kevin
PS — I see a companion site, too, called Movie in a Minute.
Ahhh, BooksaMinute. It’s been years since I read those. Thanks for the reminder of their existence!
(Rinkworks is a comedy site, generally.)
Loved it!!! Romeo and Juliet was brilliant. And “Great Expectations” made me me laugh out loud. Thanks for sharing that one.