Is it just me?

We all have experience of works that are trumpeted as great works of art but that we just don't see what the fuss is about. For a lot of people, it's Joyce's Ulysses - a view that I think it is unfair, even though much of the praise for the book is also uncritical.

On the operatic front, for years that was how I felt about Verdi's La Traviata. I thought it was decorative music that didn't do justice to the real poignancy of the story. Now that I understand Verdi's style better I see the work in context and I no longer take that view (you can stop spinning in your grave now, Pepe). On the symphonc front, Bruckner is a composer who I feel is grossly overrated, with the exception of his 4th symphony, though I expect I would be less in a minority there.

In terms of fiction, my bugbear are the very two of Thomas Hardy's novels that are held as his greatest achievements: Tess of the d'Urbervilles and Jude the Obscure. In both of these novels, I feel that the plots are contrived and sentimental, and that the books - Jude especially - are really thinly disguised social tracts. That is not to say that Hardy is without talent - The Mayor of Casterbridge is a favourite of mine - one of the great works of 19th century English fiction, almost perfect in its construction, its characterisation and its poignancy. Far from the Madding Crowd, for that matter, is a delightful love story (it's a shame he didn't write more stories with happy endings). It's simply that Hardy over-reaches himself in these last two books so that his deep and sincere social concern cloud his instincts as a writer. Thankfully, he concentrated on poetry for the remaining thirsty years of his life and his poetry deserves even more recognition).

Some people might say the same of Dickens (and, in cases such as Hard Times, you would be right in my view). However, while most readers nowadays acknowledge Dicken's sentimentality and tendency to preach, it is his comic gift, he ability to caricature and his sometimes grotesque imagination that are his unique talents and make him continuedly deserving of his reputation.

Anyway, that's just what I think and who am I to judge?