Fifty Shades of Bragging

But surveys in both Spain and the United Kingdom reveal that around 40 percent of their corresponding populations have never read either “Don Quixote” or “Hamlet”.

Every summer, inevitably, “Must Read” lists appear in the press, implying that if you haven’t read certain books, you are a nitwit (yes, again this year). These polished inventories tend to include two authors whose simple mention is stressful, because many people haven’t read them or ever intend to. One is Cervantes. The other is Shakespeare. According to Harold Bloom, both writers are “the two central western authors”, unmatched since their almost simultaneous deaths in April of 1616. But surveys in both Spain and the United Kingdom reveal that around 40 percent of their corresponding populations have never read either “Don Quixote” or “Hamlet”. Reasons given are similar: old books, difficult to understand and not very interesting.

Meanwhile, the Top Ten Fiction Best Selling List this month of July 2015 is crowned in UK by “Grey: Fifty Shades as Told by Christian” (E.L. James) and in Spain by “The Girl on the Train” (Paula Hawkins). Given that both titles are romance novels read almost exclusively by women, that women read more fiction than men and that fiction is losing readers every year, one can’t help remembering George Eliot’s commendable 1856 essay “Silly Novels by Lady Novelists”, in which she tries to answer literature’s eternal questions. Who writes better, a man or a woman? Are there feminine themes and masculine themes? Why is romance novel still selling so well? Is literature art or pure entertainment? Do women read more or do they read worse? Writers, critics and journalists around the world have been trying to answer these questions for centuries. But one thing is sure. Those of us who have enjoyed –and will continue enjoying– reading the classics are not necessarily smarter or more refined than those who haven’t. And bragging about it does seem time-consuming.