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Classic literature includes older works that have withstood the test of time and that are even so widely read today. Some well-known examples of classic literature include The Aeneid by Virgil, The Odyssey by Homer, Inferno by Dante, and Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare. Whether you're a student or just an avid reader hoping to delve into classic literature, you may be wondering where to begin. Familiarizing yourself with a text before yous read, using reading strategies to improve your agreement, and finding ways to reflect on the text tin can all help you to empathize a work of classic literature.

  1. one

    Read summaries of what the work is about. Yous can find descriptions or summaries of classic works of literature online, or read the back cover of the volume to proceeds a basic thought of what the story is about. Knowing a bit about the plot, characters, and setting may make it easier for you to follow and empathize the writing when you lot begin reading.

    • Just make sure that you lot do not substitute summaries for reading the bodily text. Call back that a summary is someone else's interpretation of what happened. Even if the summary is quite objective, it may incorporate some bias about graphic symbol motives and potential meanings behind events.

  2. 2

    Learn about a book's historical menstruation. Agreement the time period in which a volume was written tin either assistance or hinder how you lot read that book.[1] Past researching the historical events that are depicted in the book or otherwise influenced its writing, you tin can come up away with a improve understanding of that novel's narrative.

    • Y'all can get a quick understanding of a given time period and/or the author's life experiences by searching online.

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  3. 3

    Consider skimming. You tin too skim a book or other work of classic literature if reading it seems too difficult. Skimming volition assist you to gain a basic understanding of the plot, characters, setting, and concepts.

    • Read the first and terminal paragraph of each chapter to get a sense of what happens on the pages within.
    • Read the first and terminal sentence of each paragraph to get a sense of what happens in that affiliate.

  4. 4

    Ask questions. If you know someone who has already set this slice of classic literature, and so request him or her some basic questions may help y'all. Y'all could ask the person to give you a basic caption of the:

    • Characters - the people (and sometimes animals) in a work of fiction.
    • Setting - the place, fourth dimension, and culture in which a novel takes place.
    • Plot - the things that take identify over the course of the novel.
    • Theme - the underlying concept, idea, or belief that runs through the entire novel.
    • Conflict - a struggle that creates tension in the novel.
    • Climax - turning point at which the tension (created by conflict) cannot rise anymore and must be resolved.
    • Narrator - who tells the story (a character in the story or someone else?).

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    Consider reading an annotated edition. Many classic texts were written with a vocabulary or historical context that may be lost on contemporary readers. Reading an annotated version, which includes supplemental information and explanations, is an easy way to engage with an otherwise complicated text.

    • In addition to reading an annotated text, try keeping a dictionary or reader's guide on mitt when you read. These supplemental materials can help you work through difficult terms and confusing chapters.

  2. 2

    Showtime reading and keep reading. Fifty-fifty if you lot struggle with the text, it is of import to stick with it if yous want to empathize it. After sticking with it for a while, the language, setting, and characters may showtime to get more than familiar to you.[2]

    • If you encounter a difficult passage that you exercise non empathise, mark the folio and skip information technology for now. Yous can always come up back to it afterward yous have a basic understanding of the text.
    • Skip footnotes on your first read because these may slow you downwardly.
    • Keep in mind that with hard texts, it is often necessary to read through them more than in one case. After you have read through a slice of archetype literature once, your 2d read through should be much easier and concepts that were disruptive to you should make more than sense.

  3. 3

    Make comments in the margins of the text. If you're trying to gain a better understanding of a difficult text, underlining passages may not exist enough. Instead, try making comments in the margins to fully engage with the text. Your comments/notes can practise any of the following to help you gain a better understanding of the material:

    • summarize the attached passages
    • brand notes on passages that relate to other passages from earlier/later in the text
    • write (and answer) questions on anything you didn't understand
    • concur or disagree with what a passage is saying

  4. 4

    Try reading and learning with a group. Some readers acquire amend while working within a group setting. Joining a book club or enrolling in a literature class at your local customs higher can give you the opportunity to discuss a novel with other readers and gain valuable insight from an instructor.

    • Y'all can detect book clubs in your area past searching online.
    • If y'all're not able to enroll in a grade at your local college, yous may desire to consider taking a massive open up online course (MOOC). These courses are often free or very affordable and are frequently offered through prestigious educational institutions.

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    Write a summary or summaries. After yous stop the text or finish a affiliate, commit to writing a brief summary of everything important that happened. Restrict yourself to about a half page or less, and make sure yous accost the major plot points, how those points afflicted each grapheme, and how that chapter fits into the context of the larger book.

    • Write your affiliate summaries without consulting the text or your notes. This will help examination your agreement of what you've read.[3]

  2. 2

    Tell someone virtually what you have read. Telling something well-nigh something yous accept learned is a skilful way to assist you understand t amend yourself. If you have a friend who also has an interest in classic literature, then yous might consider telling him or her about the text.

    • Even if you have non still finished reading a text, you lot may benefit from describing what has happened and so far in your own words.

  3. 3

    Watch a picture show accommodation. For many readers, visualizing the characters, setting, and plot points of a book make it easier to blot the narrative.[4] While watching a pic is not a substitute for reading the actual book, it may assistance you arrive at a better understanding of the volume.

    • For example, if you are reading a play by Shakespeare, and so bank check out a filmed version of the play. While some versions use artistic staging and may cut some of the dialogue, yous will withal be able to encounter well-nigh of the text come up to life.

  4. 4

    Read commentary and critical analyses of the book online. Later on you lot finish reading, it may be useful to learn about what others have learned and interpreted from the text. Go online and see if websites such as Spark Notes and Cliffs Notes have any valuable information on your book. These often have information on themes, symbols, characters, and more, which may assistance yous call back nearly the volume on a deeper level.

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  • If you don't understand a discussion that an author uses, await it upwards in the dictionary. Your vocabulary will grow, and yous'll be able to have a more complete understanding of what yous read.

  • If y'all're reading a book in translation, look into various dissimilar translations (unless you're reading for a class that requires you lot to read a particular version). You lot might discover some easier than others, especially if given the choice between e.g. an early 19th century translation and a modern one.

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