Day 15 - Class of 2014 weighs in on literature taught at BHS - Anne Ford, BHS English Department

This post first appeared on the BHS English Department Blog

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Mrs. Ford conducted a completely non-scientific poll of the 51 seniors in her British & World Literature classes to find what literary works in the BHS English Department curricula they loved and hated.

For the first time, Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer took top honors this year, supplanting the Class of 2013 favorite, J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye. The Great Gatsbyplaced second — but would have taken top honors if votes from “favorite novel ever” counted in this category. There was less consolidation as to favorites than in the past, with more titles mentioned than in previous years.

TheClass of 2014 least favorite work was also new: Romeo & Juliet by William Shakespeare received some scathing reviews. The famous play narrowly edged out Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë and last year’s least favorite, Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities.

Full results of the poll are below.

Favorite BHS Literature:

1. Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer
2. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
3. (tie) Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck; The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger; andOne Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey
4. (tie) Lord of the Flies by William Golding and The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
5. (tie) To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee; The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien; and The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
6. Honorable Mention (with one vote each): Ender’s Game; The Crucible; Jane Eyre; A Tale of Two Cities; and Their Eyes Were Watching God

Least Favorite BHS Literature:

1. Romeo & Juliet by William Shakespeare
2. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë
3. A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
4. (tie) Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer; The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger; and Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
5. Dishonorable Mention (with one vote each): The Scarlet Letter; The Yellow Wallpaper; Lord of the Flies; The Things They Carried