'Ripping Good Stories'

The discussion of genre and literature went on for quite a long time on DorothyL, the mystery readers' email list; just before it faded out, it had moved on to the question of 'classics'. As one of the participants said, "... for those who don't read anything labelled 'literature' please don't judge it all by the idea that we 'have' to read it because it is good for us. Thomas Hardy, William Shakespeare, Jane Austen, Edgar Allan Poe, Washington Irving, Dante, Homer, Charles Dickens, the Brontes etc. all write ripping good stories ;) I think many of those classic types in their own time were considered a kind of 'genre' romance/comedy/travellers etc. writer."