Most people seem to have only one of three attitudes towards works of classic world literature. Roughly, these are…

1. Those who have read it.
2. Those who pretend to have read it.
3. Those who keep saying they’re going to read it, but never do.

Hats off to the first camp, but we can’t really blame those from camps two and three. After all, classic novels can often seem pretty formidable, not least because they’re often rather long. War and Peace is over 1,400 pages, Don Quixote is close to 1,000, and James Joyce’s Ulysses, while not quite as long, is still, well, Ulysses.

But thanks to Cartoonist John Atkinson, such literary behemoths need no longer be intimidating, because he’s kindly reduced them all to just a handful of words in these funny illustrations below. Now you too can pretend to have read the greats! But beware, (very concise) spoilers lie ahead!

Source: Boredpanda, wrong hands, brightside.me

This article was made with the permission of John Atkinson. If you enjoyed it, you can support the artist by buying these seriously cool posters from his shop here.