American satirist and writer Joe Queenan asks this wistful question in an article in the August 24, 2009 issue of
The Wall Street Journal: If the Internet had existed centuries ago, how would Amazon.com’s amateur book reviewers have assessed and rated the works of such notables as William Shakespeare, Marquis de Sade, and Virgil as well as the writers of the Bible?
Queenan speculates tongue-in-check that Shakespeare’s
King Lear might have gotten only 2 stars out of the maximum 5 for its tendency to state the obvious, de Sade’s
The 120 Days of Sodom a full 5 stars for its promise of extended erotica, Vergil’s
The Aeneid only 2 stars for having so many whining and bellyaching characters, and
Deuteronomy 3 stars for what turns out to be a nonstory and its obsessive preoccupation with clean and unclean beasts.
Conceding that some of Amazon.com reviewers “can get a bit course” in their reviews, he marvels nevertheless at “their absolute fearlessness when it comes to trashing high-profile authors that mainstream reviewers would hesitate to mix it up with.”
Read Joe Queenan’s “Amazon Reviewers Take on the Classics” in the WSJ now!
