““The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” or “Things Fall Apart””
Two great novels.
As far as “warnings” go, bleah. I can see it, maybe, in a very few cases of younger kids given challenging material. For example, in junior high we read the Greek fable “The Rape of Persephone.” My English teacher took a moment out to explain that “rape” in this case, was referring to a kidnapping, not a sexual assault (or what Whoopi would call “rape rape”). It cleared things up without further issue.
But for grown adults? Get real. If you can’t handle a few bad words in Huck Finn or Grapes of Wrath by the time you’re old enough to go to college, I think you have deeper issues than just dealing with offensive language.
Uhh, hate to dispute your teacher, but Hades rape-raped Persephone too.
Or at least as much as any of the captive women in the Iliad were rape-raped. Women of the time were aware that captives became the sex slaves of the conqueror, so possibly violence was less necessary than for a modern woman with different expectations.
My English teacher took a moment out to explain that “rape” in this case, was referring to a kidnapping, not a sexual assault (or what Whoopi would call “rape rape”). It cleared things up without further issue.
Did your teacher explain to you anything about the
cult of Demeter and the rites of Eleusis?