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Writing off "the classics" doesn't make sense unless modern writing is much better. I see no evidence for that. But obviously as we recede in time from the writers and as both language and culture change, classics become more of a challenge and are probably harder work to read. But the big question is: what does one get out of them? All reading of fiction is a trade off among entertainment, effort and education. The proportions vary with the vintage of the works.
In my youth I made a determined effort to read through the English writers up to the end of the 18th century. A few are still among my favourites, including Fielding and Defoe. No way would I ever tackle Richardson's novels again!
I don't find Jane Austen romantic at all. But I love her writing and the vivid portraits she draws of her social circle. I did read all of Fanny Burney's novels and since getting my Kindle I have reread Evelina. Her novels are interesting as an influence on Austen, but are nowhere as valuable in themselves.
I have to agree with the criticisms of Wuthering Heights. I find it an embarrassing book. It reveals far too much about it's author's fantasies. Emily is considered an important poet, but Charlotte is a more considerable novelist. Given that two of the Bronte girls were obliged to work as governesses, it is hardly surprising that she wrote about governesses. I like Shirley the most of her books and I also like Anne's The Tenant of Wildfell Hall. That is really not romantic in the popular sense, although the Bronte writing style is literary romanticism.
But I find some 19th-century writers off-putting: Dickens in particular. I don't find all that many of his characters believable and his comic creations are often irritating bits of crowd-pleasing that mess up his stories. I think he was a successful hack.
But I cannot agree with writing off Hardy. I love his novels and poetry. The novels are rooted in his native countryside, which I knew well in my teens. (I used to walk all over it.) The stories almost grow out of the land. But I can imagine that they are less appealing if you don't know the places.
I have to confess to having failed to get very far with A la Recherche du Temps Perdu, having never managed to finish even the first book, despite several attempts. On the basis of Shirley Conran's maxim that "life is too short to stuff a mushroom", I don't intend to go back to it. But I nonetheless feel guilty. It seems to be a badge of whether one is genuinely literary or not.
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