London - A third of adults have no idea who wrote Great Expectations, a survey of reading habits has revealed.
One in six were unable to name the bard behind Hamlet.
Charles Dickens and William Shakespeare are not the only major authors to have fallen out of favour with large sections of the population – 28 percent admitted never having read one of the classics.
This suggests that many have managed to complete their education without having to read a single work from the literary canon.
And little changes in adulthood. Just 18 percent have read The Catcher in the Rye and only 26 percent have picked up Pride and Prejudice – despite its enormous popularity as television drama and in the cinema.
One in seven revealed that in the past 12 months they hadn’t read any books at all.
The average adult gets through only seven books a year, according to the survey of 2 000 people by market researchers Opinium.
The main explanation given was a lack of time, but a quarter of those who rarely read simply said that they had more interesting things to do.
The most popular contemporary book is Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code, which 36 percent have read. JK Rowling’s Harry Potter series came second with 28 percent. - Daily Mail