It's taken me a long time to figure out that classics are actually fun; they're the good stuff that persisted beyond the faddish pretensions of their times, and helps me to see put some of the nonsense of my own time in perspective. Plus they cost almost nothing!
I've found most of them to have absurd black and white plots that lack any intrigue.
In particular, Charles and Elbegast stood out for me how none of it made any sense and how the final conflict of deciding whether Elbegast or Eggeric was truthful was decided by having them fight to the death, with the winner declared veracious, not to mention being gifted the loser's spouse, of course.
I was told it was one of the apices of Middle Dutch literature but found it rather wanting, and so asked my teacher if he knew of any Middle Dutch literature that was not considered an “apex” — he could not provide me with such and I still can't find much myself so I'm left to conclude that anything that survived the ages is automatically called an “apex”.
I wasn't impressed and suspect that it is not valued despite being old, but singularly due to that it's old. Had it been written yesterday, it would certainly not be so well received.
You don't live in a world where a god would ensure that a trial by combat would go to the righteous, and there's the difference. If you can't find the mindspace, you rather miss everything else.
And how inconsistent God was in the story in helping is what I would consider a plot hole and one of the reasons I found it a poor story.
It's called a “deus ex machinā” for a good reason — it makes for rather poor storytelling if some higher power, with all the might to ensure a happy end at any point, only elect to do so at specific points.
Again, you don't live in that world. The writer and his audience did. If you can't meet it halfway, or at least allow for it, you're going to miss everything... and that's your fault, not the author's. It doesn't matter at all how it reads with a thoroughly modern mind.
I’ve been enjoying non-fiction accounts from ~150-250 years ago. Fascinating experiences, like Sufferings in Africa, and to your point these are often like $1 for the kindle edition. Memoirs from fur traders/trappers and indigenous warriors in the Western US before the railroad are also fascinating.
