Boy. . .you must really be out of touch with pop culture. Maybe I'm sounding somewhat pretentious here, but you'll be hard put to find someone in American culture outside of liberal arts/art/social science degrees that have that much genuine interest in the classics.
I'll give people into computer science someone an edge into that interest, but otherwise. . ..
Well, part of the problem is the oddness of someone who has enough knowledge about, say, what a prize for Latin poetry is, who would still hoot with derision at an academic awards presentation, because it was so far off the mainstream.
I know what you're saying, but even keeping that in mind, the portrayals in the book ran false.
I'll admit, I've only read Journey to the Center of the Earth by Jules Verne. . .a long time ago. I've been meaning to read more of his stuff.
Personally, I blame the huge amounts of emphasis on the sciences since WWII as the main problem of our nation ignoring the humanities.