I had Greek plays like Antigone in 6th grade (age 11) Shakespeare, tragedies, comedies and even histories, Cevantes' Don Quixote, Faulkner, Capote, Hemmingway, Twain, Austen, Bronte, etc. (ages 12 to 17). I loved it all. Oddly, when I was in Junior High, we had a reading class separate from English and separate from history, if you didn't take a foreign language. So it was like a double dose of literature and sometimes history, even some philosophy, sociology and geography, depending on the content in reading class.
Anyway, successfully taught is relative to the individuals doing the teaching and being taught. My favourite English prof. (Dr. Frank Lovelock) got me hooked in the first lesson. He didn't come into the classroom, until we were all in, seated large eyed, wondering why the teacher was a bit late. He didn't take roll. He didn't introduce himself or ask about us, or pass out the syllabus. He put his books down on the lectern. Went over to the door, shut it. Put his back to it, facing us, he turned off the light. Then started hammering on the door. "It's out there," he whispered. "But we are safe because we are in here." "We are safe in the mead hall because we have the fire and each other." more hammering. "But it is out there and it wants in." Light came back on, he walked back to lectern, opened the literature book and started reading the description of Grendl's mother from Beoweulf.
Even though we could only cover bits of literature in class and on exams and papers, he made you want to go out and read the entire novel, play, letter, essay, poem, etc.