So says a listener commenting on a BBC podcast about books and reading. Specifically, it’s about those books that people want to read and try to read but they just can’t do it. There are also admissions from some folks that they’ve read difficult books without enjoying them, for various reasons – to be able to say they read it, because they hate leaving something unfinished, etc.
Some books mentioned: War and Peace, Moby Dick, Remembrance of Things Past, Ulysses, Middlemarch.
The literature professor from Oxford is especially entertaining. He made me feel less guilty about not even considering Proust or Joyce, but more guilty about not reading more classics.
The book segment starts a few minutes in, and the podcast is only up for a few more days. It’s worth a listen.
I’m reading Middlemarch now, and so far, I like it. I own Moby Dick but haven’t opened it.
I loved Moby Dick, ** Tale of Two Cities** (which I’ve read several times), and war and Peace, as well as many other classics. I haven’t tried the others listed in the OP.
On the other hand, I simply cannot get into Jane Austen or Henry James. And I find some Dickens impenetrable – Hard Times and The Pickwicj Papers.
I love Moby Dick and find it a fun read. The trick is to read it out loud I think. Do the voices and the over-dramatic narration. I haven’t had any trouble with any of the others mentioned so far with the exception of Ulysses, which I found more boring than anything else.
For me it is Dostoyevsky’s stuff. I’ve picked up Brothers Karamazov and Crime and Punishment several times and put them back down after a hundred pages or so. I’ve just about given up on him now.
Henry James is tough for me too, but not impossible, and ultimately worth it I think.
It’s obvious what Myers thinks about this statement, but given the topic, I was wondering if y’all agreed.
Another of Myers’ pet peeves from the same (as far as I can tell) are authors who sacrifice plot and character for (what they think is) lyrical and evocative prose. Are plot and character passe? Is expression all that matters?
I loved Tess of the D’Urbervilles. I gave it to my mother to read, and she loved it, too.
I read Jude the Obscure, and was I ever sorry! Most depressing read of my life.
In high school our idiot English teacher, out of the millions of possibilities out there, decided Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad would be a great assignment to give the 9th grade class. I don’t believe anyone managed to wade through it, including me, and everyone got a big fat “F”. Including me. (The Odyssey, the one with Circe and the Cyclops? I loved that!)
I haven’t read any ‘real’ literature in years, figuring I’d do it later in life - well, it’s later! I better put on my bifocals and get cracking! There’s always Cliffs Notes if I get stuck.
I love Moby Dick! I’ve also read the first volume of Remembrance of Things Past (can´t remember what it’s called in english) and loved it. I tried to keep on reading but ran out of vacation time and had to give up. It’s a work that requires lots on energy and concentration.
A Tale of Two Cities I just couldn’t get through nor any other Dickens. Dostoevsky I can read but makes me uncomfortable. Of Hardy I’ve only sampled some of the poetry and liked it.
He writes about reality; Tess really had no choice in her actions and what happened to her, being a woman at that time in Britain, and much the same could be said for Jude and family, although he seemed to be acting more out of principle than reality. Some folks are too committed to their cause.
Are we using spolier boxes?
Tess of the Duhuberviles is the single worst thing ever written. It’s like a fart in prose.
And not a silent, odorless fart, it’s like a loud stinky sulpherous fart that destroys one’s appetite in the same way that Tess can destroy one’s love of reading for months.
I hated Tess-the-Character. I hated Hardy-the-Writer for writing about Tess. I loathed our teacher for making us read Hardy’s writings about Tess.
Frankly, we would have been better off reading any generic Harlequin Romance novel–at least the pacing, prose and dialogue would have been improved and the plot would have remained pretty much the same.
Man Joseph Conrad is my demise. I can read about a page of it and appreciate it but once I decide to read the whole thing, I can’t get through the second page. Oh well…
Sense and Sensibility too. Couldn’t handle all the genealogy in the first chapter.
Okay!
I was discussing Tess of the Durbervilles about a hundred years ago with a guy who was showing off and an attractive young woman who hadn’t read it yet. He said he enjoyed it.
I, being aware of spoilers even then, mentioned, “but the ending…”
He smirked, “I really liked it.”
“Jesus,” I responded, “she was hanged!”
To which the young lady for whom the novel was soiled responded, “You worm!”
If I may make a suggestion? (Dostoevsky is my favorite author.) Look at who is the translator of your editions. If it is Constance Garnett, throw it in the garbage can, and please give him another try. She totally sucks. If you can, get anything by Pevear and Volokhonsky. They totally rock. If you’ve already tried Pevear and Volokhonsky, and you still don’t like Dostoevsky, then at least you’ve made an honest attempt. Please note that you will have to pay more money: Garnett is now public domain, and most of P&V is less than 20 years old.
ETA: They give different characters different voices, just like Dostoevsky did!
Henry James can go fuck himself.
I absolutely love Joseph Conrad, but I swear it takes me 67 years to read one of his books.
Plenty. Here’s a link to his article, which is, I believe, a condensed version of a larger book. (Though I admit it focuses mainly on modern writers; most of the older writers he mentions, he praises for actually having character and plot IN ADDITION to nice language. And actually knowing what “nice language” IS.)
