# "Reading Thomas Hardy is like eating a pillow." **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 31, 2009, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reading-thomas-hardy-is-like-eating-a-pillow/508416 "2009-08-31T22:13:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2009, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reading-thomas-hardy-is-like-eating-a-pillow/508416/1 "2009-08-31T22:13:49Z")
So says a listener commenting on a [BBC podcast](http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00m85wr/iPM_29_08_2009/) 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. ---
**Author:** ![Cisco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Cisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cisco)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2009, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reading-thomas-hardy-is-like-eating-a-pillow/508416/2 "2009-08-31T22:26:24Z")
I loathed A Tale of Two Cities and Crime and Punishment, and couldn’t finish them, but I actually like Moby Dick. I’m thinking about reading it again. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2009, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reading-thomas-hardy-is-like-eating-a-pillow/508416/3 "2009-08-31T22:33:05Z")
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**. ---
**Author:** ![maplekiwi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a4c791/32.png) [@maplekiwi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/maplekiwi)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2009, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reading-thomas-hardy-is-like-eating-a-pillow/508416/4 "2009-08-31T22:47:13Z")
I couldn’t finish Tess of the D’Urbervilles. Is Dr Zhivago considered a classic? Couldn’t finish that. The only Jane Austen I struggled with is Emma. ---
**Author:** ![Speak\_to\_me\_Maddie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/58956e/32.png) [@Speak\_to\_me\_Maddie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Speak_to_me_Maddie)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2009, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reading-thomas-hardy-is-like-eating-a-pillow/508416/5 "2009-08-31T23:08:19Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2009, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reading-thomas-hardy-is-like-eating-a-pillow/508416/6 "2009-08-31T23:23:27Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > And I find some Dickens impenetrable – **Hard Times** and **The Pickwicj Papers**. You might have had better luck with the latter if you didn’t try to read it in Polish. ---
**Author:** ![Leaper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/4bbf92/32.png) [@Leaper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaper)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2009, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reading-thomas-hardy-is-like-eating-a-pillow/508416/7 "2009-09-01T00:52:40Z")
> [@The Reader's Manifesto](#): > > At the 1999 National Book Awards ceremony Oprah Winfrey told of calling Toni Morrison to say that she had had to puzzle over many of the latter’s sentences. According to Oprah, Morrison’s reply was “That, my dear, is called reading.” 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? ---
**Author:** ![Sefton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5daacb/32.png) [@Sefton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sefton)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2009, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reading-thomas-hardy-is-like-eating-a-pillow/508416/8 "2009-09-01T00:56:55Z")
Having read _Tess of the D’Urbervilles_, I can honestly say that eating a pillow would probably have been more enjoyable. I like _Moby Dick_, but I skipped the chapters on cetology. Oddly, one of my favorite works of literature is _Paradise Lost_. ---
**Author:** ![kapri](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/4491bb/32.png) [@kapri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kapri)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2009, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reading-thomas-hardy-is-like-eating-a-pillow/508416/9 "2009-09-01T01:20:11Z")
> [@Cisco](#): > > I loathed A Tale of Two Cities and Crime and Punishment, and couldn’t finish them, but I actually like Moby Dick. I’m thinking about reading it again. Funny, I loved\* A Tale of Two Cities\* and _Crime and Punishment,_ but I have tried to read _Moby Dick_ several times and just can’t get through it. I love Thomas Hardy novels, too. _Middlemarch_ is on the TBR list. ---
**Author:** ![salinqmind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3ec8ea/32.png) [@salinqmind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/salinqmind)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2009, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reading-thomas-hardy-is-like-eating-a-pillow/508416/10 "2009-09-01T01:33:02Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![vdgg81](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/3d9bf3/32.png) [@vdgg81](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vdgg81)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2009, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reading-thomas-hardy-is-like-eating-a-pillow/508416/11 "2009-09-01T01:43:38Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2009, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reading-thomas-hardy-is-like-eating-a-pillow/508416/12 "2009-09-01T01:53:09Z")
> [@salinqmind](#): > > 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. 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? ---
**Author:** ![Fenris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fenris/32/498_2.png) [@Fenris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fenris)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2009, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reading-thomas-hardy-is-like-eating-a-pillow/508416/13 "2009-09-01T01:54:16Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2009, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reading-thomas-hardy-is-like-eating-a-pillow/508416/14 "2009-09-01T02:13:09Z")
> [@Fenris](#): > > Tess of the Duhuberviles is the single worst thing ever written. It’s like a fart in prose. Wow. You sound like me and _Battlestar Galactica_, Ron Moore. I found it magnificent. How horrible, how inevitable, because of British society at the time. ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2009, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reading-thomas-hardy-is-like-eating-a-pillow/508416/15 "2009-09-01T02:16:03Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > Are we using spoiler boxes? What? And acknowledge that we might not know major plot points of classic novels? Perish the thought! 😉 I say no. Maybe a good spoiler will encourage me to try something. > [@](#): > > 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? **Leaper** , did he give any examples? I’m not sure that I’d recognize “lyrical”, but I think I know “evocative”. ---
**Author:** ![tr0psn4j](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/958977/32.png) [@tr0psn4j](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tr0psn4j)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2009, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reading-thomas-hardy-is-like-eating-a-pillow/508416/16 "2009-09-01T02:23:06Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2009, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reading-thomas-hardy-is-like-eating-a-pillow/508416/17 "2009-09-01T02:27:45Z")
> [@AuntiePam](#): > > What? And acknowledge that we might not know major plot points of classic novels? Perish the thought! 😉 > > I say no. Maybe a good spoiler will encourage me to try something. 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!” I wasn’t called a worm before, or since. ---
**Author:** ![Jamaika\_a\_jamaikaiake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/7993a0/32.png) [@Jamaika\_a\_jamaikaiake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jamaika_a_jamaikaiake)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2009, 2:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reading-thomas-hardy-is-like-eating-a-pillow/508416/18 "2009-09-01T02:28:11Z")
> [@Speak\_to\_me\_Maddie](#): > > 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. 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** is tough for me too, but not impossible, and ultimately worth it I think. Henry James can go fuck himself. > [@tr0psn4j](#): > > 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… I absolutely love Joseph Conrad, but I swear it takes me 67 years to read one of his books. ---
**Author:** ![Leaper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/4bbf92/32.png) [@Leaper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaper)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2009, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reading-thomas-hardy-is-like-eating-a-pillow/508416/19 "2009-09-01T02:40:42Z")
> [@AuntiePam](#): > > **Leaper** , did he give any examples? I’m not sure that I’d recognize “lyrical”, but I think I know “evocative”. Plenty. Here’s a link to [his article](http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200107/myers), 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.) ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2009, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reading-thomas-hardy-is-like-eating-a-pillow/508416/20 "2009-09-01T03:21:12Z")
Ah. I remember that article. It vindicated my dislike of Annie Proulx’s writing style. Thanks for the link. I need to read it again. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reading-thomas-hardy-is-like-eating-a-pillow/508416.md?page=2)