Deb at readerbuzz has given us a great prompt for this week’s Literary Blog Hop. What is the most difficult literary work you've ever read? What made it so difficult?
I thought this would be difficult because I could only think of one book that I read recently and I didn’t know if that was fair. Then I started looking at my past reading list and found several books, so many that I didn’t know which one to pick. I think it would actually make a great Top Ten Tuesday topic over at The Broke and The Bookish. Do I pick a book that I liked, but was difficult or one I couldn’t stand pretty much all the way through? A new book or an old one?
I decided to go with one of the books, perhaps the only book, I can never find anything nice to say about, Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray. I read it at a time when I was reading many classics (Dickens, the Brontës) and I just couldn’t finish it. Well, I did finish it, sort of. I read the book, but when it would get boring or the characters were too annoying I would skip chapters. I found the writing dense and the characters flat. It didn’t evoke any feelings of sympathy or anything really except annoyance. I read it years before I started blogging and though I still have my copy, I don’t think I’ll ever re-read it.
I hope I didn’t offend anyone. What was your most difficult book?
I have read a lot of classics in my school and college years. And some still remain my favorites. However, there are a few I could never get into..
ReplyDeleteHere is my Literary Blog Hop post!
Seems to me it was more boring than difficult for you.
ReplyDeleteNoo! Skipping chapters is like a crime! What if you missed some info or some part that would have made you like the book more?
ReplyDeleteAlso, in my opinion at least, I think that really good literary novels have much more to them then the ability to make the reader feel a certain way. But then again, some books that I recognize are good I still just DON'T like.
Thanks for participating!
I think we find some books difficult & then years later, we reapproach them and may completely change our minds about them. You never know when that may be the case...
ReplyDeleteI would probably give up on the book before I skipped over parts of it but then again, skimming ahead can give you incentive to keep reading if it gets better. Interesting little debate :)
Ben, boring books are difficult to read when you have to read them. But I also found the writing dense and unengaging.
ReplyDeleteIngridLola (and everyone else), this is the only book I've ever skipped chapters. I had to read this book for a class. If it wasn't required reading, I would have put it down after the first fifty or hundred pages.
Teacher, I've re-read other books that have changed my mind, but I so disliked this book, I don't know if I ever will. I might consider it one day... if I have nothing else to read.
hmm never read vanity fair. but I understand where you're comming from, some books are hard to get into because of the writing and characters. plenty more books out there to read instead!
ReplyDeletenew follower :p
I have yet to read Vanity Fair-maybe the length has put me off as If i start I know I will want to finish-I really love your grey/black/white design-
ReplyDeleteThis is funny! I have a bookmark on page 417 of VF, and it's been there forever. I was just plain bored. Not sure I'll be getting back to it any time soon....
ReplyDeleteI've been making the rounds on the hop and it's interesting to see how many of the "most difficult" books are members of the literary canon.
ReplyDeleteLovely post, Loni.
Loni, I read Vanity Fair last year, and I would largely agree with you and Ben. I found it somewhat boring and not engaging (which I think is pretty close to 'boring' too). I think my real issue with Thackeray and Vanity Fair was that it was too satirical or comic. You know I really don't mind a bit of satire in my Victorian novels, i.e., see Dickens's novels. Thackeray seemed to go over the top; it kinda bordered on the absurd.
ReplyDeleteWould I read Vanity Fair again? Probably not. Am I glad that I read it? Yes, I am. Will I read more Thackeray? Yes, I will. I would like to read his novel Pendennis, but it is the very devil to find.
Cheers! Chris
read this years ago, When I dfecided to work my way through my grandparents classics collection. don't think I would return to it.
ReplyDeleteThanks
Parrish
Vanity Fair is a good choice. I got halfway through then lost it and never went back. Some day . . .
ReplyDeleteI picked Finnegans Wake because it was all but incomprehensible.
Rose City Reader
Oh dear. Vanity Fair. Never even opened that one. Don't have a clue what it's about. All I know is it's a big big book.
ReplyDeleteSuppose I must add it to my list of books I have to read some day. If I am going to call myself a reader....
Here's my post:
http://readerbuzz.blogspot.com/2010/11/enchante-from-literary-blog-hop.html
I read Vanity Fair a few years ago over the summer--it is engaging only on the level of social satire, which I enjoy. But the characters are either insipid or wicked, so I found it hard to stay engaged at the level of character.
ReplyDeleteI have never read Vanity Fair and never been tempted to either.
ReplyDeleteI think the book I found the most difficult to read was Melmoth the Wanderer by Maturin and I haven't finished it. I actually started reading it twice (each time for college) and gave up at the same moment. It's a long book and difficult to read but I really wanted to finish it the second time. I think I just had so much work and other books to read that I gave up.
As for skipping chapters, I remember reading o's Notre-Dame de Paris for school when I was 13 and our teacher begged us to skip the third chapter and said we could go back to it later if we wanted to. The third chapter is a detailed description of the cathedral and she was afraid (rightly, I think) that we would get stuck there. I never skip chapters, but as she told us to I thought I would follow her advice...