What classic have you struggled with? Me – To The Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf
What classic have you struggled with? Me – To The Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf
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Everything by William Faulkner haha. And yes, To the Lighthouse is exhausting to read
@Qamar Ive only attempted The Sound and the Fury. Got about halfway when I realized I was fighting so hard to finish something I wasn’t enjoying. So I stopped.
@Laura
The same thing with to the lighthouse, it was very confusing, I just had to put it down.
I guess the stream of consciousness technique is just tricky
Ulysses and Finnegan’s Wake; I could not have gotten much from either without the guidance of an Irish professor who teaches in Ulster. I took his class at Trinity in Dublin, and walking the sites mentioned in the books brought them to life. I discovered the Irish-Jewish Museum while exploring the neighborhood where the Blooms supposedly lived.
Faulkner writes Southern Gothic and it’s not for everybody. I don’t care for Gothic and I’m from the south. I just struggled through The Rainbow by DH Lawrence.
Great expectations… I just couldn’t get into it
I enjoyed Great Expectations but I had seen the movie so maybe that helped.
Currently reading To the Lighthouse and it’s a struggle ? VW was brilliant
Anything Charles Dickens. I try so hard…
He puts me to sleep!
Conrad’s Heart of Darkness. But it has been 30 plus years since reading it. I should give it another go.
@Jefferson I would like to reread this too, I read it a few years ago and was underwhelmed
MiddleMarch at the minute I’m struggling with
I have been struggling with Silas Marner (also by George Eliot) and decided to put it aside for some time. I have found the language difficult (I am a non native speaker of English) and frustrating! ?
I struggle with different languages other then my language of English
I’m learning 3 languages to help me reading other languages and it has helped a bit
@Jennifer Yes, Jennifer – I agree that Middlemarch is a tortuous read. Though Eliot’s prose is simply exquisite, I think – I did not like the story, particularly. Candidly, I liked The Mill on the Floss much more. And an easier read.
I will look for that book
Same as you , really anything by Woolf ?
Joyce, mostly Ulysses. It’s the book I feel like I’m training to be able to read and understand it well lol. Also had a hard time with Pychon and some of Faulkner.
Faulkner’s manner of speech is a tough one. It helps to be from the U.S. south perhaps.
“The Dubliners” is a nice antidote to “Ulysses” being short stories.
I read Dubliners and Potrait. Couldn’t really get into Dubliners but .maybe I’ll revisit, been a long time
I enjoyed H.G.Wells’ War of the Worlds, but I struggled with the writing style.
Finnegan’s Wake is by far the most difficult novel to read. No contest.
@Caroline it’s like a whole different language. I think I can decipher foreign language that I don’t understand better LOL
Haven’t read it yet, Caroline. But, it’s on my list. Ulysses was screamingly funny in parts, but somewhat tedious to accommodate. Still I’m glad I read it. Hope I can say the same about FW.
@Chamallie, Joyce tapped five different languages in writing FW.
For Whom the Bell Tolls. Love everything else by EH but that one was a struggle
Wuthering Heights. I gave up! ?
Oh no! One of my favs!
@Pollie my favorite!
Sorry! ?
Dostoevsky’s The Idiot
May I ask what the struggles were for some of you?? Was it the length, jargon, interpretations etc?? Dickens is difficult to me. I find it so hard to interpret especially with 4 noisy kids. I can’t focus enough..lol
Definitely not length. I start getting antsy when I near the end of a book that I am enjoying. So, the more lengthy the better! Speaking for myself, I think manner of speech or jargon make it difficult in the beginning of a book.
Old Man and the Sea… I didn’t even technically finish it, I just skimmed over the end.
I also struggled with A Tale of Two Cities. It took me 2 months to read it, but I’m so glad I finished it & didn’t give up.
Also struggled with Dorian Gray… just didn’t care for the writing style.
@Meghan I hated it. My daughter had to read this one in school. Again, I read it with her.
I always told my students that Old Man and the Sea is a short novel with LONG stretches of nothing happening, and that it perfectly reflects the truth of fishing. It is an existential lesson, but not to everyone’s taste. I recommend you dive into ANYTHING by Steinbeck.
Dickens, Woolf and Faulkner, in that order
That’s just what I was going to say.
D.H. Lawrence
War and Peace is easily the classic book that I have struggled with the most. I disposed of it after 30 pages.
Agreed, @Lupe – War and Peace is truly a tough read. I finished it late last year. Candidly, it was just too long for me to hold my interest completely.
@Lupe I was about 13 years old. I came home after school Friday, started reading. I finished it in the early hours of Monday morning. It was actually good binge reading it.
@Susan I made the mistake of listening to the audio book version whose narrator was absolutely the worst I’ve ever heard. I then tried to read the book, but could not get rid of the narrators voice out of my head so I stopped.
I’m listening to a BBC radio drama version every afternoon whilst I work. Much easier than reading it, as I can differentiate between the voices and don’t have to remember all the complicated names! ?
I read W&P every day at lunch time while I was working in a hospital. What I later learned was that is exactly how it is meant to be read: it is a serial novel, and drags on if you are trying to read it in a few sittings. Stretch it out as though you were on a transcontinental train and you will begin to grasp the epic proportions of it. On the other hand, if you don’t like Tolstoy’s style, try Gogol – he is a hoot.
Mrs Dalloway
Ulysses by James Joyce
I found reading U in an annotated edition really helped me grasp the nature of his message.
@Peter I read it in college with three additional texts to help me decipher it. I get the genius of it—his incredible exploration, experimentation, and manipulation of language, but I just couldn’t care about the story at all. To me, it felt like the story itself was lost in the linguistics carnival that was going on. Maybe I’ll tackle it again some day!
@Cindy ~ it was experimental literature, and not really intended for one’s nightstand
@Peter I know. I understand there is a higher purpose there than entertainment reading. It was just not an enjoyable experience in any way. Maybe the fact that I was taking 19 hours and usually didn’t have time to sleep played a part. That’s why I plan to revisit some day, when I can approach it in a more leisurely fashion and take my time.
@Cindy – it has a few good moments and a lot of dross, as far as I am concerned
@Peter That makes me feel better! ? I suffer from English teacher guilt for not venerating it.
@Cindy – ha ha ha – you should have had my favorite old professor’s American lit class – Prof Van Deusen (UC Riverside) thought much of Thoreau was fraudulent humbug, which shocked us grad students. Melville didn’t get off much lighter
Dostoevsky.
Dostoevsky suffered all his life but remained a devout christian. The debates on religion in his books are some of the greatest writings in the world. But he wrote suffering better than anybody…lol
@Joan I don’t find Dostoevsky hard to read, just depressing.
I feel like part of reading the classics is sometimes figuring out why they were important for the time they were written or why they continue to be important
Yes!
Wuthering Heights
Me too! I’ve even turned off the radio when it was played as a drama! ?
The Brontes, in general
@Peter , I did enjoy Jane Eyre.
@Philippa ~ not sure why, but I much prefer earlier female writers to the Brontes (Austen, M Shelley, Fanny Burney) or later – George Elliot, Virginia Woolf
@Peter What about Ann Radcliffe? I just listened to Udolpho in audiobook format after rereading Northanger Abbey in which it is mentioned.
@Philippa ~ don’t know her
William Gaddis’ JR
Angela’s Ashes by McCourt
Yeah, I thought the voice was weird with the verb tense, then I drank a beer and read it in a day. Great book, though.
It depressed me and that is hard to do.
Then I read ‘Tis and I was floored for a month.
But then again I get depressed real easy.
Faulkner for me is the hardest.
Oh forgot to mention anything by Joyce.
Remembrance of things past by Proust. Goddd. So dense
@Svetlana I read the first book and decided that was enough for now !
Anything by Victor Hugo. Tremendously long, depressing, tedious and sometimes boring
Really? I loved Hunchback. So ornate.
Agreed.
I enjoy Les Mis, Hunchback not so much
The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
@Alisa I loved it. Probably my favorite book..lol.. It’s weird isn’t it how one person’s trash is another person’s treasure.
It’s the conversations between the two brothers. The Monk and the atheist that I love and the relationship between the Father and sons.
@Joan That is the truth. I love all of the Russian writers though. The absolute truth though is that I love almost everything. It makes it very hard to pin down an absolute favorite.
@Alisa with you on this one
I struggled with The Color Purple. The kid who never stuttered — it was just so culturally orthogonal and the slang was so foreign to me… I couldn’t do it; I thought it was positively the most difficult book I ever read in my entire life. First thing, child birth and Mr. —- is beating on Celie from the get go.
Vanity Fair
Gulliver’s Travels
Ulysses
To The Lighthouse was agonizing. I read it with my daughter when she was in college. We both struggled.
Mrs Dalloway. I-just-can’t!
Moby Dick ??♂️
OK now I’m afraid to read The Lighthouse lol. The first 90-100 pages of The Picture of Dorian Gray took me ages ? but I’m so glad I stuck with it!
I almost ran out of my patience with some of the detailed descriptions in the book. Yet, I have found the story rather interesting.?
Don Quixote took me just so long to read that at the end all I felt was relief it was over. I was able to read the first section fairly quickly and really enjoyed it. Unfortunately life got in the way and the rest of the book took a lot longer and dragged.
DQ is one of the funniest novels I’ve ever read, Helen. Sure, there are some tedious parts – but, for me, the humour makes up for it. I sympathize about life getting “…in the way”. Same here, occasionally.?
@Roger I thought part 1 was excellent, but I think the fact it just took so long to finish made it seem like a chore and made it less enjoyable.
@Helen I quite understand. Leave it to another time, another place.?
Vanity Fair this is my 3rd time tryong to read it and I get bogged down every time. Also The Handmaid’s Tale and 1984.
Les Miserables by Victor Hugo but if I do ok with The Hunchback of Notre Dame I may try this book again.
Bleak House by Charles Dickens.
Ulysses by James Joyce.
Does anyone understand Ulysses by James Joyce would someone tell me what it is about?
Hmm, @Linda, first up, are you aware that Joyce used the Homeric story of Odysseus (Ulysses, as the Romans say) as the basis? That ancient story (The Odyssey) happened over ten years when Ulysses was returning from the siege of Troy. Joyce used that idea but condensed Leo Bloom’s odyssey into a single day in the life of an ordinary man. Each of Leo’s stops during that day mimic those of Ulysses in his struggles to get back home and rescue his wife, Penelope. If you haven’t read The Odyssey (the translation by E.V. Rieu), it’s still available to buy, and it’s a great story; or see the 1954 movie. I’m glad I read it – if, for no other reason than, at times, it has some of the funniest dialogue and commentary I’ve ever read. ?
@Roger I read Rieu’s translation earlier this year, I’ll be reading Joyce’s Ulysses later this year.
The penguin edition edited by Rieu’s son made a daunting read enjoyable .
@Roger Thank-you for explaining just could not understand. I never read the Odyssey. I think I will leave this book to seasoned reader like yourself you are very educated I can tell. It was so kind of you to take the time to explain so kind.
@Anisha Happy reading.
@Linda Thank you kindly! ?
@Anisha I bought his father’s edition in 1955. His son edited some of the more challenging words to produce the new version. You will enjoy Ulysses.
@Linda, BTW which edition Joyce’s Ulysses did you read? I’m going to start off with the short version first.
@Roger, mentions Rieu’s translation, in the penguin edition I read in its intro it says it’s written for readers who are not familiar with the classics. This translation is written in prose style rather than poetry, it made reading this work easy.
@Anisha If I ever read it or attempt I would start with short. But I do not think I will read it but you enjoy your read.
The castle by Kafka… Still getting nowhere with that… The first attempt was from child hood.. 😉
Yeah, The Castle is a tough one. I’m half-way through it. It’s fascinating but also infuriating. You started in childhood, Rishi? I’m impressed. Wow!
@Roger my father was an amid reader, with an oceanic vast collection of classics. I grabbed the castle from him, at the age of 14 I guess.. may be that was bit too tough for that age ;)…. The castle amazes me for the first 15 min every time I reading it and then I loose the grip.. but at the same time, it ain’t one, which makes you quit either..so far that’s the only novel of such kind ,from whatever I have read till date.
To The Lighthouse is NOT a classic. Ulysses most definitely is though.
What’s the difference between Ulysses and To the Lighthouse that makes the one a classic and the other not? To the Lighthouse is one of the most well-respected novels by Virginia Woolf, one of the major 20th century writers, and many would put it above Mrs. Dalloway in ranking her oeuvre.
@Kevin I wouldn’t use Virginia Woolf’s books to wipe my arse with. Joyce surpassed her with his genius and she knew it, and spent her career consumed with professional jealousy. 🙂
Dominic Jericho That’s a statement of opinion and an unsubstantiated assertion, neither of which amount to a reason, to be blunt. That you personally don’t like her work doesn’t strike me as an adequate reason why I should ignore literary critics who consider her to be a classic writer. I know plenty of people who can’t stand James Joyce, so by their lights Joyce isn’t a classic writer either.
@Dominic, Mrs Dalloway consistently shows up on lists of the best books ever written. You might not like her feminist themes but there is no need to be crude about it.
@Dominic Wow had no idea that rudeness, crudeness and hostility were part of this site and intellectual discussion. You need a cup of tea, a martini or a good Hawaiian punch..low if possible.
@Pat There is every need ?
@Shirley The only rudeness and crudeness is on the part of Ms Woolf who couldn’t escape her snobbishness of Joyce and believed literature was a class endeavour http://www.openculture.com/2013/09/virginia-woolf-writes-about-joyces-ulysses-never-did-any-book-so-bore-me-and-quits-at-page-200.html
@Kevin Joyce isn’t a classic writer?? Behave.
These were observations in Woolf’s private diaries and personal letters to a friend. She was entitled to her private opinion.
@Pollie She was a class snob and part of the problem not solution
@Dominic Well she is not on this site so we do not have to listen. However, your comment is out there for all to see.
Further, it is aimed at another commenter. Not impressed.
@Dominic Why not? On the “I don’t like it, therefore it’s not a classic” standard you’ve established, I don’t think there’s one classic writer who would stand a chance of being recognized as such. Every one has his or her detractors, and Joyce more than most. As you’ve pointed out, Virginia Woolf was one of those detractors, so why not take Woolf’s opinion or any of the Joyce-haters’ opinions as dispositive rather than yours? You’ve given no reason why we should consider you to be the final authority on literature.
@Kevin “Joyce more than most”? ???
@Dominic Would you like to check the number of one- and two-star reviews on Goodreads or read the negative comments that come up every time Joyce is mentioned? You may object that these people aren’t literary experts, but from all the evidence you’ve presented neither are you. You’re just someone sounding off on the internet like the rest of them. And the more you do so without providing any substantive reasoning for your rejection, the more it appears that you simply don’t like Woolf because she was a woman.
@Kevin I’d like to know at what point you thought I brought gender into it? Gender is irrelevant; literary talent, however, is.
Dominic Jericho The point at which you failed to address the question of why Woolf shouldn’t be considered a classic novelist. If you can’t present a reasonable argument, then it strongly supports the idea that you have none and we must look for the explanation of your animus elsewhere. I still have yet to hear any argument beyond what you’d put next to your anus for why every literary critic and professor who regards Woolf as a classic novelist should be dismissed. Otherwise, I’ll go with the actual literary experts instead of the self-proclaimed ones.
@Dominic, we get it. You think you are smarter than the rest of us and a misogynist to boot. I’ve been in writers groups with people like you. Eventually we all stop listening.
Joyce was a genius, imo. He set out to write a book so that critics would be entertained, puzzled, enraged etc. for centuries to come. So he wrote Ulysses. And, I think he succeeded in his quest. I reckon any budding writer would like to have even half his intellect. ?
But it isn’t an ‘either or’. They are both classics, both included in the Penguin Classics book collection. Personal preference has nothing to do with it, and neither has your choice in toilet paper.
@Pat Skinner would call it extinction. Joy to the concept.
Night and Day, also s Woolf novel.
@Pat I read that recently and I was surprised I could follow it as I was expecting it to be as tough as “the voyage out” also by Woolf, slowly making my way to “Mrs Dalloway”
Lady Chatterly’s Lover by D H Lawrence
Poetic Edda
Middlemarch and Ulysses
Ann Radcliffe and her “The Mysteries of Udolpho”. It was just so needlessly long and verbose anf geographically incorrect!
Les Miserables…My twin sister loves it and has read it more than once, but I just can’t get past the whole life story of the priest!
Moby Dick
Ulysses
The turn of the Screw by Henry James. I wanted to love it. A ghost story by the author of one of the best written books in my opinion, The Portrait of a Lady. But it was a struggle and fell flat. I found it hard to believe it was the same author
Henry James could make the most exciting things in life as dry as reading a science text
Only book I cldn’t finish was “On the Road”. I believe it is considered a modern classic…
Right. That and Catcher in the Rye don’t work for me at all bc they seem more like reading someone’s journals, not great art.
@Peter I confess I have never even started “Catcher in the Rye”!
@Jenny ~ perhaps you will like it, but I have never seen the “genius” in it as many of my generation did. I have read it a few times but found it weak and unsatisfying
My son loves Catcher in the Rye but I didn’t see what all the fuss was about. He thinks it’s hilarious. On The Road is same thing. It’s a road trip book that I did not enjoy and I usually love road trip books and movies. My favorite road trip book is Sideways. If you don’t want to read the book at least watch the movie. It’s two friends taking a road trip through wine tasting country before one of the friends wedding.
@Peter Doesn’t make me want to rush out & get it!
@Jenny ~ I recommend sticking to the tried and true: Hardy, Conrad, Fitzgerald, Woolf … and if you like thrillers, John le Carré
Also, @Jenny, I have hitch-hiked across much of the US (particularly the west coast), all the way across Canada, and in parts of the UK (England and Scotland), and have travelled throughout China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Cambodia, Malaysia, and Thailand. There is nothing about travel I have read in Kerouac that I haven’t already experienced for myself … and perhaps better, in even more exotic locales (the Canadian Rockies, Kodiak Island Alaska, the Mull of Kintyre, etc). JK is amazing to youngsters who have never experienced such wanderlust for themselves. Of course, he was ahead of me in time and was a founding member of the Beat Generation.
@Peter Can take or leave thrillers!
John Le Carre wrote Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy which I read and could not understand. I watched the movie and could not understand it. I found the book at a sale and decided to try again. The movie was on youtube. I would read a bit of the book and watch a bit of the movie. Going back and forth until I understood it. Absolutely amazing once you get it and sad. It’s a spy novel and some are double spies, working both sides at the same time. I’ve never tried another of his books but I have The Constant Gardner that I intend to read.
Margaret Atwood leaves me positively cold. I recognize she is a great writer, but 20 pages in and I can’t remember anything I have been reading. It seems to me that “there is no there there” (apologies to Ms. Stein).
@Peter I have only read “Cat’s Eyes” and “The Blind Assassin”, both of which Ioved, especially the former, as it almost felt it had been written about me. I even wrote a poem called “That Margaret Atwood has a Lot to Answer for”, inspired by something in the book!
I think there are some authors that write for men and some that write for females. Margaret Atwood is a great writer but I think her books are more for women. My favorite Atwood book is The Robber Bride about a woman that befriends other women and then steals their man. She either takes them completely or ruins their relationship by cheating with him. I loved this book but I doubt a man would enjoy reading it…lol
@Joan ~ I never used to believe that, but I am coming around to exactly that same opinion. A few other writers (usually females) have stopped me in my tracks as I read them, and perhaps that is the reason.
@Peter I feel the same ways about male authors. I’ve read books and felt they were more for men than women. and I’ve read books that I’ve loved and knew they were written for women. Movies for women are called “Chick Flicks” and I think there are some “chick books”…lol
@Joan ~ agreed. There are definitely men’s authors, and then there is Hemingway, who is in a league of his own re women:
“Why, darling, I don’t live at all when I’m not with you.”
― Ernest Hemingway, A Farewell to Arms
Patricia Gaffney, Margaret Atwood, Anita Shreve, Sandra Brown, Anne Tyler, Marilynne Robinson, Tawnie O’Dell are a few females that write for females.. Hemingway is in a league of his own…lol
@Joan In the UK, we use the term “chick lit”!
@Jenny chick lit is a derogatory term.. It would not apply to Margaret Atwood.
@Nicola I was replying to a comment about “chick flicks”, I wld never call Margaret Atwood a chick lit writer!
I think Doris Lessing is up there with Margaret Atwood and I think she writes for women.
@Joan ~ perhaps, but I used to teach a short, short story by her to my 9th graders and it had a broad appeal. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/300460.Through_the_Tunnel
@Peter I have her book The Golden Notebook but have not read it yet. Ive read a couple of her books.
@Jenny I think the blind assassin was brilliant
@Joan the robber bride is based on a tale by the Brothers Grimm
@Joan, have you read Atwood’s – Alias Grace? It is a much more traditional novel, based on a true story. I liked it very much and so did my husband. We both read the book and then watch a Netflix series.
@Pat I have read the book and seen the movie. I’ve read most of Margaret Atwoods books and I have a couple that I have not read yet. I read The Handmaids Tale and then went through a phase of reading all Margaret Atwood I could find…lol
@Pat I loved Alias Grace on Netflix. The book would be interesting sounds good.
Doris Lessing has a book called The Grandmothers that is four short stories with the first being a short story about two women that have affairs with each others sons. There is a movie called Adore based on the book with Naomi Campbell and Robin Wright playing the mothers. I’ve read the book and watched the movie and found it very intriguing. Most of the reviews on the movie were not good but I “adored” it..lol..I did some research on the story and found out it was given to Doris Lessing by a male friend as a comedy and she changed it to a drama. I think most people did not get the message that Lessing intended. My interpretation of the story is about what happens when people try to shut out the rest of the world and create their own little worlds. These two very close female friends excluded everybody from their lives and created a world that existed for them and their two sons. And that was the world they felt safe in.
I have always had problem with Hemingway’s.
@Claire Hemingway suffered from depression and killed himself. Years ago I was reading a joke on responses from famous people to the guestion.. Why did the chicken cross the road? I only remember a couple but one was Hemingway’s response… He wanted to die alone in the rain.. lol…I thought it very funny.
Atlas shrugged got bored.
Linda – I guess you didn’t finish? I’m not surprised. Ayn Rand wrote a thesis disguised as a novel. The guts of her ‘thesis’ is contained in the long, tedious, convoluted monologue by John Galt. But, I read the whole novel, to the last metaphorical idiocy contained in the last line. Why did I punish myself? Well, I’d read The Fountainhead, which is a passably well-written work, and an engaging story; it was also a reasonable movie (1949). So, at that time, circa 1960, I thought I should try AS.
@Roger Thanks Roger for your insight. Roger what are you reading now?
Here’s the title: Hateship, friendship, courtship, loveship, marriage by Alice Munro (Nobel Laureate, 2013). Short stories – for which I always have a soft spot. And some relief from long, long novels. ?
@Roger That is a good idea.
Atlas Shrugged is Ayn Rand’s thousand page diatribe.
@Joan Well ….tirade against what, exactly, Joan? Collectivism? Socialism? Humanity’s stupidity? The Evils of Big Government? Your perspective on this aspect is important…..?
P.S. Another factoid about Atlas Shrugged: I’ve read personal admissions and other claims in news sources that Atlas Shrugged is the favorite novel of many current politicians – mostly conservatives – and not only Americans. Make of that, what you will…. ?
Roger J Burke I wanted to read Atlas Shrugged because of all the fuss it made. As I read the book I found myself not liking what I was reading and didn’t know why. After I finished the book and did some research on Rand I found out she is atheist. Then I understood because I’m a Christian. In a group discussion I said that I felt they were all cowards by running away. But some of the others said they left because the Government was holding them back so they escaped. The Bible teaches that we are all in “it” together. That we are our brothers keepers. That some will be given the gift of healing (Drs) for example. We are all given talents and we must work together to support and encourage each other. The gist of the book is.. Atlas has the weight of the world on his shoulders. The world is becoming so heavy it is pressing him lower and lower. So what should Atlas do? According to Rand. He should shrug. The cowards way out in my opinion. I don’t know if that’s how most perceive the book but that’s my opinion of Atlas Shrugged.
I heard Obama ask if he had read Atlas Shrugged and he said yes. Politicians use the book as an example of throwing off the Government but for Christians, it is opposite of what the Bible teaches.
@Linda This novel’s theme is the role of the mind in man’s existence and the morality of rational self interest. Read the speech made by Francisco d’Anconia, copper industrialist and heir to an enormous fortune, on the meaning of money. Her philosophy is clearly evident as is her view on a government that steals from those who are the producers, on those who aren’t willing to work but are willing to mooch, on those who are not productive but make laws that work in their own favor to take from those who actually do the labor; she also expounds on corruption, and those who use or make wealth when the source is corrupt. A socialist or liberal may be uncomfortable reading some of the ideas in her books, but others may see many of her ideas as being rational. It’s not an easy book if you are reading strictly for entertainment, there are ideas she wants you to think about.
I realize that there are corrupt people in the world. Thieves, liars, murders, scammers etc. But we are all riding on somebody else’s coattails. We can’t take the achievers, inventors and genius’ out of the world and leave the rest to fend for themselves. That’s not the way it was meant to be. The Bible has a parable about the wheat and tares. The wheat and tares have to grow together until the harvest. If you pull the tares then you might pull the wheat on accident. The good and the evil have to live together since we might take the good with the evil.
@Anamalia Thank you for explaining I did enjoy the movie.
@Joan Thank-you for giving me your perspective. Life is full of good and bad and we need the achievers, inventors and genius’ out of the world, your words. I did like the movie.
Who knows some achiever might cure cancer.
Moby Dick by Melville was a struggle.
Wuthering heights
Little Dorrit by Dickens – it was a set text for my high school final exams. I never managed to get past chapter 5 despite trying a few times. It sits on my bookshelf waiting for me to finally finish it! So far it has waited 37 years ?
I listened to it on Audible (I think it is a “classic” edition that costs less than $1) and found it about as enjoyable as many other Dickensian tales. I also was able to watch one episode on the Internet before BBC figured out I was not a UK subscriber – it is not available in the US unless one buys a special BBC package. It is a visually rich and so quite satisfying video production. https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episodes/b00fcm3b/little-dorrit
@Peter one day I will manage it. Will it count if I watch rather than read it ?
@Nicola ~ emphatically, YES
I have found William Faulkner books a bit difficult but I am going to keep trying. Any tips?
@Linda Faulkner is a Southern Gothic author. His books can be depressing.
I did watch As I lay dying, on Netflix it was good.
I did not finish
“To The Lighthouse “ but I have enjoyed many of Margaret
Atwood‘s books. “ Alias Grace” was particularly satisfying and “Good Bones” both amused me and left me with many deep thoughts.
I enjoyed reading ‘Good Bones’ too.
Interesting I think That some books are just difficult to read even classics, and I now just stop if the book is too tedious. I like this group because I’ve read books I would not have picked up! And many are very excellent reading too! Thank you for your responses. I may try some of these to see if I agree or not. Of those I’ve read, I agree with comments. I think it would help if some of these were rewritten for novice readers….probably would offend someone.
for some reason I always struggle with Virginia Woolfanyone else? how can I make her more accessable
@Judy, you pose a tough question, I thought her second novel, “night and day”, was an easier read. It’s a romance is sorts, the heroine is inspired by her sister, Vanessa Bell. Not sure if that helps, I found it easier than her first novel.