AIBU to think classics are bloody hard to read?

[Blackbootswithredribbons]

Now, don't get me wrong, I've read some amazing classics in my time (Lord Of The Flies, Jane Eyre etc) but it definitely hurts my brain sometimes! Amazing stories but the long, pointless descriptions, written in that old fashioned way that makes you feel a little stupid sometimes .

So, AIBU?

Such an interesting thread! I do think whoever said about practice is right, I’ve got back into reading over the last year and even just general reading has been getting easier with practice.

Will have to do try it on the classics as I’ve never done very well with them before. I do also find the more I watch Shakespeare the easier it gets.

@limitedperiodonly

Agree.

Have you read any balzac or zola?

Read things if you enjoy and don't plough on if not.

Even the 'classics' would have had those who liked and didn't when they were not classic but new!

Same with art. I like some movements/ periods but not others.

It's good to try things but imo not to keep at it grimly just because.

I feel strongly due to upbringing.

My mum is very much of the view that these things are good for you. And even moreso if you don't enjoy them, in a way.

She kept at Proust when I was about 10 - remembrance of things past? - 3 big volumes irrc. And she saw it as a chore. But edifying or something.

She used to take us to art galleries when we were very small and stay for hours. Long after we got tired hungry bored miserable and our feet hurt.

My aversion to art galleries and museums onlyv started to pass when I was about 30. I still get a feeling of Doom when it's there is a room full of broken bits of pots etc.

So IMO. see if get into. If not. Move on.

What the 'classics' are is pretty subjective anyway. Where are the cherished volumes from India, Persia etc? There's usually a few French Russian but... Not sure.

Also genre wise. Not wide.

The one I do want to read is often cited as top is lolita but I'm worried it will freak me out!

Skimming back and kudos to calls for wells, Orwell and Forster.

Orwell essays are incredible as well as the novels.

Asimov robot collection is incredible.

Don't bother with foundation it's really boys own adventure. I have that prob sometimes eg lord of the rings.

Maurice - Forster was fave book as a teen.

@NiceGerbil I really agree with that. My dad is very into the 'it's good for you' attitude to literature and culture - any museum or gallery, we had to stay for hours while he insisted we read every single bit of explanatory text. He bought me Proust as a box set when I was in my teens. I am actually pretty 'well read' in the sense the people who devise lists of '100 books you should read' mean. But one of the nicest things I've learned is when to shrug and say, no, this isn't my cup of tea, I'll read something else I enjoy.

I watched a doc about Shahnameh which is a Persian classic written 1000 years ago. I did mean to hunt a copy down after watching it. Realistically I'd probably just dip into it rather than read it fully.

@Classica I love Bonfire so I hope you do. @KitchenKrisis No, but I keep meaning to.

I've found many modern novels harder to read than a lot of older classics. Every year most of the Booker Prize shortlist for a start. It feels like the more gushing the reviews the more I'm guaranteed to find it impenetrable and hard to care about the characters or story.

Though I do agree many older classics can be hard to engage with too, either due to the old fashioned style or the content being hard to understand for modern belief and sensibilities. We are far less religious and have less sexual, marital, class or moral restrictions on our lives so the dilemmas and challenges for the characters inherent in older literature are much harder to relate to. However I find some interesting precisely because they are a window into a different world where things like that mattered. Especially in relation to how women were treated.

You do know that the marker of a good book is not whether it's an "easy read", right?

YABU because 'classics' encompass a huge range of books. Some are heavy-going, others not so much imo. I wouldn't call LotR that hard to read tbh. I mean... it's very long, and yes there's lots of description. But I wouldn't say it's very intellectually challenging compared with a lot of others, including some more modern classics.

I think it depends on what you like, the same as with more modern writing. I can't bear Jane Austen's books, but my friend loves them. My favourite ever book is Return of the Native by Thomas Hardy, but others on here have said they dislike Hardy's writing.

@Itsnotover

It depends which one. Silas Marner - literally dull as dishwater.

Wonderful book! Just shows we all have different tastes.

@SirenSays

I'm convinced Moby-Dick would only be three pages long if all the long winded descriptions of the sea were removed.

Bronte, Austin and Dickens bore me to tears. There are some classics I absolutely love though.

Wuthering Heights? Wonderful. Passion and revenge. Jane Eyre - terrifying in parts but great. Persuasion? ( Or almost any Jane Austen - Try Sense and Sensibility. ) not a word out of place - very funny and profound. Lost track of how many times I've read them. I defy anyone to read Pride and Prejudice and not be enthralled. Dickens - 'Such a variety of characters and story lines. One of the Greats. Tale of 2 Cities' . Wonderful. Gripping / emotional tale. Understanding the French Revolution on a personal emotional level. Great Expectations - re read many times - terrifying atmospheric scenes, great character studies etc. David Copperfield - based on Dickens' own ( terrible) childhood. Little Dorrit - study of the effects of her father's imprisonment on a young girl.

Read any of them and you'll learn lots about human beings.

'But one of the nicest things I've learned is when to shrug and say, no, this isn't my cup of tea, I'll read something else I enjoy.'

YY!

I used to have a once started have to finish thing. From family I suppose. It was v strong. E
Early 20s when I first thought. I've done the first X pages/ chapter. No desire to read more, not interested let alone gripped. And I put it down.

That was a big moment! Have never looked back.

Roald Dahl said something... I read somewhere. A book of his? Can't remember. Let me find.

20 years ago I did a literature degree and I have to say it ruined me and I can't read modern novels at all... Mostly it's just such dull writing! The exception for me is Terry Pratchett whose mind I just love :) And some Latin American women writers, and some cracking modern short story writers too.

All-time university high point was speed-reading Moby Dick in 4 days as had a week for the essay - why does no one mention that the whole 500 pages are just one long gay knob joke?! Lithe seamen wrestling in sperm (whale) oil - at one point they dress the hunky "native" in a coat made from the whale's penis-skin - Moby DICK indeed. Honestly it is fucking hilarious when you get into it - or at least that's how I remember it!

I love a nice translation of The Odyssey - really rated Emily Wilson's recently. I like Seamus Heaney's Beowulf too. Those plus complete works of Jane Austen and some special poetry books are what I always have on my bedroom bookshelf, I like relaxing with favourite books that are reliable old friends...

What got me into books as a precocious tween was my mum's collection of vintage Georgette Heyer regency romance novels and I do think she's a genius, was delighted to see Stephen Fry agreeing with me recently:
www.theguardian.com/books/2021/oct/01/stephen-fry-on-the-enduring-appeal-of-georgette-heyer
If you haven't tried her stuff my favourites are Cotillion, The Talisman Ring and The Grand Sophy - not life-changing but lovely entertaining easy reads and her writing is fabulous.

@NiceGerbil, Lolita isn't worth worrying about IMHO! Read it if you're intrigued, but I just read it as sort of seedy and sad - probably like you'd find meeting a paedophile in real life...

Something about how with children they read for fun and you need to get them involved fast. Not got them interested quick you're done for.

No I'm not a child... But I remembered that at some point and followed it for a while with my new found liberation!

It works pretty well tbh! When looking at random books I will read first page/ dip into middle somewhere as well and think. Is this the sort of style I like? Has the first page or 2 made me want to read further even a bit?

Sadly my concentration has been shit since I had the kids though. Got a pile of books waiting!

I attempted to re-read Jane Eyre during lockdown. That book needs a massive edit. Literally nothing happened in the first 200 pages. I gave up in total boredom. I seem to remember enjoying it when I read it as a child 35 years ago.

@HarebrightCedarmoon

You do know that the marker of a good book is not whether it's an "easy read", right?

But nor, whether it's a difficult one.

Which is sadly a pretty common attitude here.

No idea why but there you go.

And many are not worth the time and effort - it is cultural snobbery to laud them.

Although I have read some of them, I find l prefer many of the classics from the nineteenth century in film format rather than reading the books. Language has changed over the past hundred years due to the invention of film and television. We no longer need long descriptions of, say, Mount Everest; we have seen it. Plots have become the main focus of novels as is so in films or TV programmes rather than long winded paragraphs of description. There is absolutely nothing wrong with it. Most of us are busy people who read for pleasure. We are not Victorian ladies of leisure who have nothing to do apart from a little embroidery and light piano playing. In any case, literature is subject to fashion in the same way as anything else. The novels we call classics today were the must read latest books of their day. Perhaps some of the books we are reading today might be the classics of tomorrow.

@SisterMichael

Sometimes they are too long imvho. I don’t just mean Dickens - others are too and if I’m being honest I don’t think it adds to the book. It also puts me off reading them as I lose momentum.

What! No good book can be too long! If it's good you don't want into end. You can't put it down. Responsible for lots of sleepless nights.

Tolstoy
Balzac
Dickens
Austen
Brontes

Thanks wooly!

Tbh writing that I realised I had fallen into the ingrained ways of my childhood.

I haven't even bought. It.
It doesn't sound anything like what I would enjoy. I'm not really interested in... People? How do I put it. Relationships families struggle good times what life is like now then etc. This is totally a people book im sure.

It's because it is SO OFTEN cited as the best of the best.

So thanks! You put me back on the straight and narrow!

Jeannie- the Bible?

I mean that's the classic to end all classics, or one of!

Got it all.

Some stonking stories.
Murder.
Death.
Success over adversity.
Various interesting historical settings.
Tales of bravery.
People who are beautiful/ powerful/ evil/ heroes/ double crossing... Etc.
Families and children.
Incredible, unbelievable tales of different worlds- heaven hell etc. Seas parting. Coming back from dead.

I mean it's got EVERYTHING!!!

It's an extraordinarily long read though...