Which works of "great" literature have you given up on???

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Couldn't get past page 100 of Mill on the Floss (no one else in my book group could either!!). Felt that I really didn't need to see any more examples of gratuitious violence to animals to get the idea that Maggie was good and Tom was nasty.

Everything by Hemingway, Scott Fitzgerald and DH Lawrence. And Ulysses. Expat I think we're on half a wavelength here. You are so right about those wankers.

And the Brontes. They are so dire, Anne's the only one worth reading imo and even she's not that good. Why do people worship them so much?

LOL at rather eat your way through the whale...

OMG, Jimjams has reminded me that I gave up on "To the Lighthouse" And I didn't even realise I'd given up on it. I must have just put it down and never picked it up again! Months ago!

More modern but gave up on Stalingrad after about 50 pages.
A friend recommended it as gripping.
Page after page of generals, commanders, battles, I had no idea who was on which side it was so utterly confusing.
And very very dull.

Rowlers, I felt the same about 'The Constant Gardner'. It was much nicer to look at Ralph Fiennes in the cinema instead - he's tasty.

Dh thought he would try a spot of Gunter Grass following the recent scandal about his membership of the SS (nb dh not neo-Nazi but interested to see if there were any clues in his writing). He reports that the Tin Drum is absolutely unreadable.
I've given up more than once on the Alexandria Quartet too bundle. Have also found Conrad, James Joyce and Virginia Woolf completely ungripping.
Miaou you may have started this thread and forgotten about that, and dino you have posted the same opinion twice without realising, but I do remember this thread when it started and I am convinced I posted on it then...so where is it...?

Never got on much with Virginia Woolf either - defo picked up 'To the Lighthouse' a couple of times and put it down.

Lord of the Rings, The Hobbitt...all rubbish to me.

Poetry, seems like much harder work and am very easily put off. There is loads I've started and put down. Including Byron and all the greats really. I can only get going with more modern stuff - like Simon Armitage.

I really enjoyed the Constant Gardener (book)
and the film (and yes expat Ralph Fiennes is rather fanciable - had a dream about him a few months ago.... mmmmmmmmmm)
virginia woolf: yawn
couldn't even watch the whole of The Hours as was soooo bored

Did you pay money to see that film Lili

There's a rumour about Ralph Fiennes . . . a good one, too.

Supposedly, he was such a . . . erm . . . man that his 'manhood' had to be digitally decreased in 'Red Dragon'.

Oh dear.

War and Peace - got all the characters (it has 100s!) completely mixed up and abandoned it one third through. Next time I'll make notes....

Give the new Penguin translation a try then Geekgrrl. It really is a magical novel if you can see past all the full Russian names used in some of the older translations.

expat
marina, just rented the dvd, have you a very low opinion of it then?

you rented the DVD? does ralph get naked in it?

thanks for the tip, Marina - I did like it but lost the plot completely, so will give the new version a go.

Henry James - sooooo boring
ditto Thomas Hardy (though I've enjoyed audio-books, maybe they're edited! )
I read the Tin Drum, thought it was quite good, until I got to the bit about the eel fisherman - gave me nightmares for years and still makes me feel squeamish, and I've never got any further.

Lord of the Rings - just couldn't get past the first chapter despite several attempts. Haven't seen the films either.

anna karenina didn't work for me (embarrasingly). Ulysses is v difficult to get into. Crime and Punishment also.

War and Peace

Lord of the Rings, odd really as I loved The Hobbit

Catch 22

Dickens

A couple of sci-fi writers whose names escape me