An opinion-Dostoyevsky was a great writer, why wouldn't he be popular? I have no idea why he was recognized more than Tolstoy or some of the others, I don't really pay attention to that, and I have not read them. But I have read some Pushkin and loved it.Originally Posted by Alexander III
Last edited by KCurtis; 04-14-2012 at 06:33 PM.
I really quite like that novel, more than any of her other novels you get a feel for Woolf's sense of humour that comes out in her essays.
Edit: I don't think Dostoyevsky is a bad writer, but it is fair to say that he is perhaps over-rated. I personally read him religiously when I was 14, and there was something in it, but when I go back to him these days I'm much less enthralled by it all.
Last edited by OrphanPip; 04-14-2012 at 06:36 PM.
"If the national mental illness of the United States is megalomania, that of Canada is paranoid schizophrenia."
- Margaret Atwood
Where's a good place to start with Henry James? I own Portrait of a Lady, but I worry that'll be a bad place to start...
I started Eco's Name of the Rose, but I got bored quickly and was already reading like five other novels, so I put it back. I plan to pick it up again, tho... I dunno i just hate these sort of snobby novels. but I guess I should try it anyways...
Well the main reason I liked Portrait of the Artist was because of my identification with Stephen's suffocating in Dublin. I actually didn't really notice much SoC... where did you guys see it?
Talk to me sometime. http://dysfunctional-harmony.tumblr.com/
If you're looking for an introduction to James you can't really go wrong with his two major novellas: The Aspern Papers or The Turn of the Screw.
"If the national mental illness of the United States is megalomania, that of Canada is paranoid schizophrenia."
- Margaret Atwood
^ I second this
I wrote a poem on a leaf and it blew away...
Actually I kind of suspected that that was what was going on after I finished Portrait of the Artist. I read Dubliners, and one day I actually spent a lot of time "overthinking" Araby, until suddenly things started clicking into place. After I was done Portrait of the Artist and I was left with that empty feeling I started to suspect that "overthinking" is how you're supposed to read Joyce.
Still, I think it'll be a few years before I give it another go.
__________________
"Personal note: When I was a little kid my mother told me not to stare into the sun. So once when I was six, I did. At first the brightness was overwhelming, but I had seen that before. I kept looking, forcing myself not to blink, and then the brightness began to dissolve. My pupils shrunk to pinholes and everything came into focus and for a moment I understood. The doctors didn't know if my eyes would ever heal."
-Pi
Speaking for myself, the only thing I think I expected from a Pulitzer-winning comedy was that it would be funny, which it wasn't remotely IMO. I started reading it, then skimming, then gave up entirely. One of my co-workers brought it to work soon after, and when she was finished with it I asked her if I had missed out on anything, and she said I hadn't.
Could you be more specific about the expectations people told you they brought and what you think we were missing?
You must be the change you wish to see in the world. -- Mahatma Gandhi
LOL we read Araby in my non-honors English 11 class and nobody understood it (other than me). When it comes to Portrait of the Artist, it really depends on which section, cause I don't really see much point in read the sections about him being obsessed with religion as anything other than simple satire. XD
On another note, I read that Nabokov made his students chart where things were occurring on a map of Dublin when he had them read Joyce. And then, of course, there's Bloomsday. So it may be a good idea to go there at some point before or while reading Ulysses or Dubliners.
Last edited by dysfunctional-h; 04-15-2012 at 08:10 PM. Reason: clarity
Talk to me sometime. http://dysfunctional-harmony.tumblr.com/
I usually don't give up on books with a reputation for being classics. However, I did quit The Last of the Mohicans because it was terribly dry and stilted. Also, I couldn't make it through Blood Meridian. It was excellently written, but the violence and wickedness of the characters were too much for me.
“Yesterday's rose endures in its name, we hold empty names.”
― Umberto Eco, The Name of the Rose
I've gotten better about giving a book/author a fair shake before giving up. But there have been a few that felt like real drudgery:
Wuthering Heights--uugggg (although I love Charlotte and Anne's works)
Ulysses--Too young when I attempted it. Will revisit...
Atlas Shrugged--somebody shoot me...
Lord of the Flies--School assignment. I think I used Cliffsnotes.
The Great Gatsby
1984
Pride & Prejudice / N. Abbey
The Da Vinci Code
I do this with all kinds of books, not just boring or confusing ones. A lot of the time I stop only because I feel that I don't want to read it at that point in time and I'm in the mood for something else and maybe I'll come back to it at some other time. That's why I like to own books and not check them out of the library.
Waiting for Godot is not that long, though, and plays are never that hard to get through. I love Beckett and absurdist plays.
I've done this recently with Thomas Mann's Doctor Faustus and Faulkner's As I Lay Dying. I've also tried reading the Sound and the Fury and had even less success with that. I may give Faulkner another chance years from now or something but for now his style causes me too much mental strain.
I guess you already know Twain's opinion of that author.
We often see the other novels on your list given as examples of classics that people found tedious, but I think you're the first one I've seen to whom 1984 "felt like real drudgery." I've seen people who didn't like it (a bit too sensationalist for some), but no one who was bored by it.
I'm surprised no one has said Moby Dick yet. That damn whale breeds chapter...
__________________
"Personal note: When I was a little kid my mother told me not to stare into the sun. So once when I was six, I did. At first the brightness was overwhelming, but I had seen that before. I kept looking, forcing myself not to blink, and then the brightness began to dissolve. My pupils shrunk to pinholes and everything came into focus and for a moment I understood. The doctors didn't know if my eyes would ever heal."
-Pi
I forgot about Moby-Dick...I've given up on that one a couple of times. It's an objectively great novel, but the first 200 pages (which, incidentally, is about as far as I ever got) are painful.
Yeah, I discovered his rant against Cooper after I had quit Last of the Mohicans and I had a good laugh. It's hard to beat Twain's sarcastic humour.
I'm surprised to see The Great Gatsby on this list. Its short enough and written simply enough that it should be easy to push through even if you don't like it very much. Also, I almost quit Wuthering Heights too when I started because I thought it was written terribly. Then it picked up, and by the end I actually kind of liked it. It's probably worth giving it another shot; just stick it through till it picks up.
“Yesterday's rose endures in its name, we hold empty names.”
― Umberto Eco, The Name of the Rose
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