Considering that many (most?) of the long 19th century novels were originally serialized in magazines, do you think it's a better experience to read them in a similar manner today?
I remember when I read The Pickwick Papers when younger it took me months because the English was a bit tough for me and I've always been a slow reader, but in hindsight I wonder if it didn't actually enhance the experience as I still fondly remember that book.
Pickwick is unusual in that it hardly has any consistent plot - it is a series of scenes with various characters. It can perfectly well be enjoyed without reading it consistently. I read The Newcomes in monthly episodes, but the trouble is with a novel with a complicated plot (and sub plots as Victorians often do) by the time you've reached episode 14, you've forgotten who was the mysterious stranger at the inn in episode 2.
Previously JonathanB
The more I read, the more I shall covet to read. Robert Burton The Anatomy of Melancholy Partion3, Section 1, Member 1, Subsection 1
It's an interesting question, Leo, but how exactly would you reproduce the experience?
Lol!Do You have soap operas today in England? I think the Brazilian soapies own much of their plot construction to the 19C system of installments with its simultaneous plots and subplots.
Obs. The "Lol" was for the post of JR.
"I seemed to have sensed also from an early age that some of my experiences as a reader would change me more as a person than would many an event in the world where I sat and read. "
Gerald Murnane, Tamarisk Row
Well, I don't mean reproducing the experience exactly, but just stretching it out over perhaps a month or so instead of plowing through it in a couple of days.Originally Posted by Pompey Bum
If you can read a Dickens novel in a couple of days then you read faster than I do.But I don't think there's anything to be gained by dragging them out like that. If you feel like a break after a few chapters, just spend some time thinking or writing about the novel a little. But of course you need to go with what works for you.
I can't read one remotely that quickly either, but I know some people can and I'm rather envious of them, so I guess I'm trying to see something positive in being a slowpoke.If you can read a Dickens novel in a couple of days then you read faster than I do.
Aw, just read at your own speed. Take a little time, read it at your own pace, reread or read aloud the beautiful parts, and give it the reflection it deserves. But stringing it out into installations is only going to take longer and increase the chance that you won't actually finish. Why bother?
I once spent a whole summer reading Eliot's Middlemarch--a few pages every day. I found no trouble following the many branched plot. I am now reading 6 novels at the same time. I keep them in a stack on my desk. Whenever I think of it and have a little time, I take a book, read a paragraph, and go through the whole stack that way. I have absolutely no problem keeping all the stories straight.
"Why do we treat people as though they are exactly the way they want to be?" Wm Gaddis
I prefer 19th century novels quite slowly, even as slow as a chapter a day or less. It can take months to read books that way, however, and I still have a lot I want to get through.
According to Aldous Huxley, D.H. Lawrence once said that Balzac was 'a gigantic dwarf', and in a sense the same is true of Dickens.
Charles Dickens, by George Orwell
I think novels are best enjoyed at the speed they urge you to read at. If a book is a slog, then it's probably going to take awhile.
I read David Copperfield over the course of about 3 weeks and thoroughly enjoyed it. That was a decent speed for me considering the page count of that book.
War and Peace took me 2.5 weeks to read because I was completely absorbed into the story, choosing to spend a decent amount of my spare time to read rather than peruse the internet or play video games.
On the other hand, I started reading Buddenbrooks and it took 3 weeks to get through 80 pages before I stopped reading the book - AND I really like Mann's writing!
It all depends on the book.
Depends. Some are. Some can be enjoyed over a shorter period of time, if you have the will to do so.
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