Most Difficult Novels
Books that made you work the hardest. Let's assume that you actually finished the book and felt that it was worth the effort.
Tags:
difficult and literature
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List started by:
BoBandy
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Beowulf, currently number 2 on this list, isn't a novel at all. And many of these books, like Anna Karenina, are not difficult, they're just long, which isn't the same thing.
Ditto on the point that difficult is not the same as long. Dickens and Rand, though verbose, are rather transparent.
Oh, I just saw in the description that these difficult books are supposed to be worth the effort. Well, that would change things.. hehe.
What might be difficult to one, may not be to another. What might be interesting to one, may not be to the other.
I agree about Gaiman, and The Count of Monte Cristo is not so difficult that it needs to be listed four times.
<Haven't read "Beowulf, but many of these books, like Anna Karenina, while not difficult, are very complex if one has some knowledge of Russian history. Tolstoy was trying with his novels to express the living condition of the middle class as compared to the upper and peasant class. His character studies are enlightening. One should remember that in the 19th century he was trying to start a movement away from the Tzar as a dictator to a Parlimentary system. Unfortunately the 1917 Revolution changed that moderation movement to assist the people.
Ulysses and Sound and the Fury aren't at all difficult if you understand "stream of consciousness." This is all personal taste and reading ability....utter baloney!
Why are there like 8 versions of CoMC on this list? Maybe that's what's so difficult...people think it's 8 books instead of one.
Katherine wrote: "Why are there like 8 versions of CoMC on this list? Maybe that's what's so difficult...people think it's 8 books instead of one."Haha, yeah it confused me as well. And we also read it in my 8th grade reading class...
Ah...that does make sense. When I say I've trid to read it, I mean I opened it to the first page, opened it to a random middle page and looked the last page and decided it was impossible.
I added the Aeneid. I have to agree with most of the assertions that the books listed (the ones I have actually read anyway) are often merely LONG rather than hard. BUt the Aeneid has so many layers, and is so artificial that it is in a different category... of course technically it is NOT a novel, so I guess I won't add Paradise Lost. But I also have to support Ulysses as "hard." Stream of consciousness IS hard. So is a multiple leveled experimental retooling of an ancient epic poem. And Finnegan's Wake is harder, but I suspect fewer people even try...
OK, as a Librarian, I am deleting books that really hard, but are clearly NOT novels (including my own insertion of the Aeneid). Beowulf, Kant: buh-bye.
If hard equals BORING, the "Unbearable" heaviness of both book and movie should shoot that snooze up to #1.Technically, Canterbury Tales is not a novel, but so what.
The passages I have read are brilliant, but I have never mounted a successful assault on the whole... and it is only 100pp!
Yes, you should definitely read Heart of Darkness--very worthwhile. And as Antoine points out, it's only 100 pages.
Susan wrote: "<Haven't read "Beowulf, but many of these books, like Anna Karenina, while not difficult, are very complex if one has some knowledge of Russian history. Tolstoy was trying with his novels to expres..."
Anna Karenina was very repetitive, in my humble opinion. Nevertheless, I couldn't put it down.
I once implied to a bright well-read friend that I didn't think Infinite Jest was something she'd get through. However, it's one of my personal favorites.
I read Tale of Two Cities in HS English class and have re-read it since then.I would not consider it difficult but I do think its a worthwhile for anyone to read.
V by Thomas Pynchon should ALWAYS be at the top of any list of difficult book. In fact, it should have it's own category - really difficult to read.
But I love it as I love Valetta
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