The Hardest Classics to Read

Joyce’s “Dubliners” is wonderful! Easy to read, digestible, not a slog.

The whaling chapters in Moby Dick are metaphors and are filled with jokes. The digressions in Les Miserables are beautifully written. The account of the Battle of Waterloo is absolutely stirring and gripping. Ulysses is wonderful! It's funny, life affirming and very moving. Use a guide for it. It congeals perfectly well if you know what each section is doing. Every section of U is written in a completely different style. It's worth the climb up Mt Ulysses! Finnegans Wake not so much

Ulysses is actually one of my favorite novels I ever read. I’m at a point where I read over a dozen novels and wanted something that is very different. Ulysses, although quite difficult, is quite a treasure. When I was able to understand a reference, my brain explodes and it’s as though my whole perspective of the world completely changes.

For those wondering how someone could possibly enjoy Joyce's 'Ulysses', I would recommend Frank Delaney's Re:Joyce podcast. Unfinished at Delaney's death, Re:Joyce is a phrase by phrase celebration of the work. Those short individual podcasts are collected on YouTube by socraticidiot, if you want them all in one recording. I would also recommend reading along with an audio recording of the work. Having a written guide at hand will be necessary for many readers; Wikipedia and Cliffs/Spark will get you started, but there are better, deeper, dedicated works. Most of all, I would recommend that readers start by reading 'Dubliners', then move to 'Portrait'', and then, finally 'Ulysses'. (Of course, they could tackle 'Finnegans Wake', as well, but...) Finally, remember that 'Ulysses' is a puzzle to be pondered and enjoyed, not dreaded. Reading it takes some effort, but, I think, it is well worth that effort.

Les Miserables is one of my all time favorites. It will touch your soul. Fantastic experience.

Thanks for this. Lately I’ve been taking time to revisit some of these. I finally read Ulysses with some pleasure, though it was more a feeling of satisfaction. You have inspired me to re-read “The Waste Land,” as a pleasure, not an assignment.

I agree with your analysis — while the cetology stuff in Moby Dick is actually kind of interesting to me sometimes, I agree and could do without the digressions for the most part. “I’ll chase him around the cape and horn and around Perdition’s flame” is classic. I read this book out loud to my teenage daughter and we’d get bogged down in the digressions, but fun to talk about. All that being said, when he’s “on” Melville’s writing is AMAZING. I love the language, the symbolism, the imagery. Queequeg is our favorite character, just love him. Joyce’s “Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man” is also great, I really enjoyed it, especially the sermon on Hell —very memorable (and scary). His discussion of aesthetics is top notch as well. I’ve never read Ulysses. I’m a Tolkien fan too and have started the Silmarillion several times, but just can’t do it. The stuff at the end is good (what Peter Jackson’s movie starts with) but otherwise it’s a no-go. Great video and spot on, so fun. Thanks!

We had Dostoyevsky's Notes From Underground in our second semester syllabus (I have a master's degree in English literature). This is one of the most difficult books I've ever come across. The book is divided into two parts: in the first part, the unnamed narrator just blabbers about many unrelated, albeit sometimes intertwined, things. The second part actually tells a story. I, nonetheless, read the book and made notes of important points. But when I sat in the exam, I was shocked. I had no idea how I was going to answer the question from the book that was asked. I was lucky I didn't fail in the European paper. We had choices and I chose the question on Thomas Mann. Till today, Notes From Underground remains the only work of literature I failed to grasp.

What are you thoughts on Middlemarch by George Eliot? I found it difficult because it is very boring.

The Ambassadors by Henry James…short book but rough reading. I liked it but have no friends I’d recommend it to.

You should try reading Finnegan's Wake

Nice video - when I think of something being designated as a "classic", then the image that comes to mind is of a mountain out there that's beckoning you to climb it, so it seems contradictory to me to avoid something like that on the grounds that it's challenging, if one is drawn to the idea of "classic" to begin with - another aspect is the question of "plot", which isn't always the only thing on the author's mind when creating the work - so "following the plot" may sometimes be less crucial than giving oneself over to the overall experience, and just taking it in as you go - tho of course, anyone may find this or that experience more or less rewarding than the other, and taking a certain approach w one may make that experience more rewarding - and I can see someone not feeling ready to tackle a particular work, and maybe hold off for a while, or take steps to feel more prepared - but, then again, if one feels one hasn't gotten the most out of it, one can always go back later and read it again lol - and even if one finds one didn't like the experience and doesn't feel inclined to revisit it, one still has the memory that experience in their lives now, like having visited a certain country - even if we don't feel like going back, that doesn't mean we regret going in the first place

I usually like to research about a new book before reading it (but without the spoilers!); listen to podacasts and YouTube to give me some context.

I certainly agree with you that Ulysses by James Joyce is difficult to read. But every classical literature maven declares it to be a work of genius. It is either very near the top or actually at the top of every list of the greatest books ever written. Why is this so? I have attempted to read Ulysses several times since the 1960s and never succeeded in finishing it. It certainly helps to read it together with an explanatory companion book such as 'Ulysses Unbound' by Terence Killeen (Penguin). Maybe I'm just a beggar for punishment but I think I'll have yet another go at reading it.

Oddly enough, I found Brothers Karamazov to be easy to read, but that's because I'd already read a lot of Dostoevsky and so was already familiar with his writing style and the Russian life.

Agreed. Although I believe I have a copy of ‘The Wasteland’ somewhere, and remember the Cliff Notes copy of ‘The Brothers Karamazov’ from a Russian literature course from my college days; the list stands as distant from reading. Might add Thomas Hardy to the list as well. Cheers!

I told my brother's wife that I really loved the Silmarillion, but I got around to reading it much to seldom. She had tried to read it, but it just fizzled out. So my one advice to everyone: Don't read it as a novel, read it as chapters of a very long story! Then read something else when you feel bored with that!

YES! The Silmarillion is Awesome! I read 3 LOTR, Hobbit, Silmarillion, Unfinished Tales, Children of Hurin, Fall of anime or. Ain’t nothing else out there quite like Silmarillion.

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If you put The Silmarillion on the list you could as well put The Bible, as it was inspired by its style, also if you put Moby-Dick you could as well put Tristram Shandy for the same reason. Dubliners by Joyce is quite accessible and also well written