What is the most difficult novel you've read?

I vote for Finnegan's Wake by James Joyce.

My God, this book is almost incomprehensible. It only starts to become coherent when you read it aloud and slowly and even then you'll be pretty lost. The language is so strange and idiosyncratic that it has an invented quality about it. Think A Clockwork Orange, but 1000 times harder to decipher. Not to mention that it abandons all the familiar plot conventions and stuctures, almost coming across as a stream of concsiousness.

What is the most difficult novel you've read?

I'm still working on Hop on Pop.  So much political subtext to it, it's overwhelming. 

Posterior Analalytics by Aristotle, I don't know.

I don't know too much about writing, so I don't think I'd be a good judge of what's the hardest novel written.thegerg

Maybe I should change the title to "What's the most difficult novel you've read?"

I'm still working on Hop on Pop.  So much political subtext to it, it's overwhelming. 

Hallenbeck77

Looked up excerpts from that book

"Riverrun, past Eve and Adam's, from swerve of shore to bend of bay, brings us by a commodius vicus of recirculation back to Howth Castle and Environs. Sir Tristram, violer d'amores, fr'over the short sea, had passencore rearrived from North Armorica on this side the scraggy isthmus of Europe Minor to wielderfight his penisolate war: nor had topsawyer's rocks by the stream Oconee exaggerated themselse to Laurens County's gorgios while they went doublin their mumper all the time: nor avoice from afire bellowsed mishe mishe to tauftauf thuartpeatrick: not yet, though venissoon after, had a kidscad buttended a bland old isaac: not yet, though all's fair in vanessy, were sosie sesthers wroth with twone nathandjoe. Rot a peck of pa's malt had Jhem or Shen brewed by arclight and rory end to the regginbrow was to be seen ringsome on the aquaface. The fall (bababadalgharaghtakamminarronnkonnbronntonnerronn tuonnthunntrovarrhounawnskawntoohoohoordenenthurnu k!) of a once wallstrait oldparr is retaled early in bed and later on life down through all christian minstrelsy. The great fall of the offwall entailed at such short notice the pftjschute of Finnegan, erse solid man, that the humptyhillhead of humself prumptly sends an unquiring one well to the west in quest of his tumptytumtoes: and their upturnpikepointandplace is at the knock out in the park where oranges have been laid to rust upon the green since devlinsfirst loved livvy."

Wtf.... WHY???

Probably the Odyssey for me just because it was something i didn't care about at all.

Finnegans Wake isn't difficult because there's nothing to get lol. Joyce was high as fvck when he wrote it

The most difficult thing I've read is Paradise Lost.

I don't know too much about writing,thegerg

Looked up excerpts from that book

"Riverrun, past Eve and Adam's, from swerve of shore to bend of bay, brings us by a commodius vicus of recirculation back to Howth Castle and Environs. Sir Tristram, violer d'amores, fr'over the short sea, had passencore rearrived from North Armorica on this side the scraggy isthmus of Europe Minor to wielderfight his penisolate war: nor had topsawyer's rocks by the stream Oconee exaggerated themselse to Laurens County's gorgios while they went doublin their mumper all the time: nor avoice from afire bellowsed mishe mishe to tauftauf thuartpeatrick: not yet, though venissoon after, had a kidscad buttended a bland old isaac: not yet, though all's fair in vanessy, were sosie sesthers wroth with twone nathandjoe. Rot a peck of pa's malt had Jhem or Shen brewed by arclight and rory end to the regginbrow was to be seen ringsome on the aquaface. The fall (bababadalgharaghtakamminarronnkonnbronntonnerronn tuonnthunntrovarrhounawnskawntoohoohoordenenthurnu k!) of a once wallstrait oldparr is retaled early in bed and later on life down through all christian minstrelsy. The great fall of the offwall entailed at such short notice the pftjschute of Finnegan, erse solid man, that the humptyhillhead of humself prumptly sends an unquiring one well to the west in quest of his tumptytumtoes: and their upturnpikepointandplace is at the knock out in the park where oranges have been laid to rust upon the green since devlinsfirst loved livvy."

Wtf.... WHY???

Probably the Odyssey for me just because it was something i didn't care about at all.

 

 

Person0

The sucky thing is that I have to teach that sh!t (Finnegan's Wake that is) in a few weeks.

I'm scared. :cry:

Finnegans Wake isn't difficult because there's nothing to get lol. Joyce was high as fvck when he wrote it

The most difficult thing I've read is Paradise Lost.

 

 

Aljosa23

A plausible explanation, lol.

the silmarillion, i guess. i enjoyed it tho, and understood it, just got difficult when tolkien would use like 3 different names for the same thing and would alternate usin em

Posterior Analalytics by Aristotle, I don't know.

EagleEyedOne

[QUOTE="Hallenbeck77"]

I'm still working on Hop on Pop.  So much political subtext to it, it's overwhelming. 

jesuschristmonk

[QUOTE="EagleEyedOne"]

Posterior Analalytics by Aristotle, I don't know.

mmwmwmmwmwmm

[QUOTE="mmwmwmmwmwmm"][QUOTE="EagleEyedOne"]

Posterior Analalytics by Aristotle, I don't know.

EagleEyedOne

Gardens of the Moon I guess. It's not that hard to read but you really have to pay attention to every word the author writes, it's not like the song of ice and fire series where you can zone out for half a page and it's not a big deal if you don't reread it.

I'm not much of a reader but I'm going with 'The Millenium Trilogy'.

I mean, I guess Siddhartha was kinda a chore.brucewayne69

A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce for a class. And I hear that is one of his more accessible works. I would never read anything from him by choice. Commander-Gree

Gardens of the Moon I guess. It's not that hard to read but you really have to pay attention to every word the author writes, it's not like the song of ice and fire series where you can zone out for half a page and it's not a big deal if you don't reread it.

cain006

 The Brother's Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky. It is also the best book I have ever read, I truly recommend to all.

Gardens of the Moon I guess. It's not that hard to read but you really have to pay attention to every word the author writes, it's not like the song of ice and fire series where you can zone out for half a page and it's not a big deal if you don't reread it.

cain006

The roughest read for me so far has been Atlas Shrugged. It took me several months, and because I couldn't find a copy with print that wasn't borderline-microscopic, I finished every chapter with a blinding headache.

Second place goes to Kushiel's Dart. I hated how Carey kept skipping the good bits by prefacing them with "I can't describe what happened next..." after almost 300 pages of excruiating detail about Phedre's childhood.

If its difficult, I don't usually finish the book. I like to relax while reading:)

The House of Seven Gables was a terrible bore to get through.

Catch-22.  Great book--and one of the few books to get me laughing out loud, but I lost count of how many times I lost track of what was going on or being said/referenced and had to re-read the page or two (or entire chapter).

On a related note, I attempted to read The Silmarillion and couldn't get past the first few chapters.  That book is a great substitute for nitrous oxide.

isn't finnigans wake so difficult that the plot is not entirely understood/agreed upon?

Sister Carrie by Theodore Dreiser.

Tigana was pretty hard to read.

Sister Carrie by Theodore Dreiser.

Amvis

isn't finnigans wake so difficult that the plot is not entirely understood/agreed upon?

lostrib

The Unbearable Lightness of Being. I read it back in highschool.

I guess Edith Warton or Beewulf.

But only because I was so not interested in it.

Catcher in the Rye

not because it is challenging to read, but simply because it is annoying.  That, and one out of two english teachers make you read it.