8 Writers and Books I Find Extremely Difficult to Read

[@nedmerrill5705]

I forget where the quip came from: "Hamlet isn't so great; it's full of cliches you hear all the time."

[@BenjaminMcEvoy]

Ha, I love that! Very witty and perceptive quip!

[@laurenhahn101]

That's a very old joke...

[@neosapienz7885]

That brought a smile to my face. 😊

[@nelsonx5326]

Yogi Berra.

[@mgmartin51]

“Beethoven isn’t so great. You’ve never seen his face on a bubblegum card, have you?”

[@MsCrisStina]

I just discovered you tonight and already watched about 15 of your videos. I have to express my gratitude for your efforts and for sharing your inspirinig insights with us. You, sir, are a great great man! Thank you!

[@BenjaminMcEvoy]

Wow. Thank you :) I really appreciate that - let us know if you have any videos you would like to see!

[@colinellesmere]

I have also just come across this channel. A fantastic service. Great natural delivery.

[@josuelopez1500]

Yes! Benjamin is extremely binge-worthy! Also, his videos should be rewatched as much as he insists we ought to reread the great novels. 😅

[@rosannavitale9922]

I, too, have just discovered this channel. Thank you. Smiles,

[@Jimbodisfan]

Good morning from New Jersey! Found your channel and subscribed. Thank you for sharing your difficult books. I'm going to add Jose Luis Borges and Shakespeare to my "to read" list. I've actually read Anna Karenina, which was a great book because you care about the characters. Or maybe you don't. I found Anna to be both pitiable and deserving of her fate.

[@hafsabekri-lamrani9174]

Hello Benjamin ! I am a Moroccan poet and I taught British and American Literature to English teacher trainees. Interestingly enough I discovered you through my son who has just read Wuthering Heights and sent me your video on it . It was one of the books I taught 40 years ago and had my then students to work on 14 different reading tracks on that novel. Only great novels can stand deep analysis. I truly appreciate your great depth and your keen sense of analysis along with your sensitiveness and genuine knowledge of the world literature. I also really the simplicity and directness and passion with which you present your videos far from any presumptuous academic attitude. Yesterday I watch your video on Dickens since I have a workshop on Dickens with school kids in three weeks. This video on difficult writers really helps apprehend writers generally categorised as difficult. Isn't difficulty a nice challenge for a teacher or a reader?

[@patd.3368]

@hafsa Bekri-Lamrani…great teachers…and I am sure that you yourself are one…always recognize their own…you are all alchemists!!!

[@hafsabekri-lamrani9174]

@@patd.3368 Thank you fir your appreciation!

[@MilesWilliams88]

Are you a fan of Cormac McCarthy? I'm admittedly not well read. I read in school, but for whatever reason stopped after. For my 31st birthday a couple years ago, my partner bought me a copy of The Road by McCarthy. I had heard about it in passing. The ending made me weep. I've never had a piece of media hit me in such an emotional way. I've read everyday since. I'll forever be grateful to that book for making me love literature.

[@BenjaminMcEvoy]

Huge fan! I'm currently planning a podcast on The Road, and Blood Meridian is on our book club schedule in a few months - we'll deep-read it over 8-10 weeks. If you could see my bedside table, you would see No Country for Old Men splayed open. I'm not surprised McCarthy made you fall in love with literature, Miles - he's a master! And a personal favourite of mine :)

[@MilesWilliams88]

@@BenjaminMcEvoy Blood Meridian is so good! It was a tough read for a dummy like me, ha, but I read it twice back to back. I recently discovered your channel, and have been binge watching your videos. Great stuff! Keep it up.

[@BenjaminMcEvoy]

@@MilesWilliams88 Oh, it was a tough read for me too. I had to put the book down several times and try again. Thank you for the kind words, my friend, I appreciate them - it's great to have you here :)

[@talastra]

@@BenjaminMcEvoy Blood Meridian is very gorgeous, and the book where McCarthy finally finds a space to explore the notion of evil he'd been after. The Orientalism is unfortunate, and the nihilism is disappointing, the narrative is ultimately too beholden to the Glanton bang, and he's only a Cancer, not a Pisces--but the prose is still fantastic. His "Outer Dark" is an excellent early attempt (a more compelling read to me), and I've felt that his Suttree is unduly neglected. I never got around to reading anything starting from "All the Pretty Horses" onward though. Don't know why he didn't get a Nobel prize.

[@skeovkp48598]

Pierre Bezukhov will always live in my soul. War and Peace affected me more than any book I'd ever read and I just couldn't stop thinking about it after I'd finished. So I'll be reading it again along with you this year. There are so many classics I haven't read though. I used to read tons, but somehow that dwindled away as I got older (I blame the internet which didn't exist in my youth). I regret that now, so I'm on a mission to make up for lost time. I just discovered your channel, and have binge watched loads. So along with my daily reading I now have a goal to watch one of your videos every day. I'm so happy I found you!

[@bradbowers4414]

I also love War and Peace. One of my favorites. I need to pick it back up again this year.

[@mindylawrence7357]

I recently discovered you and am thrilled. After being an avid reader for years, I stopped reading much of anything. Listening to your videos has given me a new start. Now that I'm 71, I'm going to revisit many of the books I've read. , it's time for a new perspective.

[@BenjaminMcEvoy]

I'm so thrilled that you're here, Mindy :) And I couldn't be happier to hear that you're enthused to re-enter the world of great literature! Thank you so much for such a lovely comment!

[@Lifesizemortal]

I will only read books written in "plain English" because reading becomes unenjoyable when I'm unable to read at the same pace as my inner voice.

[@chickencharlie1992]

How did I ever get along as a book dork without your channel? You're doing a great service to book lovers far and wide, the classics have always been my favorite but I rarely got to discuss them with other literature geeks. Every time I finish a classic I feel more kinship for my fellow man across time and space. I have done what you recommended by imagining the characters are real people and the author is alive right here in front of me personally handing over a copy of their book. It helps remind me that the authors were real people with real intentions.

[@brockatgmail]

It’s like time travel… you hear the language,visit the places, travel time and space virtually 😊😊

[@minervamclitchie3667]

The trick for me reading Shakespeare is I focus on one character and imagine I'm acting that part. I know I can't act, not even interesting in it, but reading his plays is easier for me if I act out one part in my head.

[@BenjaminMcEvoy]

I love that approach, Minerva! What a wonderful way of connecting to Shakespeare. You're living the roles! :)

[@storiedworlds6261]

A writer that is quite challenging that I love: William Faulkner.

[@camofrog]

It helps a lot to know what you’re in for with him.

[@sherunswithscissors]

I couldn’t read Faulkner for years. One year I took some of his books with me when on holiday and couldn’t put them down. What a feast!

[@arinzedike9693]

Can anyone please recommend a good novel by Faulkner?

[@storiedworlds6261]

@@arinzedike9693 For me, the best place to start with Faulkner is “Light in August”; great novel. “As I Lay Dying” is suggested by a lot of people. My favorite Faulkner is “Go Down, Moses” but it’s technically not a novel. That should give you enough to start with. Happy reading.

[@talastra]

@@arinzedike9693 I found the second and second to last chapter of Light in August very baffling as a high schooler, but not enough to put me off Faulkner. Along with The Sound and the Fury, and Absalom, Absalom, I always want to recommend the Snopes trilogy (especially the third book). Like most trilogies, the middle book is maybe the weakest. Also, Knights Gambit is a collection of stories about Faulkner's country lawyer, Gavin Stevens. Light in August does have one phrase that I never forget from Faulkner: the "hookwormridden heirs-at-large"

[@henrikfogelberg1550]

I began reading Proust when I was around 20 or so and thought I was intellectual. I gave up after 30 pages and ended up selling the book at a flea market a couple of years later. Now when I’m on the wrong side of 50 I’ve finally come back to Proust and love reading him. I work in the stressful world of IT and 5-10 pages of Proust in the evening really clears my mind. You can’t get any further away from my day job than Proust. As you point out, the key is slowing down and letting the book take the time it requires. So I really think you need to read ”difficult” writers at the right moment in life. Then they are perhaps not all that difficult. The exception is Joyce who I will never get my head around! I started out with Proust an e-book, but it just felt wrong. I didn’t want a paperback edition either, which is the only one in print here in Sweden, so ended up scouting the second hand book shops and again bought the same edition I had sold 25 years ago. I am close to end of The Guermentes Way, but think I will a break before going on to part IV. Do you have any suggestions?

[@gracefitzgerald2227]

After I read Guermantes Way, it took me over a year to pick up Sodom and Gomorrah. It was a much easier read. Now I’m listening to the audio and I can keep up in the salon’s with the gang and roll my eyes when someone is being ever so clever(so snobby). Next book is super saucy! Hope you’ve picked it back up.

[@Find-Your-Bliss-]

One Hundred Years of Solitude Bel Canto Angels and Insects Just for a break!

[@jackiepike1466]

I suggest taking a break with a short tale by Edgar Allan Poe. Nothing to do with Proust, but Poe's use of language and imagination are sensational.

[@PoeLemic]

Yeah, Joyce sucks, and I don't say that lightly. James Joyce's "Portraits of the Artist as a Young Man", I think that was the title. I think that's the worst book that I have ever read. Had to read for a class, and I love to read. Not that one.

[@MarkJAHughes]

It is ten months since I first followed Virgil and and Dante into the Inferno. I am now on Canto 4 of Paradiso. I will read this work for the rest of my life. It requires a detailed understanding of 13th and 14th century Italian politics and the medieval intellectual and spiritual milieu. I have never encountered a work that required me to read three different translations simultaneously, as well as Aristotle, Ovid and Virgil. Yowzah! Glad I am retired and ave an bundance of time for it.

[@davidleonard8547]

I struggled with Melville's "Moby Dick," but just finished it after three earlier failures at different stages in my life thanks to your and Harold Bloom's deep praise of the work. It requires an immediate re-read, I believe, to absorb it properly. So many different voices, some of which I could not decipher. It's narrative style shifts so often as well. Other difficult reads in my life: Faulkner's "As I Lay Dying." That required another immediate re-read, and has frightened me off other Faulkner, to date, sadly. Anything by Pynchon is a challenge; but I found him rather witty when I read him in college. I failed at Palisser's "Quincunx" when I first attempted it (I picked up from a recommendation and found it dull then), but I think I've gained enough patience and reading experience for it now. I do believe a modern pinnacle might be DFW's "Infinite Jest." I have it, I did venture a couple pages when I first bought it but set it aside. I realize that it might take a few months to complete. The Bible. Might that be the beginning of Harold Bloom's "Western Canon"? You've an impressive body of work here on KZbin. You are an inspiration to anyone who wants to elevate their reading into the classics.

[@eddiejc1]

For your sake, I am happy that you finished "Moby Dick" and appreciate it, but you triggered me with your praise of Harold Bloom---the same guy who while condemning the National Book Festival for calling Stephen King "the dean of American lettes" genuinely thinks that "Finnegans Wake" an unreadable piece of c*ap with NO characters and NO plot is the equivalent of Shakespeare? He must have a poor opinion of Shakespeare fans who actually enjoy his works for drama.

[@aditmaryadi6678]

Your channel is a blessing for book readers! Still waiting for my mail of 'In Search of Lost Time' and can't wait to tackle it, slooowly 😉

[@BenjaminMcEvoy]

Thank you, Adit :) I really appreciate that! Let me know what you think of Proust!

[@aditmaryadi6678]

@@BenjaminMcEvoy Yes I will! I knew Proust from another booktuber. But decided to purchase it because of your 'How to Read' video 😊

[@davidcopson5800]

He should focus on religious books. That would be a blessing for us all.

[@kdnu27]

Bruno Schulz - he was my first difficult writer and thanks to him I fell in love with difficult literature. I read Schulz just after the high school when my favourite genre of books was fantasy (still is! but even since I diversified my bookshelf), so what amazed me my sound a bit childish. Schulz writing was for me all style no substance. By substance I mean any kind of story, something I took for granted at that time. Yet, I didn't have any troubles with reading Schulz, I was simply amazed by his writing style and this surreal world he painted with his words.

[@johannsebastianbach3411]

What you said about “… Tolstoy wants you to keep the characters in your soul” resonates so deeply with me. The first piece of literature i have ever read at the age of 6 was Martin the Cobbler, a parable by him. And i always, always go back to those parables, whether it be “what men live by”, “god sees the truth but waits”, “walk in the light whenever there is light” etc etc… these stories shaped who i am today!

[@BenjaminMcEvoy]

That is such a beautiful appreciation. How amazing that you were treated to Tolstoy so early on, and you still return to his works today!

[@philipswain4122]

I’m reading Wittgenstein’s Philosophical Investigations. I have the version in both German and English. I’ve been finding very subtle differences between the two, which lends to the difficulty. To address this, I highlight the differences and then research the German phrases to get a sense of their deeper meaning. I recommend reading a text in the original language, if you can. This approach forces you to step into a different culture, which increases the richness of the journey.

[@dylanmcdermott1110]

What are your thoughts on translation? Ideally we would be able to read every author in the original, but it's not practical. Personally, I'm willing to sacrifice some of the cultural meaning if I can still understand the big picture and (more importantly to me) enjoy the language of the translation.

[@kevinrosero9723]

I always find Moby-Dick at least moderately difficult. Definitely demanding. But never a slog.

[@VonnegutsGhost]

Jane Austen was a Capricorn, Shakespeare was a Taurus, and Hugo was a Pisces. Ben your work is fantastic and each to their own when it comes to the zodiac, just do some rooting around. Keep it up, your recommendations inspire me immensely.

[@marcsmirnoff936]

That's just (& civil) criticism. And it hits me that this isn't the first time I've encountered a proponent of the zodiac with more confidence than accuracy. Sorry if that sounds harsh but it's true to my experience (not speaking for others).

[@davidcopson5800]

Jane Austen was a Sagittarius.

[@marcsmirnoff936]

@@davidcopson5800 She was a better novelist than Sagittarius, Capricorn, or Pisces.

[@AnnNunnally]

What you can get from many great books will change as you grow older. I recommend rereading a book 10 or 20 years after you first read it.

[@mischamartinstudios]

Just finished Seamus Heaney's translation of Beowulf. I cried my heart out.

[@skeovkp48598]

Oh I absolutely loved this too. To feel a connection with those people from so long ago was amazing.

[@nityadambiec8726]

Agree, it’s amazing how he captured the rhythm, poetry and oral nature of the work. It’s really alive, unlike more dry academic translations.

[@ruthgilbo889]

Winston Graham's Poldark series is AMAZING. He also demands that you live the story. His character development is a steady growth throughout the series., and his characters stay true to their written characterizations throughout. I'm not speaking of the Masterpiece Theatre series on PBS - although that was well done. But reading Graham's words - he brings you into the Cornish landscape - you can hear the gulls, you can smell the sea. You can envision the angry storms crashing against the cliffs. He brings the French revolution and the resulting Napoleonic Wars, up close, as they effect the economy of Cornwall and the life of its inhabitants - all while keeping the continental conflicts in the background. His descriptions of the ships, their crews, and the shipwrecks are palatable. His description of the 1790s - 1800s attire is well detailed. All in all, the writing is phenomenal! I highly recommend READING the books. Or, Audible has the entire series in an audiobook - the reader does a beautiful job changing his voice for each character.

[@EmilynWood]

Dostoyevsky's Demons is a difficult but rewarding read. So much is going on in it. Whenever I pick it up, I do actually find something interesting to think about no matter where in the book I am, and yet it's hard to follow everything going on and all the characters.

[@alexdegross6248]

My favorite novel of his. Changed my life. Atleast “ demons” has a coherent trajectory.

[@EmilynWood]

@@alexdegross6248 I'm working on reading the rest of his books--I've only read Crime and Punishment, some of his short stories, and most of The Brothers Karamazov, but I'm excited to get to The Idiot after I finish my read-through of Demons. Loved Crime and Punishment.

[@Nick-qf7vt]

@@EmilynWood Notes from Underground as brilliant as well. House of the Dead is also a fantastic autobiographical novel

[@hamoudalnasser]

When I first tried Ovid, I found it very strange. Really helped to have expert guidance, and now I love reading Ovid. I've heard you really have to understand high German to fully appreciate Goethe, people say it just doesn't translate well. My first foray into Tolstoy, years ago didn't go well, but then I tried another translation and was entranced almost immediately. I took a university course covering writers like Aquinas, Dante, More, Donne and Milton. Such a great experience and I feel like I would not appreciate them nearly as much had I just jumped in myself. Still haven't braved Joyce. And I struggle with Thomas Hardy, mostly because his books are just so. relentlessly depressing.

[@Nick-qf7vt]

I wish I could take a course like that! Yes, Hardy is pretty depressing. Another really depressing one is Stoner by John William's

[@jeanlobrot]

Gravity’s rainbow has to be an all time (equal parts) phenomenal and difficult novel (if you can even call it that)

[@BenjaminMcEvoy]

I completely agree!

[@DanBlabbers]

I completely agree, I read about 75 pages and was very overwhelmed I put it down. Still greatly enjoyed it and have a lot of respect for it. It felt to me like I was reading it but not processing it fully and felt it a shame to continue reading it I’m not absorbing it completely.

[@malexander4094]

I'll read it a 4th time next year. What I realized the 1st time is that you almost need to approach it like you are taking a psychedelic drug: that there's an intense come up, then an eventual plateau, and finally a steady if occasionally rough comedown. Ultimately, I also think the best way to approach it is as "a hippie novel." When you realize a lot of the major elements are about the devastation & also hope of renewal in nature & the earth, and what our species is doing to it, then a lot of things make sense. The other thing about the novel, and partly what makes it well-loved by those who finish it, is that the novel's core themes almost require that it be so wild & encompassing. It has to be both entertaining & difficult, beautiful & horrifying, bright & dark, because it's central gift is a treasure chest surrounded by traps.

[@malexander4094]

@@DanBlabbers Don't be ashamed! I've read it a few times, but it took patience that 1st time. I established goodwill with "Vineland," which I highly recommend, and then of course "Inherent Vice" with its film adaptation. (I do *not* advise "Lot 49" ...yes it's short, but it doesn't give you the best of Pynchon's characters, humor, heart, or prose.) What everyone who finishes "Gravity's Rainbow" seems to realize is that Part 1, "Beyond the Zone," is a trial-by-fire. The book is like taking a psychedelic: the first part where people put it down is only "the come up." You hit the plateau in Part 2. But Pynchon definitely frontloads the hardest part of the novel. You have to pass its test. The novel isn't trying to be obscure: but it needs to "break" you a bit to ride its rewarding wavelength. One piece of advice I give is to think of it as a hippie novel...perhaps *the* hippie novel. It's fundamentally a novel about the earth, about nature, and what our species has done to devastate it, in order to also kill each other...but also the hope of renewal we have in it. It's through the lens of the 1970s, but set as an apocalyptic "end of the world" battle near the end of WWII.

[@jeanlobrot]

@@malexander4094 as someone with a passion for psychedelics I completely agree

[@kina7128]

After many years of procrastinating, taking out and then returning War and Peace from the library, unread, I decided two years ago to give it another try. I bought my own copy, Anthony Briggs Translation, and then forgot all about it again. Three weeks ago I decided it was now or never - I would commit myself to one hour's reading every night while listening to the same version of the Audiobook at the same time. This decision is a game changer for me, as I set the book at 1.65 x pace - it slows my usual reading speed somewhat, but I've found that it gives me ample time to ponder over what I'm reading, stopping to Google additional information on some battles and war terminology, also looking up the meaning of words new to me and making annotations as I go along. I thoroughly enjoy the experience and find myself re-visiting some thoughts and ideas in my mind in the following days. Should've done this a long time ago!

[@nct948]

impressive

[@erina2600]

That’s a great idea actually!

[@bartonstewart1134]

I think the Chekhov line was, "Don't tell me there was a fight, show me the moonlight glinting on broken glass." It gets to the controversy of showing versus telling in fiction. The purist wants everything shown; telling is a sin or something. But I have heard that it has to be a balance. If you are showing too much your pacing is going to be slow as mud. Thanks for keeping literature alive in the video game era! I have heard many times that "Gen Z" is getting back to the literary arts. I hope so!

[@alexandra.v]

Well, I consider myself as a late Gen Z person and I really appreciate good books. I want to read some deeper literature than I read before. I simply love how this man expresses himself, he really loves literature and I want more of him. I also wanted to write a book but I gave up because it is too time-consuming and the subject is quite irrelevant.

[@MikeWiest]

I don’t know if TS Eliot is a bad person, but Prufrock seems about as good as a poem can get to me. And with a straight face you said your favorite authors are all Pisces…even if born under a different sign! 😂 Not intending to be a jerk-I enjoy your videos!

[@susanfrierson5573]

The best way to read Proust is just to open it to a random page, and read a paragraph. It’s always perfect.

[@BenjaminMcEvoy]

I completely agree with you there, Susan. His passages are like little journeys, or paintings, even pieces of music in miniature rendered in prose. Opening to any page randomly is such a joy :)

[@brennancarter7721]

Reading Nietzsche is a particular pleasure of mine. Reading him requires multiple reads.

[@BenjaminMcEvoy]

You're so right, Brennan. He needs to be a lifelong companion!

[@DressyCrooner]

@@BenjaminMcEvoy I am so happy I discovered him as a 13-year-old. He has been my faithful companion these many years.

[@damianbylightning6823]

But Nietzsche isn't necessarily difficult. Understanding certain things does require deep study and lots of thought and rereads, but all that is a pleasure - he is a very clear and often captivating writer. Your average reader can engage with him - and scuttle off for further reading on specific matters - was Nietzsche a Stoic/why was he opposed to the Stoics? What is he saying about free will and does that make him a determinist - if not, why not? These are issues that undergrad level students should not struggle with. His writing is always clear. Sometimes people need to be told the obvious before they see it - such as humour in Nietzsche, but they are able to spot it once they're told about it. I never spotted much of the humour until it was pointed out to me. His camp followers have been difficult, charmless and total bastards though.

[@dylanmcdermott1110]

Where should I start?

[@ipshitajee]

Thank God someone well read finally said Shakespeare is difficult to read! I feel dumb all the time .

[@BenjaminMcEvoy]

Incredibly difficult! If you're reading him, he's for you though - so you're definitely not dumb, my friend!

[@markjacobs509]

I thought similarly, then I joined the 2020 Shakespeare Project that tackled all of his works, a week per work, in less than a year. After a few plays, you reach a point where you get accustomed to the language and style, then it gets easier and you can consider the depth and breadth of his work. I also reached a point where the plays became repetitive, particularly in literary devices and plot. As a Yank, what I find difficult in Shakespeare’s Histories is the references to the same character by his family name or his estate name, particularly as the estate names change depending on either inheritance or a change in which faction controls the kingdom.

[@aamnainfebruary]

No Fear Shakespeare by Sparknotes is the key

[@leoquesto9183]

Hang in there. One way to approach his works is to become immersed in the smallest morsel that catches your interest, a fragment as small as a sentence (or two), and familiarize yourself with its parts, live with them. Take your time. There’s no rush. It will speed up as you go. If you do this repeatedly, your capacity for learning the shapes and content of the Bard’s word puzzles will come and begin to feel natural to you. Soon you will absorb an enormous amount in the way of his elastic toying with syntax, meaning and cadence. It will come to you. Keep at it and you’ll notice that your ability to anticipate his rhythms, schemes, and shapes will be met with amazement and surprise in the amount of variability he tucks into them. It’s alien for a short time only. It will come. I hope this helps.

[@scandalfrb4154]

I realize this doesn't work for everyone since not everyone wants to act, but getting cast in a Shakespeare changed everything. First rehearsal where we were on our feet (I didn't happen at the table read) was like visceral click for me from struggling to getting it.

[@philipdubuque9596]

Borges was once asked who he thought was the greatest among the English authors. His reply, "Joseph Conrad". "But Conrad was Russian." "No he wasn't". "Well, what about Shakespeare?" "Far too German; all those bombastic metaphors!" Enjoyed your presentation very much. I've even subscribed.

[@luisortega4991]

I thought Conrad was Polish

[@alit6968]

@@luisortega4991 Conrad was Polish ,his really name is Joseph Conrad Korzeniowski.

[@floriandiazpesantes573]

Thank you for this video, Ben. One of the many interesting thoughts you shared stood out to me because it happened to me, long before I knew you and most likely before you even had read your first word. In the 70ties for the first time I read H. Manns two volumes of Henri Quatre. (Montaigne appears in there and showed his kind character and free spirit) . Ever since I’d see Catherine Medici, her face half covered by a curtain looking down from one of the upper windows of the Louvre when I walked by. These books! One really lives in them. Fairly voluminous but towards the end one wishes he’d go on and on.

[@garagegeek4863]

This is so amazing. So glad I found you. The advice you give to slow down and reread is important. I don’t often revisit texts because there are so many to read, but that is problematic since many great works demand rereading.

[@johnwade7430]

One of the hardest novels I read was ‘Cancer Ward’ by Solzhenitsyn. I attempted it a few times and had to give up … I eventually completed it on my 3rd attempt. An amazing read.

[@vivianblack2951]

now try August 1914 yikes

[@angeshtuto]

This excerpt by T.S. Eliot was in Jordan Peterson's TED Talk titled Potential. "We shall not cease from exploration And the end of all our exploring Will be to arrive where we started And know the place for the first time"

[@BenjaminMcEvoy]

Nice :)

[@EcopiuM]

Peterson is a flop

[@DressyCrooner]

Four Quartets.

[@noahroad6577]

You are such an amazing Soul. It’s almost like you’re a literary Rabbi. I’m such a fan. Thank you for what you do with your time.

[@BenjaminMcEvoy]

Wow, thank you so much, Noah. I really appreciate you being here 🙏

[@Daniel-wi6sk]

I’m French and an absolute lover of Proust. You talked about satire in Swift, but satire also plays a very important part in Proust books : he’s a very acute observer of the way people behave, interact, speak, and he never hesitates in pushing these features to their limits and make fun of it. Yes, Proust is also very funny. He is a master of pastiche, imitating perfectly indiosyncrasies of various levels of speech, from aristocratic to universitarian and from bourgeois to popular. On another note, I am convinced that one can be a very bad guy, including on a moral point of view, and also a great writer. Case in point for me in 20th century French literature : Céline.

[@charlestwombly3241]

Joyce's FINNEGANS WAKE is a challenge for anyone.

[@detroxphen2422]

Rayuela by Julio Cortázar is definitely a demanding book as well. So many references, so long sentences and lots of metaphors. Freaking love it.

[@danielcastillomolero4253]

I'm just reading Rayuela now. I am a native Spanish speaker and wonder how is it possible to translate into other languages. Are you reading It It English? Must be a real chalkenge.

[@ignacio27]

@@danielcastillomolero4253 Fue traducida al inglés como ‘Hopscotch’ por Gregory Rabassa, mismo hombre que hizo la traducción de Cien Años de Soledad que el mismo García Márquez reconoció como "superior" a la original. Su versión de Rayuela ganó un premio

[@TheWaxlemon]

recently read bestiary and fell in love with this guy

[@davidcopson5800]

That book had me jumping around all over the place, especially over chalk lines on the pavement.

[@juancarlosmendozajuarez3539]

A recommendation for this section: The Uruguayan writer Juan Carlos Onetti. Very good stories, tremendous novellas. Difficult but very rewarding. Bonus: Felisberto Hernández's short stories (Uruguayan, as well)

[@The.Ghost.of.Tom.Joad.]

I agree with most of your list. Most hard-to-read books end up being gems when you crack them. Often, you just need a Rosetta stone. For instance, I had a hip young lit professor at Ohio State. She likened *Ulysees* to a series of Monty Python skits, and read some passages to show the humor. That allowed me to work through it... and actually "get" it. I was only twenty, and probably knew less than 1% of Joyce's references... and yet I read it and understood the story... and laughed. That said, there are many hard books to read. For my money, the best contemporary ones that take serious work are Pynchon, Umberto Eco, and David Foster Wallace. I also loved *JR* by William Gaddis, which took me several dozen stabs before I could get past past the first chapter. It was hilarious, told in "stream of audition..." No thoughts, no stage direction, no description, just dialog that you had to piece together into a story. Also, I've recently added *Lincoln in the Bardo* to my list of favorite books, and it's quite hard to read, As to philosophers, why stop at Aristotle? Many, such as Kant, Spinoza, Hobbes, Locke, Nietzche, Spencer, Hegel, Wittgenstein, etc. can be impenetrable after a few pages. Even the "worldly philosophers," AKA the classical economists like Smith and Marx, can be hard to read. Oh, and then there are the *Upanishads.* Brilliant, thought provkoing, and hard to understand. And much of the Buddhistic Pali canon, hard to read because it's often dull and repetitive, yet absolutely structured and coherent once you begin practicing Buddhism. Oh, and Jung. And the *Masks of God* books by Joseph Campbell. And *The Ecology of Freedom* by Murray Bookchin/ Etc, etc. I often hated these books. And yet, I'm glad I took the time to read them.

[@petermladinic8249]

You're very welcome, Benjamin. All your videos look interesting. Newly subscribed, I hope to view as many as I can. Thank you for taking the time to make them, and, in my opinion, by making the world a more literate, better place. A 74 year old American, my favorite poet is Philip Larkin; my favorite novelist is Barbara Pym. Shakespeare is the best!

[@thebiblepriest4950]

I am happy to announce that after fifty years of trying de rigeur, I have finished Proust's A la recherche du temps perdu, during the pandemic quarantine. I trod onwards with determination, though frequently tempted to despair. But then I reached the scene where the Baron is denounced by his protegé, the young pianist. Wow! I didn't see that coming! Three or four of the major characters experience character development in that scene. For hundreds of pages the the Baron appeared as a talkative boor, but suddenly he is silenced in the face of slander, and at last the Queen of Naples, his cousin, returns for her fan, sizes up the situation and leads him away on her arm. What a narrative tour de force! So the hard books do give good payback, n'est ce pas?

[@khadimndiaye7730]

Proust, Shakespeare, Thomas Mann, Kafka, Goethe are the most difficult I’ve read so far.

[@khadimndiaye7730]

Got to add Platon

[@brileyvandyke5792]

Gustave Flaubert’s Madame Bovary had a profound effect upon me, and Shakespeare is a titan of the literature in the English language.

[@Langermar]

Icelandic sagas are pure headache. They get quite simple and comfy to read ones you get used to their manner of storytelling and learn a bit of viking age history and culture, but before that they are extreamely hard, because the're nothing like our modern (XVIII-XXI) literature. Lots of genealogy, lack of descriptions, sudden poetry in the middle of prose. And, in contrary to most of modern literature, they almost never tell you what all the characters are thinking or feeling - you have to interprete it yourself. And in order to do it correctly you have to know their time. But somehow at the same time it's really relieving: no one tells you what to feel or think either. Author does not exist, there is just a reader and a good story. Saga of Egil Skallagrimsson is one of the best, I think. Also, Russian medieval chronicles are fun as well ("Повесть Временных Лет" in particular). They are complete opposite of Icelandic sagas, but hard to read too. Because usually they don't really tell you what happened, instead they tell you what a chronicler thought about it and compared it to. There are so many references, it's like reading a real story told by combining all kind of memes, 70% of which you don't know. Chronicles never get easier. But the brilliant thing is each time you re-read them, you find something you overlooked and had no clue it's there.

[@nct948]

seems very puzzling. It reminds me of the way stories were told in the very early Middle Ages in France.

[@dylanmcdermott1110]

​@@nct948 I'm growing curious about Norwegian and Old Norse literature.

[@rozaganser3016]

Thank you for your channel. I finally have somewhere to go and hear about my favourite books. I appreciate your insight and presentation.

[@BenjaminMcEvoy]

Aw, thank you, Roza. I really appreciate that, and I'm so happy you're here with me :)

[@normative]

We tapped out in the early 20th century, it seems. I’d add Pynchon, David Foster Wallace, William Gaddis, some of Bill Burroughs.

[@andreshombriamate745]

I´ve been reading Borges since the seventies and since then hearing people that is a difficult writer, and I think there is a certain misunderstanding about it. The problem is that new readers are in general misguided. They read firstly ·The Aleph" or "The Circular Ruins", because are considered his masterpieces and not "Death and the Compass" or "Emma Zunz" that, in a first reading, are just (great) crime short-stories. In this realm (short-stories in general), which is my favourite genre, try to read Felisberto Hernández (I think that some of his stories are translated as "Piano Stories") or, if you are looking for something really different, read Clarice Lispector´s "Complete Stories". Strange but immensly rewarding is Juan Rulfo´s "Pedro Páramo" , in my opinion the best novel written in Spanish in the 20th century. To conclude this short review of Spanish -Portuguese strange modern (great) litterature, my last advice is Pessoa´s "The Book of Disquiet", but this one is quite famous and probably you´ve already read it.

[@ademcarroll7928]

surely the author's name isn't being pronounced properly in this video? That doesn't invalidate the amateur (meant in the positive sense) reflections on his work.

[@andreshombriamate745]

@@ademcarroll7928 Excue me, but my commentary didn, t make any reference to the pronounciation of the name (of Borges, I presume). In fact, the sound of this "g" in Spanish (my mother-language) is gutural, like the letter "χ" in Greek, but what I consider a misunderstanding is the confusion between Borges´best tales, and best tales to begin with. I only tried to recommend reading first his stories which can be considerd "genre litterature" to continue afterwards with those that can considered more "philosophical". Reading Borges in this order,I wouldn´t say that he is an easy author, but i don´t believe it´s an extremely difficult one.

[@burmataskforce307]

You are correct, I was referring to the pronunciation in the original KZbin and defer to your knowledge of Spanish, and don't contest your earlier points, only wanted to express surprise to hear Borges rhyme with "gorgeous." Yes am intrigued by Pessoa. By the way, I will take this opportunity to ask, do you recommend Cervantes? If so, are any of the translations acceptable?

[@andreshombriamate745]

@@burmataskforce307 Obviously "Don Quixot" and also the collection called "Novelas ejemplares", twelve "nouvelles" which cover a large catalogue of models of the period , from strange adventures to picaresque , with a parodical one whose characters are dogs and another which, I think, has the first gipsy main character in the Spanish litterature. But I can´ t help you about translations. I´m Spanish, so I read Cervantes in Spanish. Surprisingly, my edition of the "Novelas ejemplares" is (very well) prefaced by an English professor at Magdalen College, Harry Sieber, but, as far as I know, he hasn´t produced any English translation of them. Sorry

[@ImranSahir1]

Hi, I have come back to this as I do with a lot of your videos. I just wanted to say that as a non-native speaker of English I find Ulysses to be simply unreadable. It's one of the books that I want to read so badly but so far, I think, I have gone all armoured up at it for more than a dozen times but I put my guard down after a few pages as it is notoriously difficult. Over the years, I have realized that my language has improved quite a bit and an indication of it is that I can now read and enjoy books like Gibbon's history of Rome; and the only work by Shakespeare that I have read so far is his comedy "Love's Labour's Lost" and I enjoyed it to the bits. But just can't seem to get my way with Ulysses. Perhaps I need to read more before I am able to have another crack at it.

[@josephgrinton841]

I found Love's Labour's Lost to be one of Shakespeare's most difficult plays and I'm a native speaker who taught English literature in a grammar school for some years. I've read it three times and watched a DVD of a performance at The Globe but I still feel there is much in it that I've not understood. I definitely didn't laugh. I never managed to finish Ulysses either. I think I threw it away. I can no longer find it on my bookshelves.

[@xenocrates2559]

My favorite difficult author is Plotinus (I feel OK bringing him to the conversation because you mentioned Plato). Reading Plotinus is kind of like reading Plato, but without the characters and narrative that Plato uses. Additionally, a lot of Plotinus is clarifying his own understanding from that of other contemporaries who might be Stoics or Aristotelians; if you don't know the nature of the ancient debate it can be difficult to follow. But there are times when Plotinus's writings soar into celestial realms that usually only poets access and when that happens it makes the effort of reading him completely worthwhile; it offers the reader a glimpse of eternity. For that reason, Plotinus is an author I regularly reread. // Thanks for the video.

[@eugeneylliez829]

I couldn't agree more on Plotinus. And I highly recommand _The Divine Names_ by (pseudo) Dionysius the Areopagite, because it is a good "sequel" of that glimpse of eternity. A unique difficult but magnificent book.

[@michaelkingsbury4305]

Tristram Shandy is a trip down in 18th century lane and a postmodern novel 4Runner. It's a little difficult until you get used to the 18th century language, it's also hilarious and makes one think about the construct of the novel as was before him and has become in our modern day.

[@thedativecase9733]

I couldn't get to grips with Tristram Shandy until BBC Radio 3 did a dramatisation- which was brilliant. I got my (stolen) copy of the book down off the shelf and metaphorically gobbled it up. It's now one of my favourite novels. Sometimes you just need a way in to a "difficult" or "boring" book.

[@nct948]

I remember attempting to read this book when I left France , and after a few weeks of efforts, I started to get the feel of the style and enjoyed the novel greatly

[@bad-girlbex3791]

That black page...can only imagine what readers of the time thought about it, lol.

[@anngreen3495]

I started reading Faulkner when I was 15, and still binge on him now, 51 years later. "As I Lay Dying" and "The Sound and the Fury" are dearest to my heart. The latter appears on many lists like yours.

[@Alexander-tj2dn]

Boring

[@jgirlLVR]

@@Alexander-tj2dn Thou hast spoken.

[@Alexander-tj2dn]

@@jgirlLVR ha, ha

[@annasillanpaa1111]

Thank You for the channel! Great to see someone so enthusiastic about litterature which I also love.

[@BenjaminMcEvoy]

Thank you, Anna :) I really appreciate that!

[@markblechner3836]

Dear Ben, First off, thank you for your wonderful online discussions of literature. You led me to reread The Brothers Karamazov, this time in the Pevear and Volokhonsky translation, which I found to be a thrilling experience, five decades after reading the Constance Garnett version. One question which you may be able to answer: Father Zosima wrote, according to Garnett: "Fathers and Teachers, what is hell? I maintain that it is the suffering of being unable to love." It was my favorite passage in the book, and I quoted it often. But the P&V translation has it as: "Fathers and Teachers, what is hell? I maintain that it is the suffering of being no longer able to love." - which is quite a different kettle of suffering. Do you know which is more accurate to the original Russian? In this lecture on difficult books, you say, “I don’t believe that Freud is particularly comforting or even has any sort of utility in understanding psychology.” I can agree about Freud is not necessarily comforting; he prided himself in presenting uncomfortable ideas and facts. I cannot agree with you that he has no utility in understanding psychology. I was startled by a one-line dismissal of his work. My view is that Freud addressed some of the most profound and fundamental questions of human psychology, such as: How do we form unconscious scripts about how life goes, and how do those scripts reappear repeatedly in our lives? Can we alter those scripts and alter them, and, if so, how? What is the connection between love and sexuality, and how are they linked or unlinked? What is the experience of losing someone precious? What is mourning, and how does it help us get over loss? When and how does mourning fail? How do our emotions direct our lives, and how do they interact with conscious thoughts? Is it possible to have unconscious emotions, and if so, how can we become aware of them? What is the nature of memory? How much do our memories get revised over time? How do future experiences retranscribe earlier memories? We spend a third of our lives sleeping, and there is much mentation going on during that time in the form of dreams. What is the significance for our psychology of all those nighttime dreamthoughts? There are many more questions. Many of Freud’s answers to these questions appear to us today to be wrong or incomplete, but they are nevertheless essential to psychology. In my psychoanalytic practice, I see evidence every day of the ways Freud’s questions were fundamental to human psychology, even when I come to quite different conclusions than he. I wish I had time to organize a reading group like yours, on Freud’s writing, to give people an appreciation of the scope and richness of Freud’s ideas, as well as an understanding of the ways, over the last 100 years, we have come to reassess both the ways that his writings were prescient or wrong. Mark Blechner

[@JC-xq2ec]

Now that I've dipped my heel in your channel, I'm ready to dive in! Thanks. And you're amazing! I have listened to but a few of your podcasts but I want to mention a difficult writer to me: Umberto Eco. Yes, The Name of the Rose is pretty accessible, especially to a Baker Street Irregular and linuaphile. However, I went through one page of one of his books and marked the (translated) words I didn't know. There were 400. I have an extensive vocabulary and can figure my way through most romance language-rooted words. Also, I taught vocabulary enrichment for standardized test prep to HS students and graduate school students (and teachers (for the Miller's Analogy test)). Conclusion: I'm no slouch. I can read Italian but basically at a Mickey Mouse comic book level. So, Umberto Eco, what say you? Grazie mille!

[@paBinabiv22]

I wrote the same. I'm dealing right now with The Prague cemetery.

[@wordswordswords8203]

I found it helped to take a class when I was reading difficult books. In college I had a couple of Shakespear classes and wound up reading a good portion of his plays and sonnets. I enjoyed it and understood it quite well thanks to an excellent teacher. Not sure if it would have gone as well without that guide.

[@paullyman6832]

Mason & Dixon by Thomas Pynchon is my favorite book so far (23y/o). I’m looking forward to my re-read as well as my re-read of Gravity’s Rainbow also by Pynchon. Both considering pretty difficult but I found M&D much easier for a first reading once you pick up the unique syntax that Pynchon employs. It honestly adds to the enjoyability and allows for some puns that could otherwise never be pulled off. Gravity’s Rainbow totally lost me at times but took the advice of those who read before me and stuck it out like a rocket ride; I am amazed it was written and am looking forward to future re readings.

[@The.Ghost.of.Tom.Joad.]

Pynchon is great. And *Mason & Dixon* one of his funniest, yet hardest-to-read books due to the 18th-centruy diction.

[@michaelkingsbury4305]

I love parts of gravity's rainbow, and the German rocketry nerd stuff. But I didn't find coherent and never saw any reason to actually finish it. The Crying of Lot 49 is wonderful.

[@The.Ghost.of.Tom.Joad.]

@@michaelkingsbury4305 I've read everything Pynchon. Love *Lot 49* too, though it's so short I call it "Pynchon Lite." And I used to class *Gravity's Rainbow* in my faves, due to its nightmare take on war. It's worth reading. It sends up every flavor of warmonger, from Fascists to Stalinists to sedate UK neoliberal to American cowboy-style jingoes. However, I just read it again and found the main character Tyrone Slothrop's pedophilic tendencies a bit over much so I'm reconsidering. Plus, there's another side-plot segment, where the Nazis manipulate a scientist's love for his daughter and tie that to his sexual arousal in a very, very creepy way. I'm sure this is all done to expose the psychological manipulations that both experienced at the hands of their governments, as both were abused in the name of "science" and their nations. But knowing what I do now about the prevalence of actual pedophilia in the real world* and the damage it inflicts on innocent children, who are so easily coerced, I'm no longer certain it was a wise artistic choice. Understandable intellectually, but it seems like self-absorbed intellectual grandstanding now, trying to be "transgressive" and anti-authoritarian without regards to the real-world consequences. Needless to say, I'm reevaluating. *(Clarification: I mean REAL child abuse, not fantastical Q-Anon bullshit)

[@AdamKyles]

I'm not a big fan of Pynchon. I'm pretty surprised he wasn't mentioned in the video. I have read Gravity's Rainbow (and several of his other books), and there are amazing bits. There are frankly revolting bits. There are bits that are just weird and almost incomprehensible. It's also thick enough to beat someone to death with. I'm glad I read it and I'm very happy I will never have to read it again, because he seems to be one of those authors who writes in order to irritate readers. Don't get me wrong though: Parts of his work are brilliant. I avoided Mason & Dixon because I heard it's one of his worst books. He likes to over-do everything. That's the best way to describe his work. He loves going to extremes.

[@AdamKyles]

@@The.Ghost.of.Tom.Joad. I think he likes going to extremes in order to shock reads. I've found a lot of his novels slightly creepy in regard to sexuality.

[@taker68]

William Faulkner was tough, I gave up half way thru a single chapter. I have Tolstoy and Joyce on my shelf for years but keep putting them off for fear of how difficult they will be. Shakespeare isn't a problem, I have a complete works with citations so if a line is hard to understand, it's usually translated below.

[@jackking2225]

I was expecting the list to include writers like Milton ( I never read him - he seems to be the bane of English majors ). I only read excerpts from Don Quixote which was dense but surprisingly hilarious - this was in high school before I had a more developed sense of satire. I've always found it interesting and surprising to find out what people from other countries read and find difficult or challenging. I've met Germans who were quite impressed that I read so much of Kafka who didn't seem challenging at all to me. They think of Kafka as incredibly existential and cerebral. Quite a few French people grow up reading Proust - it's sounds like it's kind of a young French person's awakening as a teenager to discover him. There's a great movie called "Murmur of the Heart" where the young French protagonist is kind of thunderstruck by Proust and is constantly sticking his head in Proust books whenever he is overwhelmed growing up. His older brothers are kind of roguish - they set him up in a scene where he loses his virginity and it becomes a big joke to them - even his father is in on the joke. Proust is his refuge. German kids are pretty well versed in Shakespeare - lot of it has to do with how good the translator is. It's kind of ironic that a German romantic writer ( Tieck ) is probably best known as being the definitive transistor of Shakespeare. In a very Germanic way I've heard Germans actually claim that Shakespeare is one of their own. They practically consider him German, not English!

[@BenjaminMcEvoy]

Ah, funny you mention Milton - I've literally just picked up a new edition of his poems. Like all the main epic writers (Homer, Virgil, Dante), he is difficult - but the rewards are in proportion to his difficulty if you bring yourself fully to him. Surprisingly hilarious - yes, that's absolutely how I felt when I first read DQ!! amazing, that such a classic has such power to make me laugh. That is SO interesting about Shakespeare in German. I've heard he translates well into German, but had no idea that Germans are claiming him. Hey, fair enough! The language of Shakespeare, English itself, is deeply indebted to its German linguistic parents!!

[@nuckygulliver9607]

The German psyche would have a hard time with Kafka because his work deals with the absurdity of authoritarianism. Perhaps Kafka will hit home harder to you now depending where you live since covid has turned a lot of systems into a type of fascism. Our premier in Ontario tried to make an edict where we weren't allowed to leave our houses. The police force actually refused to take it that far. I don't have 'papers' that would allow me to go yo restaurants but I know some restaurants that will 'pretend' to see the covid pass. We have to put the mask on only until we get to the table. Covid doesn't affect people that are sitting! The scientific facts are different depending which media you're exposed to. The majority prefers the science from media that is literally sponsored by Phizer telling them they MUST force everyone to vaccinate even though the CDC claims the vaccinations don't prevent transmission. I haven't seen a smile for a year and. half because people put masks over their mouthes, often driving alone or even jogging. Our culture has become Kafkaesque, so people that buy into all the absurdity will have a psychological awakening reading his work. Germany is a leader in this absurdity so the Kafkaesque elements didn't disappear after the war. They didn't teach the war in history class to Germans and even banned the depiction of a swastika. Their attitude is repressive so reading Kafka, they wouldn't relate to K, but relate to the absurd community that is bound to absurd rules that seem designed to beat the spirit down. There's no logical argument that will convince people that the 'science' doesn't talk and tell us to set up authoritarian systems that tell us all small businesses are dangerous to keep open. Even opening the small business to sell merchandise on Amazon or Facebook marketplace is illegal. We are living in kafka's nightmare. Reading him we can recognize our current world. If you relate to K, Kafka is easy to read but if you relate to all the other characters Kafka would possibly have a profound psychological effect.

[@nuckygulliver9607]

if Don Quixote was difficult you probably were reading a difficult to read translation. Some translations ruin some of the humour, which would take away something, making it more difficult.

[@LisaOfTroy]

Hehe a pisces here! For me, I love Four Quartets by Eliot. In fact, I have a first edition currently sitting on my shelf. I love hearing those poems and thinking about my place in life. However, I am not aware of Eliot's school of literary thought. Currently, I am going through Yale's Introduction to Literary Theory so perhaps it will be covered in the last half of the class. Perhaps you can shed some light on what Eliot's literary theories were. I know that he said that poetry should be difficult.

[@acustomer7216]

I'm so grateful to my mother for encouraging me to read and once I read all the Nancy Drew books she gave me Jane Eyre & a dictionary. Then Dickens with a caution that he was wordy because it was the style of writing in his day. She was indifferent to Austen but I'm not! I cant think about Shakespeare without a smile after reading James Thurber's short story The Macbeth Murder Mystery

[@geraldricoguevara3340]

First Time in more than a decade? hearing someone mention Nancy Drew. My Bother and I were also loved the series so much too! Thanks for mentioning

[@stjudeprayer7]

Thank you for telling of a Macbeth Thurber work .... must now search for it.

[@godehardbrysch7905]

Good morning Benjamin, greetings from Germany, near Cologne. Once again a great competent anaylsis, I do not say this because I intend to be polite, it's a fact. I'm a passionate reader of novels, I speak English and French, however, the passé simple is a bit tricky. Indeed, James Joyce is really difficult. Shakespeare's plays often have annotations that help a lot. But there are two simple plays: Julius Caesar and Romeo and Juliet. In general his comedies are more difficult than his tragedies, with the exception of "As you like it". Difficult: Tolkien - The Semaraillion. Germany: Thomas Mann: Doktor Faustus, even Hesse: Das Glasperlenspiel. The British and Irish are on the other hand masters of narration. The most difficult novel in my life: Faulkner: Absolom, Absolom - I had to stop it, which I considered as a personal defeat. - wish you all the best .

[@rutolteanu3828]

I recently read Cervantes The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha and I find it very difficult to follow and to understand. I really appreciate your podcasts and generally what you do. Thank you a lot. I wish I have "meet" you earlier but I guess it's better late then never.:))

[@BenjaminMcEvoy]

Choosing the right translation of Cervantes is extremely important. There are dozens of popular translations and they all differ wildly - with many of them being awful. I first started with the Motteaux translation and had to give up on the book. It was unreadable. Then I found the Rutherford translation and fell in love and laughed out loud! It was a whole new experience and became one of my favourite novels of all time. Rutherford and Grossman are the translations to choose :) Thank you for your kind words, I'm so happy you're enjoying the show!!

[@rutolteanu3828]

@@BenjaminMcEvoy The thing is English is my second language and I tried to read it in romanian which is my native language.

[@BenjaminMcEvoy]

@@rutolteanu3828 Impressive stuff!! I love Romania btw :) great country.

[@LornaLens]

Benjamin, thank you for these videos. So helpful and insightful. Your voice is so good you could read a book; audible should call.

[@BenjaminMcEvoy]

Thank you so much, Lorna :) That is so kind of you! It's actually a little dream of mine to do narrations for my favourite novels, short stories, and poems. So hopefully some day! 😊

[@JungleDjinn]

A difficult series was Steven Erikson's Malazan Book of the Fallen decology, each volume being a thick tome, with most being over 1000 pages (well over 3 millions words in the entire series) in standard paper back form. The difficulty is not the length - that actually makes it pleasurable as I didn't want the story to end! - but the fact that the story launches into its full complexity of plot and extraordinary characters (many many characters) without first spoon feeding the reader with any handy world building. Of great assistance to the author in this stupendous undertaking was drawing on his knowledge of legends acquired from his expertise as an anthropologist and archeologist. I read the first four or five volumes before the various backstories embedded in these volumes threw enough light to fully illuminate the first volume, with this process rolling through succeeding volumes. The richly textured and layered story unfolds in multiple continents and realms, and the numerous plot elements and extremely varied backgrounds and backstories of the main characters in this enormous tale jump back and forth across time, geography and realms, with it all coming together at the end (although leaving it open for numerous prequels and side stories). I adore the complexity of this story, and re-reading earlier volumes numerous times to clarify plot and character developments was a real pleasure as each reading yielded more meaning to, and information about, this wonderful literary layer cake.

[@Barnes-ml9wg]

I just finished Malazan last month along with a few of the side novels....it's definitely not for the faint of heart. I would recommend John Gwynne to you. I am reading the Faithful and the Fallen series right now and it is probably my top 5 fantasy series I have ever read

[@nct948]

seems fascinating indeed. Tempted!

[@JohnKaman]

You discuss your favorite writers I think, not just the most difficult. I would add to your list Marquez and Rushdie but any such list contains huge omissions. I enjoyed what you have to say.

[@stevebrown6623]

I'm tempted to say Dickens will reward you as endlessly as Shakespeare.

[@Hanakochan10]

one of the first things I tried to read when I got into reading again as an adult was "notes from the underground" by dostoevsky, and even though it was short and now I can read dostoevsky fine (tho I never finished that one), I felt genuinely dumb trying to read it because I kept having to go back to understand what he was talking about or I'd just space out during the longer monologue sections lmao

[@MaximilliansHammer]

In college (not as an assignment but in an anthology I was reading for pleasure) I read Donald Barthelme's "The School". What I didn't know then was that short story may have been the only accessible thing he ever wrote. I hunted down and read Snow White and one of his short story collections and had no idea what the fuck was going on. Had a similar reaction to Flann O'Brien's The Third Policeman. I can do Tolstoy and Melville and Proust all day long. They're a different kind of difficult. They demand (and ultimately reward) your careful attention. The Post-Modernists seem to be speaking some alien language. I feel like they require an entirely different mode of thought such that you are trying less to understand them than to synch up with their vibes in some ethereal way. I can now sometimes feel Barthelme even when I fail to really understand him.

[@lusinemelikyanloretsyan3072]

One of my greatest reading challenges was "The Waste Land" by T.S.Elliot. But when I finally managed to get through ,it came as a great revelation to me

[@MicahMicahel]

I have to return to George Macdonald's Lilith. i was too busy and abandoned it but it really stayed in my mind. It's a long fairy tale. Difficult read somehow... it was so dense, almost like biblical writings maybe.

[@lindastansbury2067]

Your mention of Aristotle reminded me of Chrysippus and how unfortunate it is that so very little of his prolific work has survived. I just discovered you this evening. You’re a fascinating speaker and I’m excited to explore all of your videos.

[@laurag.6843]

Homer's great work was always difficult, but also rewarding for me to read because of his lentghy descriptions.

[@benscraftymusings]

i agree with you about the waste land, but four quartets to me is a work of absolute genius

[@brendamckay2618]

How about George Eliot? I find her a tremendous writer-difficult for some to get into perhaps, but immensely rewarding once you get drawn into her world. I think Virginia Woolf’s short essay on Eliot in THE COMMON READER (1919) is still one of the best: a subtle & penetrating assessment. And talking of ‘nice people’, there are few writers with more empathy & magnanimity.

[@BenjaminMcEvoy]

Great essay. Woolf's essay on the Brontës joins this as one of my favourites. George Eliot is tremendously difficult, but I've always personally taken to her very well. I feel her to be something of a kindred spirit. But cognitively challenging. I timed my reading speed of Eliot vs Dickens, and found the author of Middlemarch to require twice as long per page!

[@brendamckay2618]

@@BenjaminMcEvoy -I must say, I’ve not found George Eliot difficult to read. Unfortunately, some of her other work gets neglected because of the emphasis on MIDDLEMARCH. Personally my favourite is THE MILL ON THE FLOSS. Thanks so much for your wonderfully stimulating posts. I too have just discovered you!

[@BenjaminMcEvoy]

@@brendamckay2618 I'm rereading The Mill on the Floss at the moment. You're so right, it gets unfairly overshadowed by Middlemarch. I love it! And thank you for the kind words, Brenda :)

[@gloriastroedecke2717]

I love The Mill On the Floss. I am a Scorpio and the water images and emotional overload is part of my interior waterscape.

[@nvccru]

I discovered Jon Fosse when his A New Name was put on the Booker International Prize long list this year. I read it and didn’t get it. The key was to read the first two books in the Septology first. Then I reread A New Name, and wow! He comes out of Joyce, whom I like, finished Ulysses, drowned in Finnegan’s Wake. But I think he goes beyond Joyce. After all the three volumes of Septology are one sentence. For me it also includes the greatest love story I’ve read. My top choice for this topic is Septology.

[@stefan3876]

Great observation! I am blown by the depth of your perspective on the mentioned writers and their books! Thank goodness I came across your Channel. Thank you so much for such an impressive video❤😊😊

[@BenjaminMcEvoy]

Thank you very much :) That's so kind of you to say! I'm happy to have you here :)

[@stefan3876]

@@BenjaminMcEvoy My pleasure!!🤗 Please keep them coming. Will look forward for more such thought provoking content from you. 😊😊

[@danilotsar]

When I had to read Ana Karenjina in highschool, I had to write all the characters and all their relations to eachother in a notebook, I think I ended up with 8 pages of characters.

[@nct948]

I did something similar with 'War and Peace'. The list got so long, it put me off the book (that was a long time ago though, lol)

[@studleytrey]

This was interesting. I enjoy listening to you speak on these in such a natural, conversational, and seemingly unscripted manner. I especially enjoyed the little "nice or not" tangent, and am unfamiliar with the T.S. Eliot criticism that you found troubling-could possibly be an interesting topic for another video.

[@ShunyamNiketana]

One dilemma I face is whether to keep slogging and rereading or let the difficult book go and read two others that are less difficult and more rewarding. And if we need a reader's guide, whether the annotated edition or an actual professor, then, again, how much a masterpiece can it be? That doesn't mean I prefer genre novels or simplistic weaves. Subtlety and poignancy, engaging characters and beautiful prose all count for a lot. Certain novels must be read during a certain time in one's life, and if the zeitgeist has passed, then it's hard to connect with them, again or at all. I'm sure we've all had that experience: 'How on earth did I find this so engrossing forty years ago?' Duh. I've started A Tale of Two Cities a few times and stopped because I can't picture the scenes. My intuition says to read on to allow the characters and conflicts, etc., to clarify themselves, but I find I'd rather move deeply into something that I can follow. La vida es corta. On the other hand, I'm about 200 pages into The Devils (Dostoyevsky, in case you don't know), and though I find the minutia about characters and verbosity of dialogue tedious, I'm fascinated enough to continue. Plus, I know that it is going to materialize into a commentary on utopian politics, and I look forward to holding up a mirror to the present day. Garcia Marquez is lovely to read, but sometimes the style outstrips the development of characters. Autumn of the Patriarch, for instance, insists that we read it slowly, which is fine, but, as the CW coach says, keep the story moving forward. Style is not a character. It's not hard to "follow" so much as unrewarding after a while, like too many stuffed dumplings. Hamlet is great. It's the one play I know pretty well, though it was a long time before someone explained the Fortinbras thread, the relationship between Hamlet's father and Fortinbras's. Finally, the very end of the play--after the murder-suicide--makes sense. My own sense of Shakespeare is that, unless I have a Freudian mindset, he is very often making sexual puns and allusions: 'Tis a consummation devoutly to be wished.' Indeed? Oh. Borges should be pronounced with an h-like 'g': BORE-hays. No pun intended.

[@fouquetduplessis4380]

As French, I agree with your point of view. Proust is generally considered as one of the most difficult French writers to read because of his style, which implies to read slowly each sentence to understand what he is describing ! But Proust's masterpiece is so original and I would say almost poetic. Thanks for your video (I think I'm going to discover other great American writers) Long live to books ;)

[@BenjaminMcEvoy]

How do you think the English translation compares with the French original (if you've read both)? Proust, along with Hugo and Rimbaud, are strong motivators for myself learning the language some day. And thank you for your kind words :)

[@fouquetduplessis4380]

​@@BenjaminMcEvoy Sorry, I've never read translations of Proust, or French writers more generally. If you want to discover French, I think you can read Hugo's poetry (he could be easier to understand than Rimbaud who used words that he created himself) or Stendhal's novels : The Red and the Black, "La Chartreuse de Parme" (I didn't find the translation of title in English x) ). Stendhal essentially wrote on love, ambition and power of young men in a simple style ;)

[@Alexander-tj2dn]

almost?

[@nct948]

@@BenjaminMcEvoy I would also suggest Flaubert, who crafted his prose with great care - and Antoine de Saint-Exupery 'Vol de Nuit' ou 'Terre des hommes', sympathetically and poetically written.

[@mjjoseph1853]

@@fouquetduplessis4380 "La Chartreuse de Parme" is translated into English as "The Charterhouse of Parma". Charterhouse is not a common word in the English language.

[@DamnableReverend]

I'd be interested if one day you decide to do a video about Eliot and his brand of criticism specifically, and its possible negative effects on scholarship, if you stll think this way.

[@paulalittle8251]

Difficult read but rewarding. The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner

[@BenjaminMcEvoy]

Faulkner is very difficult! I'm currently rereading As I Lay Dying and enjoying the challenge!

[@annetteholman2999]

Faulkner is one of my favorite American writers but I find him difficult too. ..

[@carrollwilliams8861]

I struggle with Faulkner. Glad I'm not alone.

[@annetteholman2999]

@@BenjaminMcEvoyEstablishing chronology in THE SOUND AND THE FURY is a Sisyphean task because it is seen through the eyes of Benjy who is an "idiot" and doesn't perceive the passage if time as others do. By anchoring the narrative to the presence of a particular servant one can identify the generation and deternine whether it is in the present or the past. Faulkner's writing is so powerful and characters are suffering so beautifully and monumentally, deciphering the tale is well worth the effort.

[@annetteholman2999]

@@davidcadwallader434 You've inspired me to read ABSALOM, ABSALOM again! I'm glad to know people still read Faulkner.

[@jorgesuarez7073]

Very nice comments. I am from Argentina. Borges is difficult to pronounce in English. The correct pronunciation is Borhess.

[@ValkyriaStars]

Pisces here :-) Working my way through the Russian Classics, they've been a revelation. Your videos are wonderful.

[@BenjaminMcEvoy]

Yes!! Another pisces :) Thank you for watching, and so glad to hear you've been enjoying the Russians. Any particular favourites so far?

[@ValkyriaStars]

Currently finishing the Brothers Karamazov after enjoying War and Peace. Next up I think will be Gogol. I've been collecting the Everyman editions too. They look amazing for the price.

[@dreiserrules9414]

Wonderful content. You have a truly admirably vast command of the most of the finest of literature. I and my wife are catching up on your voluminous output. Yet--what are these allusions to astrology? It puts me off. Not, sir, to the point of evading your content, not in the slightest. Your overwhelming command of the greatest in literature will always be held in my highest esteem. Yet, to mention astrology is, I hope, as if to imperfect your otherwise stellar analyses, as in medieval's "Pearl," with its crack in the verse center. No worries: I am an ardent fan after some ten viewings.

[@stevendavis1940]

Well said. I agree with most of it. You might have pushed me to read Borges. Faulkner is a hobby of mine. He can be wonderful and challenging.

[@joebeamish]

I also think Dickens' books (though great) are among the most difficult because of the sentimental parts, which can be very tedious, but worth slogging through so you can get to the next good part.

[@moniqueheubel8970]

I totally agree

[@AthenianStranger]

This comment includes my best effort to offer advice regarding how to begin reading Shakespeare and as an addendum, Les Misérables: First: Shakespeare Watching the BBC's Shakespeare productions *with subtitles on* is how I finally "cracked" reading Shakespeare. The ability to see the play while simultaneously reading the subtitles gave me the grounding of how my brain should "hear" the prosody and poetic meter, especially the cadences of the blank verse, and those BBC performances provided my mind's eye a visual setting and images of the various actors and that really helped me get over the initial language hurdle and from there I was able to "read" Shakespeare and delve deeper into all his delicious word play and endlessly layered allusions & metaphors. For the latter task I recommend any heavily annotated anthology (my personal favorite and the one I give a copy of to each of my students is The Complete Signet Classic Shakespeare edited and annotated by Sylvan Barnet published by Harcourt Brace Javonovich ~1972--just look for the big orange book--you can pick up an excellent used copy for around $5). I particularly recommend the latter edition because it's large size allows for the text to be formatted properly without being crammed with premature line breaks and each play comes with a thorough, scholarly, easy to understand introduction by Sylvan Barnet. If you're desperate to appreciate Shakespeare but have tried and tried (and tried again) give the above BBC plays (with subtitles on) a try then get ahold of "the big orange book." If you're an Audible subscriber, several of Shakespeare's major works including Hamlet, Macbeth, Julius Caesar, King Lear, and Othello have an annotated recording available through Audible called "Smart Pass Production" which helped me make the transition from watching Shakespeare via BBC to listening to him with the helpful stage note annotations as a bridge to just reading him in silence. The nice thing about those Smart Pass productions is each of them actually contain over seven hours of audio because each recording features the audio annotated performance and then directly following you can listen to the same exact play without any editorial or annotated commentary. Good luck to all those who have spent years feeling inadequate--I was you (and believe me when I happily admit I still am). Shakespeare's reward is not in the end but in the journey so read slow and Google every reference you don't understand and in a single anthology of plays and poems you have for yourself what Bloom called "a bookish adventure." Second: Les Misérables While Shakespeare is certainly a literary treasure trove and linguistic cornucopia and I certainly wouldn't wish to live in a world without his works, however, the Audible narration by George Guidall of Julie Rose's translation of Les Misérables so utterly &fundamentally affected me that I actually quit my career in sales and became a public school teacher (and never looked back). I keep a copy of the book with me at all times as a talisman and credit Victor Hugo with my now having taught over a thousand students. Guidall's audio narration eliminates the language barrier posed by so many French words and you are free to simply enjoy this capacious epic book and marvel at the peculiar & mercurial genius of Victor Hugo. (To understand what I mean by peculiar Google Hugo's ink drawings--more haunting than anything by Doré or Blake.) As a final note: I never watched the recent musical film version (because it absolutely butchers the story) but there is a very well-made BBC miniseries of Les Misérables starring Dominic West and adapted for the screen by Anthony Davies which is pretty faithful to Hugo's book and it's my go-to recommendation for students or others who are having a difficult time getting past all the French names. Again, good luck friends ✌️.

[@davidlee6720]

Do you ever feel a strange yearning for the great literature to be written in the future which you will never be able to read? Perusing all of the Past Masters as well your own contemporaries can be an overwhelming task and can take you away from your own work besides. I actually prefer short stories which gives me the free time to create not only my own shorter fiction but also preferentially to indulge in the plastic arts that I love. It is just finding time for everything! Keep up the good work. Read the first part of Don Quixote by the way, and now, after ten years have passed, it might just be the right time for me to finish!

[@demos.darkenburg]

Speak to us of Shakespeare in details. This is all I need these days❤

[@simoocean5284]

I came by your channel and immediately subscribed. I like how you talk about classics ( as a classics nerd), I hope you make a video about Dante's Inferno and Shakespeare's Anthony and Cleopatra

[@BenjaminMcEvoy]

Thank you for watching :) I have plans to do both of those masterpieces!

[@simoocean5284]

@@BenjaminMcEvoy I hope you do it very soon because I need them for my second semester exams

[@rssreader7352]

I suggest watching plays. At least first. It means less work for your brain to interpret what is happening and the intention of the dialogue, if you can see the situation it is in, and you don't have to think through stage directions. Drawback is that they usually speak the words fast. There is a torrent with all of Shakespeare's plays done by the BBC. I've come to love audiobooks as they make it less work to read as they know who is speaking and the tone etc upfront (whereas with reading often it is the "" said ). Drawback is that there is possibility of hearing just someone's interpretation. It also means I 'read' during chores etc, and helps me get to sleep. I've gotten through many more books than I could have than with actual reading.

[@arijitbanerjee9008]

Hi Benjamin, I stumbled across your channel yesterday, and I absolutely loved the content. All the videos that I have watched so far were very good. I especially loved the ones on Dickens and Tolstoy. Keep up the great work buddy. :) :)

[@BenjaminMcEvoy]

Hi Arijit :) Thank you so much, my friend. You have made my day. I'm so happy to have great lovers of literature like yourself here with me! Dickens and Tolstoy both hold a special place in my heart, so we'll definitely have more content on them in the near future!

[@johntyndall1373]

Benjamin, one of my favourite difficult authors is Marie-Claire Blais, specifically her series Soifs. The first book is translated as These Festive Nights. Each novel is one paragraph featuring some very long sentences. I always read them aloud which makes the music of the words come to the fore. I have just begun to watch and to listen to your videos and will continue to do so from now on.

[@hfjdksalable]

The more i think about this subject, the more subjective it feels. I feel like half the battle is connecting with the authors groove. Krasznahorkai is notoriously demanding be it works for me. I’ve never heard that about cortazar but he was super difficult for me to get through. Both super rewarding authors.

[@katekcampbell]

Cortazar for sure. I have (hopefully temporarily) given up on Hopscotch.

[@davidcopson5800]

Krasznahorkai needs to discover sentences. They are NOT ten pages long!

[@fatemaalbalooshi1980]

What I am to express has nothing to do with religious believes: once I read this note on my class black board written by a one of the professors, a comment, “ two of the greatest books I ever read are Shakespeare and the Quraan”. He was not a Moslem. And since you wanted to know of another book that is as demanding as Shakespeare, I would say that I have been reading the Quraan all of my life, I still find it very demanding and each and every time it is like reading it for the first time. The analogies and the metaphors are breathtaking. Thank you again and again for your fantastic presentations 🙏🏻

[@craigkovach8475]

Stream of consciousness writers are difficult for my Libra brain that craves clarity above all else in a writing style. In Dubliners Joyce proved he can write with magnificent clarity. In all his other work he proved he didn't want to. Difficult.

[@joebeamish]

My favorite (somewhat) difficult writer is Henry Green. He's very poetic. At times, it would be fair to label his work "mannered" (particularly the novel, Living) but usually his approach -- which he calls "oblique" -- is well worth reading.