How to read a difficult novel

You’re stuck with a difficult novel, either because you wish to improve yourself or because your university or school requires you to read it? Follow these tips to get to grips with it!

When reading classical literature, it’s often the casethat a particular text may feel impenetrable. The language may be old-fashioned, the syntax complex, or it may be particularly heavy onrhetorical devices which might make it difficult for you to understand. Perhapseven the subject matter feels completely remote and boring to you.

The thing is, you know that you probably should read them, or if not, they’re almost always part of the required reading at school or university. Whether Joyce’s Ulysses, Faulkner’s The Sound and the Fury or Woolf’sMrs Dalloway, you’re sure to struggle at some point in your life.

But it needn’t be that way. We’ve all been there, and chances are you’ll always stumble across another difficult novel at some point in your life after you’ve completed the one you’re currently brooding over.With the right tips, however, you can at least ensure that you understand mostof it – and perhaps even find it enjoyable.

Prepare the reading

A lot of the authors who wrote the ‘classics’ we read lived in very different times and in very different circumstances. Having but a basic understanding of the cultural context of your novel is therefore very important and may give you a leeway into the novel. Read up on the author on Wikipedia ordo some research on his or her ‘school’ of literature. Historical context is also very important. Knowing a little bit about the psychological aftermath of WWI before tackling Mrs Dalloway, forinstance, can go a long way.

Most importantly, however, read up on the novel itself. Things such as its publication date, its background, how the ideas came about, what the novel’s themes are, can all help. If you don’t mind spoilers too much you might even wish to read a brief synopsis, enabling you to know roughly what’s going on while reading. I probably needn’t mention that this is not a replacement for actually reading it.

Don’t look up every word you don’t understand

Although it may seem counterintuitive to understanding a difficult text, do try to avoid looking up each and every word you don’t understand. It severely breaks the flow of your reading process and may end updemotivating you until you give up. Instead, try to gather its meaning from thecontext of the text, or else just skip it – chances are it’s not that importantin the long run anyway.

However, do look up words which are important – such as when they’re mentioned several times throughout the novel, for instance. If you skip one which turns out to be important later, you can always return to it. But the main thing is to keep yourself motivated and keep going – on firstreading you’re trying to get the wider picture, not the minor details.

Mark important passages

Use either a text marker or, if you don’t want to ruin the book, place small bookmarks (sticky notes are ideal) throughout the novel at locations you wish to reread either because you think they’re important or because you just enjoy them. Even the most difficult classic usually contains at least some passages which speak to you or amuse you and which are well worth re-reading.

That way you’ll also gather a sense of the scope of the book and remember where what happened and when – aside from starting to determine some passages which may be useful in an essay later on. Appreciate the novel for what it is and do this as often as necessary – or as often as you see fit.

Try not to skim the text

Unlike individual words, which you should feel free to skip when necessary, try to avoid doing the same for larger chunks of text. Novels build up, after all, and chances are you’ll want to retain everything to make sure you’re keeping up with the plot, characters, and the underlying subject matter. Skimming the texts means that you risk of missing the juicy bits.

Of course, you may find this difficult at first, especially if you read a particularly difficult text or if you don’t usually read classical novels. If it helps, try doing short bits at one point at a time and then return back after a short break of a few minutes. Nobody will kill you for taking your time with a difficult novel, and if you’re at school chances are you’ll have plenty of time anyway for each text.

it is a particularly difficult text or if you’re not used to reading classical novels. If it helps, try doing short bits at one point at a time and then return back after a short break of a few minutes. Nobody will kill you for taking your time with a difficult novel, and if you’re at school chances are you’ll have plenty of time anyway for each text.

Try to enjoy it

Last – and most important – try to enjoy the text. Treat it like you would any other novel. After all, as works of art they’re primarily meant to be enjoyed, in some form or other. Don’t worry too much about analysing it when reading it for the first time, but just try to flow with the sound of the words, the imagery and the plotline – as a timeless classic, it’s most likely full to the brim with great stuff.

The primary reason you may find yourself not enjoying a novel is because of the archaic language. Even novels written in the early 20thcentury can feel very foreign to us now. But if you stick with it and read it at your leisure – while maintaining an open mind – chances are you’ll grow used to the language and enjoy the novel consequently. What’s even better: the more often you practice, the more likely it is you’ll relish the next novel even more.

Closing thoughts

Of course, there’s never a guarantee you’ll like a novel, even if you do manage to understand everything. It may just not be to your personal taste in terms of writing, or the plot may be too far from your personal experiences for it to speak to you in any way. But by following these tips, you’ll at least have the means at your disposal to approach it.

Did you find these tips helpful? Anything to add? Then please leave a comment. Otherwise, why not share it on social media? Then click on one of the tender buttons below.

Top 10 Horror (or Horror-like) Classics to Read this October

October is here at last! The leaves are taking on beautiful shades of brown, yellow and red. They begin to fall and give you that autumn-smell, reminding you of how gorgeous the world can look even as nature reminds you of decay and death. What better time to read some of the best horror classics literature has to offer?

Although Halloween is a particularly America-focused holiday, there’s something about the time of year which makes it particularly apt to that feeling of desolation, gothic, and uncanniness making you want to read or watch something horrifying – or at least unsettling.

For that reason, I’ve selected 10 of the best horror classics to read or re-read this October. They’re in no particular order since they’re all good, and the selection is based entirely on my own taste, rather than any objective measurement of quality (after all, it’s very subjective).

Why classical horror?

You might be wondering – and rightly so – why I’ve selected almost exclusively writing from the 19th and early 20th centuries, with one exception. The reason is mostly because it’s always nice to go back to the classics to see where the inspiration of contemporary authors came from.

Furthermore, despite their age, all of the entries on this list are still perfectly readable to a contemporary audience. That way they enable you to experience the sense of uneasiness that our ancestors felt themselves. Also, I’m an old-fashioned bore.

Frankenstein

While Mary Shelley’s spouse may be the better poet, she was undeniably the better prose writer, and her Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus from 1818 deserves its place as one of the greatest horror novels of all time. Although it might be very different from what a reader who only knows the movies would expect, it nevertheless represents an eerie exploration of questions about good and evil, life and death, societal issues and the dangers of technological progression.

Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde

Another book which is fundamentally different from all film adaptations, Robert Louis Stevenson’s The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde is rightfully one of the most well-known gothic novellas out there. The story is told from the perspective of a lawyer who investigates the eerie occurrences happening in London in the late 19th century. Capturing an uncanny flair of the unknown, tackling issues of privacy and publicity and good versus evil, this is an excellent read for someone looking for an air of mystery.

Dracula

What a surprise! Another novel which has been turned into many adaptations, but this time with some which are closer to the source material than in the works mentioned above. But its fame is deserved, since Bram Stoker’s Dracula is an excellent piece of eerie writing, capturing succinctly the nature of vampires and establishing many of the common tropes found in contemporary Vampire-laden fiction (sadly usually for worse rather than better). Told in an epistolary manner, it always maintains the sense of horror you’d expect from this classic.

The Turn of the Screw

This one actually isn’t as plagued by film adaptations the same way the previous ones are – except for one, which is quite brilliant. I’ve written several times about this gorgeously eerie and uncanny story on my blog, so I won’t go into too much detail. Featuring a plot set in an isolated old mansion with creepy kids and a possibly insane governess with some ghostly encounters, this novella will send shivers down your spine – quite an accomplishment for Henry James whose plots are often impressionistic and drawn-out.

The Picture of Dorian Gray

One of my favourite horror-like stories of all time, Oscar Wilde’s only novel is a wonderful work asking the readers how far they would go to achieve eternal youth – and thus all the splendours and possibilities for hedonistic action that would entail, making this one of the most contemporarily relevant books on this list. With a focus on pleasure-seeking and implications of saucy action (although it hardly ever becomes too explicit), this book is suspenseful from start to finish and frequently raises issues of beauty, the arts, good and evil, and it contains a plot so ingenious that it makes me envious. Not to mention that Lord Henry is one of the wittiest ‘moral guides’ in a novel to date. It might not be straight-forward horror, but in a society as obsessed with looks and youth as ours, Dorian’s fate is sure to deliver you a sense of dread.

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow

While I’m generally not the biggest fan of Washington Irving, this story of merely 40-or-so pages is a particularly short read which will nevertheless give you plenty of build-up, suspense, and horror. It’s creepy, odd and short. It has also inspired several adaptations (one short by Disney as far as I know, and one full-length feature which is so bad it’s hilarious), making it probably one of the most unusual entries in my list. Certainly well worth a look if you have an hour to kill.

The Haunting of Hill House

Written by Shirley Jackson in 1959, this is the most recent entry on this list. Relying more on a form of psychological terror than classical gothic horror, the plot centres around an eighty-year-old mansion at an unknown location. Exploring the now classical trope of someone exploring supernatural occurrences in a haunted house, it probably inspired a whole range of subsequent books and film adaptations, even if they rarely openly acknowledge the influence. For those seeking a clever book which undermines the poltergeist cliché, this is a great read.

The Phantom of the Opera

Sadly much less known than Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical of the same name, Gaston Leroux’s novel was actually Webber’s inspiration. Written in the early 20th century, it tells the ghostly story of an opera house being haunted by a phantom called… Erik… who has a curious interest in the musical events of the theatre and especially a longing passion for the young soprano Christine Daaé. While I can’t vouch for the French original, the English translation I read was well-written. It has a creepy tone and a decent sense of horror throughout.

Anything by Edgar Allan Poe

I never said this would be a particularly original list! But it’s impossible to make a selection of the best classical horror reads without a reference to Poe. So many poems and short stories of his will make you afraid to go to sleep at night. ‘The Tell-Tale Heart’? A gorgeous account of insanity. ‘The Black Cat’? Beautifully dark and creepy. ‘The Raven’? A lovely eerie poem with one of the best uses of long trochaic lines in all of literature. And all of his writing is perfectly accessible to a contemporary audience. Not all are gothic in nature, but most of them are. All of them are excellently entertaining. His bizarre detective stories starring Auguste Dupin even became the blueprint for master detectives like Sherlock Holmes and Hercule Poirot. For one of the best Poe-experiences, be sure to check out Vincent Price performing ‘The Tell-Tale Heart’!

Anything by H.P. Lovecraft

Probably another obvious choice, Lovecraft’s stories are just… bizarre. Whereas Poe deals with more ‘classical’ horror themes such as isolation or terror, Lovecraft goes into the strange realm. Every story features an exploration of the horror of the unknown, the potential threats that it can entail, and overwhelming otherworldly powers which humans cannot even begin to understand. While I can’t recommend them as wholeheartedly as Poe’s stories (just because he doesn’t write quite as well), they nevertheless ooze brilliance. They’re great because they give you that sense of uncanny uneasiness you feel when confronting things beyond comprehension.

Closing words

This should give you plenty of reading material to get you through the month! Unless you’re a creepily quick reader or have too much time on your hand, I suppose…

But there’s one film which is so ghastly, so horrific that it puts all these horror classics in its shadow. Something so terrible that I cannot even mention it here… I’ll just quietly leave you a link – click if you dare.

Did you enjoy this article? Did I miss something you think I should have included? Then please leave me a beautiful comment so that I can get back to you! Otherwise, if you’d just like to show me your appreciation, please click on one of the tender buttons below. That way you can share it on the social media of your choice. Have a lovely October everyone 🙂