"Great" novels you couldn't finish

Post by **Alex Frakt** » Thu Dec 17, 2009 3:05 pm

The current great books threads got me thinking, what are the great unread novels?

Time to come clean, what (allegedly) great books have you started but never actually made it all the way through? I can slog through just about anything, I read every word of Moby Dick (even the natural history chapters) and Crime and Punishment when I was 12 and have since devoured heavyweights from Eco's Foucault's Pendulum to Pynchon's Mason & Dixon. But even I have been defeated by:

- Atlas Shrugged
- Confederacy of Dunces
- Remains of the Day (I just got bored with this one, it's not in the same class of awfulness as the previous two)

Tall Grass · Post by **Tall Grass** » Thu Dec 17, 2009 3:22 pm

Alex Frakt wrote:The current great books threads got me thinking, what are the great unread novels?

Time to come clean, what (allegedly) great books have you started but never actually made it all the way through? I can slog through just about anything, I read every word of Moby Dick (even the natural history chapters) and Crime and Punishment when I was 12 and have since devoured heavyweights from Eco's Foucault's Pendulum to Pynchon's Mason & Dixon. But even I have been defeated by:

- Atlas Shrugged
- Confederacy of Dunces
- Remains of the Day (I just got bored with this one, it's not in the same class of awfulness as the previous two)

I almost quit with "Pillars of the Earth" by Ken Follett; but I hung in and was very happy I did...a masterpiece.

"Hawaii" by Mitchener was quite tedious...

I can't remember any that I haven't finished, but skimmed quickly through a few.

prh2s · Post by **prh2s** » Thu Dec 17, 2009 3:25 pm

Few people ever attempt Richardson's Clarissa; fewer people finish it. It would be my nominee for the greatest unread novel.

Are you familiar with Henry James's comment about not being able to finish Crime and Punishment? "It nearly finished me," he wrote (IIRC). "It was like having an illness."

Patrick

dbonnett · Post by **dbonnett** » Thu Dec 17, 2009 3:29 pm

Several by Ayn Rand, Ulysses, a few Henry James, and others that made my head hurt.

Polaris · Post by **Polaris** » Thu Dec 17, 2009 3:36 pm

The Last of the Mohicans.

metabasalt · Post by **metabasalt** » Thu Dec 17, 2009 3:49 pm

Marcel Proust's 'Remembrance of Thing Past'. Never got more than 50 pages or so though I had some friends at the time I was reading it who positively loved it.

Anything by Thomas Pynchon. In fact I don't even look at his stuff and a lot of contemporary fiction any more. Maybe he's become more readable, but life is too short for me to investigate.

Those are the only ones that really spring to mind. Apropos of the 100 books thread though I did start 'Finnegan's Wake' and didn't get far. Since I liked 'Ulysses' so much I didn't write it off as overhyped nonsense, but it did cross my mind.... When I retire I might at least pick it up, just out of curiosity.

FamilyMan · Post by **FamilyMan** » Thu Dec 17, 2009 3:57 pm

At the suggestion of "What book are you reading?" thread, I just stopped at lunch to take out "Too big to Fail" by Andrew Sorkin at the library. I was expecting a fairly short book since it is a recent summary of Wall Street downfall last October. The book is almost 400 pages!! I'm already sweating it that I won't be able to finish it in the 2 weeks allotted for new books. Better get started tonight.

gatorking · Post by **gatorking** » Thu Dec 17, 2009 3:58 pm

Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
Ulysses - James Joyce

auntie · Post by **auntie** » Thu Dec 17, 2009 4:02 pm

The Brothers Karamazov

I've tried 5 times, at least. I get so confused I just give up.

chaz · Post by **chaz** » Thu Dec 17, 2009 4:17 pm

Ulysses

Christine_NM · Post by **Christine_NM** » Thu Dec 17, 2009 4:32 pm

I couldn't finish anything by Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged or Fountainhead.

My worst failing in lit (or anywhere else) was a dismal attempt at a presentation of TS Eliot's Four Quartets. A horrible memory that I fear will stay with me all my life. If I get Alzheimer's there will be the bright side of losing that memory.

mephistophles · Post by **mephistophles** » Thu Dec 17, 2009 4:34 pm

Finnegan's Wake was unreadable, on purpose. Don't think anybody ever read it.

Post by **Alex Frakt** » Thu Dec 17, 2009 4:54 pm

Re Ulysses and Proust

I'm pretty sure the only reason they aren't on my list is that I haven't attempted them in the first place.

Never tried Last of the Mohicans or any other Cooper either after reading Mark Twain's hilarious essay "Fenimore Cooper's Literary Offenses".

montesquieu · Post by **montesquieu** » Thu Dec 17, 2009 5:00 pm

Alex Frakt wrote:- Atlas Shrugged
- Confederacy of Dunces
- Remains of the Day (I just got bored with this one, it's not in the same class of awfulness as the previous two)

I can't agree completely - Atlas Shrugged is indeed awful, and Remains of the Day is pretty good. A Confederacy of Dunces is a classic.

AshKK · Post by **AshKK** » Thu Dec 17, 2009 5:03 pm

Of the ones I tried to read:

Godel, Escher and Bach
H.M.S Ulysses

are the two that I can think of that I could not finish. Come to think of it, I should probably start on them again.

livesoft · Post by **livesoft** » Thu Dec 17, 2009 5:05 pm

Not enough bandwidth to list them all in this thread and I am a ravenous reader.

rokid · Post by **rokid** » Thu Dec 17, 2009 5:25 pm

The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann. However, I will finish it some day. It really is a great book.

----Jim

Frobie · Post by **Frobie** » Thu Dec 17, 2009 5:29 pm

The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner.

Actually, though, I did finish it. After I read the last page, I put it down and said out loud (I was living by myself out the time), "I have no idea what that book was about".

To this day I still don't.

danbek · Post by **danbek** » Thu Dec 17, 2009 5:29 pm

Bleak House - Dickens (has some great early scenes, but too slow-moving)

Confederacy Of Dunces - After 25 pages of fart jokes I decided it was unlikely to be worth the effort.

The Captive & The Fugitive - I am a enormous fan of Proust, but I got bogged down early in The Captive & The Fugitive (volume 5 of 6) several years ago. I'm re-reading the series now, we'll see if I get through it this time. I recall having some trouble in the first 50 pages of Swann's Way when I first read it, but kept going due to influence of a very good friend, and all I can say is that the payoff is very much worth it.

Qtman · Post by **Qtman** » Thu Dec 17, 2009 5:36 pm

Not really a novel, but I made it 1/2 way through U.S. Grant's memoirs.

Bulldawg · Post by **Bulldawg** » Thu Dec 17, 2009 5:38 pm

Count me in for not completing " Atlas Shrugged" although I got the gist of Rand's objectivism philosophy....

ryuns · Post by **ryuns** » Thu Dec 17, 2009 5:39 pm

danbek wrote: Confederacy Of Dunces - After 25 pages of fart jokes I decided it was unlikely to be worth the effort.

Only 25? I know you were disappointed with the brevity but I think I still might give a try on the strength of those 25.

sage1166 · Post by **sage1166** » Thu Dec 17, 2009 6:04 pm

Wow, great comments. I'm surprised so many of you have finished Heart of Darkness. I don't know if I could name a tougher reading assignment in high school. Looking back, it's a great story and worth the effort. (In hindsight, I could've just watched Apocalypse Now).

Post by **Alex Frakt** » Thu Dec 17, 2009 6:06 pm

How could I forget?

Dhalgren. Ugh, I thought it was awful from the start, but persevered through over 800 of its 900 pages looking for whatever made William Gibson and Theodore Sturgeon, two of my absolute favorite writers, recommend it so highly.

I finally reached a point where I could take it no more. I skimmed through the rest to see if the ending brought any bit of sense to the thing (it didn't). And then, for the first and so far only time in my life, literally threw the book in a trashcan.

jpsfranks · Post by **jpsfranks** » Thu Dec 17, 2009 6:07 pm

Bulldawg wrote:Count me in for not completing " Atlas Shrugged" although I got the gist of Rand's objectivism philosophy....

It took John Galt like determination, but I managed to get through every word. Personally not a fan of the philosophy, but trying to put that aside it was still some of the most wretched prose I have ever read.

Post by **Alex Frakt** » Thu Dec 17, 2009 6:15 pm

sage1166 wrote:Wow, great comments. I'm surprised so many of you have finished Heart of Darkness. I don't know if I could name a tougher reading assignment in high school. Looking back, it's a great story and worth the effort. (In hindsight, I could've just watched Apocalypse Now).

You were obviously spared Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury and Ellison's Invisible Man. Heart of Darkness is tough, but at least it's short.

sage1166 · Post by **sage1166** » Thu Dec 17, 2009 6:50 pm

You're right, I was spared of those two. Now I know my response when people ask what to get me for Christmas.

hollowcave2 · Post by **hollowcave2** » Thu Dec 17, 2009 6:54 pm

War and Peace
Les Miserables

slick_dealer_05 · Post by **slick_dealer_05** » Thu Dec 17, 2009 6:57 pm

'The Prize' by Daniel Yergin

Its a good read but I got lost in the details of oil history.

nisiprius · Post by **nisiprius** » Thu Dec 17, 2009 7:13 pm

Milton, Paradise Lost.

In 'The Way of All Flesh,' Samuel Butler wrote:He said: "Oh, don't talk about rewards. Look at Milton, who only got five pounds for 'Paradise Lost.'

"And a great deal too much," I rejoined promptly. "I would have given him twice as much myself not to have written it at all."

tj218 · Post by **tj218** » Thu Dec 17, 2009 7:25 pm

A Tale of Two Cities..

sschullo · Post by **sschullo** » Thu Dec 17, 2009 7:25 pm

Anna Karenina
War and Peace
The Old Man and the Sea
The 8th Habit by Stephen Covey, the original 7 habits...were his best.

gkaplan · Post by **gkaplan** » Thu Dec 17, 2009 7:27 pm

My thoughts echo those of Livesoft; however, here's a start:

Heart of Darkness

Brothers Karamozov

The Mystery of Edwin Drood (My mother, a Russian immigrant, once said of Dickens that he'd take two pages to describe a doorknob.)

(I'm still amazed that I made it though As I Lay Dying (Faukner).

Die Hard · Post by **Die Hard** » Thu Dec 17, 2009 7:34 pm

Christine_NM wrote:I couldn't finish anything by Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged or Fountainhead.

My worst failing in lit (or anywhere else) was a dismal attempt at a presentation of TS Eliot's Four Quartets. A horrible memory that I fear will stay with me all my life. If I get Alzheimer's there will be the bright side of losing that memory.

Wow, I'm glad I read this post. I have Atlas Shrugged in my Amazon cart to order. Just curious, why have so many in this post not been able to finish this book. Is it that bad?

epilnk · Post by **epilnk** » Thu Dec 17, 2009 7:37 pm

jpsfranks wrote:
Bulldawg wrote:Count me in for not completing " Atlas Shrugged" although I got the gist of Rand's objectivism philosophy....
It took John Galt like determination, but I managed to get through every word. Personally not a fan of the philosophy, but trying to put that aside it was still some of the most wretched prose I have ever read.

I take exception to Atlas Shrugged since Alex clearly specified great books. Life changing, maybe; great, certainly not. But I would also draw a distinction between "couldn't finish", "wouldn't finish", and "WTF?"

FWIW I read Atlas Shrugged twice, but even though I have clear masochistic tendencies, reading every word would have required a level of fortitude that I don't possess. Even the first time through I didn't do more than skim through that massive 90 page rant near the end. And the second time many of the pages just flew by: ok...got it...already made this point...don't need this...enough already...oh dear, another unfortunate attempt at dialogue...ick, romance!...

Linda

VictoriaF · Post by **VictoriaF** » Thu Dec 17, 2009 7:39 pm

Ulysses.

But I think it is an acquired taste ... like beer.

Victoria

verbose · Post by **verbose** » Thu Dec 17, 2009 8:04 pm

Started, never finished:
Remembrance of Things Past
War and Peace
The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith
The Iliad by Homer
Great Expectations

I did finish Portrait of a Lady by Henry James, but I want to count it here because I loathed it so thoroughly. I had to finish it for a college English class, otherwise I would never have read the whole thing.

LH · Post by LH » Thu Dec 17, 2009 8:13 pm

"great" is subjective, atlas shrugged is one of the best books I have ever read for instance, I would call it a great book. I think 200 years from now, it will still be widely read, if people are free to read what they choose.

Choices, Values and Frames still sits basically completely unread.
Statistics for Dummies, is about 3/4 read.
Histories Herodotus is 3/4 read.
koran - stopped 1/2 through years ago.
Karl Poppers philosophy book, forget which one. stopped it.
Bible reread - have not really started

I read multiple books at same time, usually like 6-7, I will finish histories and statistics at some point.

I usually plow through harder ones, slowly, months to close to a year for some intermittantly.

Histories and the history of the pelopenesian war thucydides, are worth mentioning, I have just realized how long these books have "defeated" me.

It took me 20 years or so to finally be able to read them, every few years I would go, eh, I should try, er what the heck, cannot follow the names, would give up, say maybe later. This past year or so, decided to read them, as I am planning to go to greece at some point. Had to read multiple books, wiki, and such, to be able to know that say laconians, spartans, pelopenesians could be interchangeable. Also, that I think, the ionian sea is to the west of greece, while the ionians where on the now turkish coast, East of Greece, NOT in the ionian sea (i think). Ionians were one of three greek peoples, not referencing the sea. Ionians, the people that were being attacked by the persians, do not live on islands in the ionian sea. they lived on islands and the coast of the meditteranean sea, not the ionian sea, its all very clear. Athens Attica, etc. Multiple that stuff by about a 500. So finally, I read about 3-4 books on ancient greece first, liberally used wikipedia, ancient greek maps, while reading the books, and finally was able to follow what the heck was being talked about. Still have not finished Histories yet, but its not hard really anymore to follow it, with just minimal wiki use. Need to find a good persian history book at some point....

have a nice day,

LH

nisiprius · Post by **nisiprius** » Thu Dec 17, 2009 8:49 pm

gkaplan wrote:The Mystery of Edwin Drood (My mother, a Russian immigrant, once said of Dickens that he'd take two pages to describe a doorknob.)

Well, he was paid by the word.

Melville can be quite wordy, too:

Now look you for'ard on the Pequod, where Queequeg and Stubb sit with yon ill-favored Lascars, worrying at a piece of rope. With what skill do they fashion it into that knot of all knots, the Turks-Head, that tangled complexity of cunning artifice. Yet, mark you, landsman, this knot with its sundry mystifications has no use in the fastenings and attachments. Every sheet-bend, inside-clinch, diamond-knot, double-crown, half-hitch, clove-hitch, blackwall-hitch, and carrick-bend has its place in the regulation of the Pequod. The humblest of the bowlines, stings, dead-eyes, splices, reefs, bends, hitches, knots, grommets, tarpaulins, epidydimides, and seizings, keeps our little world sailing on its appointed course. And yet the Turks-Head, which binds no sail, chocks no reeve, fillets no quoin, braces no cutting-spade, like some rough Kabbalah of the folio Parsees, is the Prince of Knots! Bethink yourself well on it, landsman! Aye, what are your bankers, your stock-brokers, your clergy, your Senators, your professors, your players with railroads, your stackers of wheat, your hog-butchers to the nation, but the Turks-Head Knots of human discourse, while it is the lowest square-knots and sheep-shanks that connect and bind our souls like some fragrant, oleaginous, glutinous, nacreous, viscous antinomian asphodel from the rarest and most prized of the far Barbadoes.

So, did anybody notice that that was phony?

retiredbuthappy · Post by **retiredbuthappy** » Thu Dec 17, 2009 9:02 pm

Just learned this past week that TS Eliot wrote "The four quartets" because he was so moved by Beethoven's quartet Opus 132 and what he percieved as Beethoven's musing on "time". Eliot was hoping to get into poetry what Beethoven achieved in his music. Well the fourth of Eliot's quartets is "Little Gidding" which I'd previously thought was a great poem and Beethoven's late quartets are astoundingly moving so I tried the other 3 of Eliot's quartets....this is my choice for the "great book" I couldn't finish and don't want to.

The one I did finish, but wish I hadn't is the current best seller "Olive Kitteridge" which I could rant about for hours...but it's not a great book, although a Pulitzer winner. What has happened to my country that THIS is a Pulitzer winner!

End of rant, sorry...the Eliot/Beethoven/Little Gidding connection is intriguing though. There was a concert with poetry reading and string quartet last week in NY.

RbH

nisiprius · Post by **nisiprius** » Thu Dec 17, 2009 9:11 pm

The Story of Edgar Sawtelle.

traineeinvestor · Post by **traineeinvestor** » Thu Dec 17, 2009 9:11 pm

I'm a little surprised at some of the books which people have struggled with:

The Prize - Daniel Yurgin : I thought it was great and re-read it during the commodities boom a few years ago for some historical perspective
The Old Man and the Sea - Hemmingway : I actually found this to be one of his more readable books
Great Expectations and A Tale of Two Cities - Dickens : far from his best (IMHO), but still OK reads

I did finish Atlas Shrugged and agree that it was absuolutely awful. There is no chance of me reading any of her other books.

Two novels that I failed to finish:

War and Peace - just about put me off anything by a Russian writer (although I did read The Gulag Archipelago, A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich and some of Nabokov's books)

The Mill on The Floss - far too many pages describing the glories of the beautiful countryside

I could give a long list of truely awful books that I did finsh - but that is another thread

wbond · Post by **wbond** » Thu Dec 17, 2009 9:12 pm

LH wrote:"great" is subjective, atlas shrugged is one of the best books I have ever read for instance, I would call it a great book. I think 200 years from now, it will still be widely read, if people are free to read what they choose.

Choices, Values and Frames still sits basically completely unread.
Statistics for Dummies, is about 3/4 read.
Histories Herodotus is 3/4 read.
koran - stopped 1/2 through years ago.
Karl Poppers philosophy book, forget which one. stopped it.
Bible reread - have not really started

I read multiple books at same time, usually like 6-7, I will finish histories and statistics at some point.

I usually plow through harder ones, slowly, months to close to a year for some intermittantly.

Histories and the history of the pelopenesian war thucydides, are worth mentioning, I have just realized how long these books have "defeated" me.

It took me 20 years or so to finally be able to read them, every few years I would go, eh, I should try, er what the heck, cannot follow the names, would give up, say maybe later. This past year or so, decided to read them, as I am planning to go to greece at some point. Had to read multiple books, wiki, and such, to be able to know that say laconians, spartans, pelopenesians could be interchangeable. Also, that I think, the ionian sea is to the west of greece, while the ionians where on the now turkish coast, East of Greece, NOT in the ionian sea (i think). Ionians were one of three greek peoples, not referencing the sea. Ionians, the people that were being attacked by the persians, do not live on islands in the ionian sea. they lived on islands and the coast of the meditteranean sea, not the ionian sea, its all very clear. Athens Attica, etc. Multiple that stuff by about a 500. So finally, I read about 3-4 books on ancient greece first, liberally used wikipedia, ancient greek maps, while reading the books, and finally was able to follow what the heck was being talked about. Still have not finished Histories yet, but its not hard really anymore to follow it, with just minimal wiki use. Need to find a good persian history book at some point....

have a nice day,

LH

I found that the secret to "finishing" Herodotus is skipping book II.

If you are serious about Thucydides and maps you ought to know about The Landmark Thucydides. The book is beautiful and contains more perfectly helpful maps throughout than you can imagine.

retiredbuthappy · Post by **retiredbuthappy** » Thu Dec 17, 2009 9:12 pm

Nisi,
First I was going to say "look how rhythmical and lyrical Melville's writing is", but then halfway down began to question myself and by the last two lines I didn't think it sounded like Moby Dick. Good post though!
RbH

Levett · Post by **Levett** » Thu Dec 17, 2009 9:16 pm

William Carlos Williams, The Great American Novel.

Bob U.

White Coat Investor · Post by **White Coat Investor** » Thu Dec 17, 2009 9:32 pm

Nearly every textbook I've ever owned.

I'm proud to say I finished the Iliad, but probably shouldn't have. What a waste.

InvestingMom · Post by **InvestingMom** » Thu Dec 17, 2009 9:41 pm

Moby Dick

edit:
Now that I reviewed Alex's other post (British poll of books), add Oliver Twist. I really don't like Dickens.

gkaplan · Post by **gkaplan** » Thu Dec 17, 2009 9:57 pm

I read War and Peace several years ago. Personally, I thought the last one hundred pages or so were superfluous, but who am I to say.

I've also read The Mill on the Floss. I thought it was quite beautiful story telling.

(Edited to change one ... pages to one hundred pages.)

johnoutk · Post by **johnoutk** » Thu Dec 17, 2009 10:22 pm

Have to add Atlas Shrugged as well. Could only read about 20 pages the first time I attempted to read it about 8 years ago. Restarted last year and made it about 350 pages into it and then bogged down. It's still sitting there.

woof755 · Post by **woof755** » Thu Dec 17, 2009 10:32 pm

gatorking wrote:Brave New World - Aldous Huxley

How dare you!!!!!!!!!!!!???????????? 8) This one's in my top 5 of all time!

My failures: Confederacy of Dunces...couldn't believe the accolades and the content...what a disconnect.

Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Horrible.

But Catch 22 was the worst. Was on a car trip from NE Ohio to Oshkosh Wisconsin, and I knew this was a classic, so I kept trying and trying and trying. No luck.

Bogleheads.org

"Great" novels you couldn't finish

"Great" novels you couldn't finish

Re: "Great" novels you couldn't finish

Re: "Great" novels you couldn't finish

unfininished reads

Re: unfininished reads

novels

Re: unfininished reads

Re: "Great" novels you couldn't finish

the four quartets - t s eliot

Re: "Great" novels you couldn't finish

melville