A slight detour

My challenge changed direction today. 316 pages into Pickwick - 200 more than my cut off - I gave up. There were just too many words; a lengthy paragraph was devoted to every gesture, movement or event . Some were beautifully written, but it was too much. It makes me feel bad to write this - Dickens is one of Britain's finest authors and here I am complaining about his wordiness. Apparently, to keep my attention, the writer needs to get to the point quickly. Has my uncultured inner-self been exposed? Here I am trying to read the top 100 novels and I have slogged through two and given up on the third. But, is it me or is it the novels? I have struggled to find any point of contact with any of the characters and plots of the books. The books have been about men, by men in a time and place I do not inhabit. I tell my students again and again the joy of reading comes with the connections you can make with the story. I have no connections so I have had no joy.

So, a new direction. Firstly, I have changed my list. I am now reading the Modern Library's top 100 novels of the 20th Century. (Marginally closer to the time I am living in). Scanning the list, it again is almost devoid of female authors; Virginia Woolfe is the lone lady in the top 20. This may be another disaster, but I'm going to give it a go. In at 100 is The Magnificent Ambertons, a realist novel about a rich American family losing it all in the wake of the Industrial Revolution. I fear a struggle for connections on this one too and I haven't opened it. Must think positive. And must stick to my 100 page rule. I'd prefer my challenge not to make me feel bad about myself.