I know that this book is considered one of the greats (if not the greatest), so I've been trying to read it. I am about 30 ish pages in, and am finding the sentence structure so difficult to read. Usually, I have to re-read paragraphs, or even entire pages to understand it a bit better. Even some of the language used feels quite foreign.
So am I just bad at reading, or is this a practise makes perfect situation, so I should just continue reading.
by Informal-Flow477
8 Comments
How old are you and is english you native language?
You should continue reading unless you find it unbearable. No need to torture yourself. You can always come back to it.
Read something else but just keep reading.
It is absolutely a *practice makes perfect* situation.
You are not bad at reading. The book is like 220 years old. People wrote differently then. The fact that you can get thru and reread and realize that you don’t get parts, that means you are a good reader.
It is a matter of patience and, yeah, doing what you are doing. Read it, and if you don’t get it, reread it or look up words.
no its actually kinda hard to read if you’re new to it. you do get used to it throughout the book though and it gets easier to read
For me personally? In absolute despair.
I read a bunch of Austen because my friends kept telling me I’d “definitely love it”. Reading P & P made me wonder if me friends definitely loved me.
Jokes aside – they can be a slog because of the archaic writing style. If you’re determined to finish it, it might be a project read. Something you read one chapter of and spend time making sure you understand it. Like, I will have my phone ready to look up definitions of words etc. I read a lot of classics this way, I got through war and peace this way. And Austen, and the Brontë sisters. Lots of translated ancient stuff too, like The Odyssey and the Iliad.
“Usually, I have to re-read paragraphs, or even entire pages to understand it a bit better.”
there are a lot of great books that i loved that required this same practice. in some cases it gets easier over the course of the book. in others i have to keep doing that throughout. but after a certain point (for me it’s around 80 pages) you decide if you’re getting anything gratifying out of the experience. if so, stick with it.
English is not my first language, so books like Jane Austen’s can be a bit challenging to read.
The best advice i can give you is: read slower than you usually do, with more patience and more focused. You’ll have to reread some paragraphs if you’re not used to it, but don’t try to understand absolutely EVERYTHING in the first read, or you’ll get frustrated. If you understood more or less what she tried to say that paragraph, feel free to move on. After 50-100 pages the sentence structure just starts to clic in your head and you can pick up speed. That worked for me.
I believe in reading for pleasure. If you’re not loving it, put it down.
It’s older language, but it definitely gets easier as you get into a flow. I have to reread sections at times as well, and I have to be pretty active in reading to fully understand what’s going on.
I found that listening to the audiobook a little while after reading it initially helped. Hearing the tones and voices used by the narrator put some things into perspective for me, and chained the sentences in a new way which made things more understandable.