 |
| Wait, what does "Her baint coom, Maister Zider-press" mean? |
What is the point of John Ridd riding his cousin Tom's horse and nearly getting killed while doing it? I'm afraid that R.D. Blackmore found far too many side plots than he needed and managed to incorporate every single one of them into this story.
Combine that with the extremely old English and I'm floundering a bit.
When John was fishing in the icy stream and found his way into the Doone valley, I was interested. Those scenes had everything to do with the plot and because I already know some of the story from the film version, I was fascinated at how they were similar and how they differed.
Overall, though, this is one looooooooooong book and I would give anything for those characters with the dialogue I can't understand to just go crawl away into some other story!
As an update, I'm about 110 pages into Lorna Doone and I will persevere, but who knows how long it will take me to finish!
Has anyone ever read Lorna Doone before? What was your impression of it? How long did it take you to read it?
I gave up about 150 pages in.
ReplyDeleteWow, you made it that far! I'm very impressed. I am stubbornly determined to finish, although that could change. We'll see.
DeleteRead it out loud. The weirdo dialect makes more sense that way. Did for me, anyway.
ReplyDeleteOkay, maybe I'll give that a try. I think the use of strong dialect is one reason why I never got past 20 pages of The Last Sin Eater by Francine Rivers. I'm sure it's a brilliant book, but all of that dialect!
DeleteWritten dialect that is difficult to read is one of my major book-related pet peeves. So unnecessary.
DeleteI guess the writer's going for some sort of authenticity. But all it really does is yank the reader out of willful suspension of disbelief because they're trying to decipher the sentence. Bleh! So if I don't finish this book, you'll totally know why!
DeleteI read it once a long time ago, but I think I might have accidentally got a hold of an abridged version the first time. I remember enjoying it, but not much else, so I put it on my Classics Club list as a re-read.
ReplyDeleteAt this point, I'd take an abridged version, I think. Still, I've made it 100 pages in. I should be able to force myself to keep going. If I could just reach the point of losing myself in the story, then it would work. A lot of classics have a rough start for me and then I find a point where it just clicks. Haven't found it yet for Lorna Doone.
DeleteOh yes, it's loooong indeed! I did read it, but maybe the only reason I finished was because I was on a holiday and Lorna Doone was the only book I took along!
ReplyDeleteNow there's an idea! I think if I locked myself away in a cabin or a week without internet and it was the only book I had, then I would finish it. Right now, it's hard because I have so many other books that I'm enjoying!
Delete