Why is it so difficult to read Charles Dickens's books?

I've contemplated this question for quite a while, and I feel it ultimately boils down to three factors: exposure, taste and attention span. When I was around 10, my parents got my brother and myself a library membership. read more

Dickens’s books are actually not difficult: compare him to Tolstoy for example; or even to his own countryman, Thackeray. I am currently reading The History of Pendennis and am about half way through - but it has yet to grab me. read more

"We need to read Dickens's novels," she wrote, "because they tell us, in the grandest way possible, why we are what we are." There it was, like a perfectly formed pearl shucked from the dirty shell of my over-zealous efforts – an explanation so simple and beautiful that only a 15-year-old could have written it. read more