It pays to do a little research into newer translations. With older European novels, many of the English editions you encounter will be 19th- or early-20th-century translations that lack any real attempt at style. They hang around because they're out of copyright and cheap to publish.Scuzz wrote: ↑Fri Sep 06, 2019 6:09 pmI have started The Hunchback of Notre Dame. It will probably take me forever to read the first 100 pages or so. Hopefully by then I will pick up on the language and the story. Whenever I read an older "classic" it always takes me awhile to catch on to the authors use of the language.hitbyambulance wrote: ↑Fri Sep 06, 2019 2:09 pm 75% of the way through _Moby-Dick, or, the Whale_ ... i was super hoping to complete it this week. i'm not rushing it, but i do wish it were over several hundred pages ago - i really do not care to read about whale slaughtering any more. just make the ending 'all these mofos die slowly, agonizingly and horribly' and i'll be good.
i am also going to make the rest of this year the time to complete two of my three unfinished novels (Joyce's _Ulysses_ and Heller's _Catch-22_... Pynchon's _Against the Day_ can wait a while longer). annoying because i have other NEW SHINY UNTOUCHED books gestating on the queue, but i need to focus.
I don't know if Victor Hugo has a high-quality English translator, but I'll bet you can find informative discussions of this online.