5 Classic Novels You Need To Try To Read Again

If you tried to read Moby Dick, or Slaughterhouse-Five, and thought these books were "boring," you're wrong. The classic novels discussed here have reputations for being slogs to read, or difficult to get into, but the truth is, each earned its reputation as a literary classic. Maybe we can convince you to give at least one of them another shot.

Sometimes we're not ready for a book the first time we check it out. It needs to sit on our shelves, or languish on our Kindles, for years, decades even, before the time is right.

Hopefully, we can convince some of you to return to a book you judged too quickly and give it the old college try once again.

5 Vladimir Nabokov’s "Pale Fire"

The Author's Ambitious Follow-Up To His Infamous Novel Lolita

Nabokov is best known for his controversial book Lolita; Pale Fire is his follow-up, and it is just as artistically challenging as its predecessor, though without a story that is meant to upset readers. What the two have in common are arguably the two most perfectly executed unreliable narrators in fiction.

This is part of what makes Pale Fire such a head-scratcher, especially for younger readers. You can't totally trust a word the narrator says. The other thing that throws inexperienced readers for a loop is the book's unusual structure: it unfolds as a poem by one fictional author, John Shade, and annotations from another, Charles Kinbote.

Readers shouldn't go into Pale Fire expecting a page-turner, or anything conventional. Yet if you appreciate ambiguity, and experimentation, and if you're prepared for a puzzle, Pale Fire is a novel worth giving a shot. Though his legacy is dominated by the discourse surrounding Lolita, on a page-by-page basis, Nabokov operates at a high level.

4 Fyodor Dostoevsky’s "Crime And Punishment"

If You Revist One Russian Classic, Make It This One

Fydor Dostoevsky is one of those titans of literature whose significance is becoming increasingly oblique to the average person with time. The author was active in the mid-19th century; for contemporary readers, something written in the 1800s is practically as alien as a text from Ancient Greece. Different translations of his work can also be more prohibitive than others.

Yet there are perennial themes that make Crime and Punishment a classic worth returning to. It is among literature's peak depictions of guilt, right up there with Poe's "Tell-Tale Heart." Yet while Poe's short story was almost a proto-genre story, Dostoevsky's work is marked by its unparalleled psychological realism. Crime and Punishment perfectly exemplifies this.

At its core, Crime and Punishment is the story of a murder and its aftermath. Dostoevsky's prose remains remarkable for how it takes readers inside its guilty protagonist Rashkolnikov's mind as he struggles with the moral implications of his violence. The novel set the tone for 20th century crime fiction, making it a must-read for fans of the genre.

3 Herman Melville’s "Moby Dick"

The Early Prototype For The "Great American Novel"

Moby Dick isn't as hard to read as its reputation suggests, but it is hard to get through from start to finish. Starting with "Call me Ishmael,' its famous opening line, the novel has plenty of great bits of prose, a cast of memorable characters, and a story that has become a mythic archetype in modern American storytelling.

It also has a lot of highly technical sections that blur the line between fiction and non-fiction. This is a style that author Herman Melville pioneered, which remains popular among contemporary authors. However, because Moby Dick was published 175 years ago, it is increasingly difficult for readers today to relate to.

Yet if you look at those parts of the book as cultural artifacts, rather than entertainment, you'll find you have a much deeper appreciation for the book. At the same time, Moby Dick's characters and story still resonate to this day; if the "boring" parts keep you from engaging with that, you know it is okay to skip those chapters.

2 George Orwell’s "1984"

The Prototypical Dystopian Novel

Orwell's 1984 is, sadly, more relevant than ever. The story of an authoritarian government that weaponizes truth and falsehood with equal force was a product of its time when it was published in 1949, and it was also wildly prescient. That is, its dystopian view of where the world could be headed has been validated in some unnerving ways over the ensuing 7+ decades.

1984 is the kind of book that readers might initially disregard because of the idiosyncratic lingo Orwell uses throughout, which in itself is a forerunner to a beloved modern sci-fi technique. Still, as readers develop a greater understanding of the context in which 1984 was written, and of its continued relevance, it becomes a much more appealing read.

1984 is an intellectually frightening book. It reaches a disturbing emotional apex toward the end, when protagonist Winston Smith is broken by "the Party," but much of the novel is at its most meaningful when readers have a sense of the way Orwell is reflecting urgent real-world concerns in his text.

1 Kurt Vonnegut’s "Slaughterhouse-Five"

An Iconic Novel That Deserves Your Attention

Slaughterhouse-Five is anything but boring. Simply put, if you thought it was, you weren't ready for it. The book blends early sci-fi with stealth autobiography. It is a mix of low comedy and high drama. It boasts an innovative take on time travel, some of the weirdest aliens in fiction, and also its share of scatological humor.

Kurt Vonnegut's most famous novel is the definition of a book that you should give a chance if you tried it once before but didn't really appreciate it. It's a poignant romp through space and time which meditates on war, death, fate, and free will. It is also relatively easy to read, once you can wrap your head around its unconventional ideas.

Like all the books listed here, Slaughterhouse-Five is a product of another time, which can be a barrier to entry for some readers. Don't let it be. Navigate the parts that don't strike a chord with you, so that you can find the ones you do. Because Slaughterhouse-Five is full of them, and so is Moby Dick, and so is Crime and Punishment.