I read the Project Gutenberg version, on my computer. That may have been part of it: reading on my computer just didn’t give them a chance. But I’ve read other things on my computer and not minded (all of Age of Innocence and I loved that book!). I wonder if the translator would have made a difference. I’ll revisit Turgenev again but not right now!

I’ve just discovered LibriVox. A very nice option! Maybe I’ll try listening to Turgenev.

In general, I’ve decided that I enjoy listening to some of these “classics” because they make more sense to me. Odd, since I usually think I learn with my eyes, not my ears. But a good reader for an audio book will do the difficult work of parsing the sentence and getting the phrasing right. It makes it easier to understand.

Of course, you can’t study the writing itself because it is hard to go back and re-read. SO when I really get into HTR&W, I’ll have to read the books, not just listen to them.