Books with only a few characters in

[aromaannie]

I have jusr realised today that the books with only a few main characters in I enjoy far more than books with loads. I think when there are a lot I get them mixed up and have to stop reading and work out who they are. When there are only a few characters I can read from start to finish without having any interuptions trying to work out who is who, who are they related to and how do they fit into the story;)

[happyanddandy]

I have jusr realised today that the books with only a few main characters in I enjoy far more than books with loads. I think when there are a lot I get them mixed up and have to stop reading and work out who they are. When there are only a few characters I can read from start to finish without having any interuptions trying to work out who is who, who are they related to and how do they fit into the story;)

 

 

I think you summed that up very nicely indeed - it made me realise that when I have to check back about stories and characters it IS because there are so many and therefore I would say I enjoy books with 1 or 2 main characters. I have to think of some examples now but my stuffed sinuses are not letting me!!

[~Andrea~]

Just a few main characters yes, but sometimes too few can make a book a little claustrophobic.

 

I think it depends on the book and how the characters are handled.

 

The hobbit has 14 characters on a journey, Bilbo, Gandalf and 12 dwarves plus lotsa characters on the way. Its not too confusing because you can bundle all the dwarves together, and all the charcters they meet on the way are very minor and only in it for a short time.

 

I did lose track of some of the minor characters in the picture of dorian gray though, all the ladies and gentlemen at the dinner parties.

[aromaannie]

An example of a book with loads of characters I struggled with recently is Wicked by Jilly Cooper - I just got them so mixed up. At the beginning of the book is an index of all the characters which does help but this was 4 pages long so it shows you how many characters there were

[Echo]

I can go back and forth on this one. The book I'm currently reading has over 100 speaking parts, which can get confusing, but also makes the book colorful. As long as it's done well, I can manage either type.

[~V~]

An example of a book with loads of characters I struggled with recently is Wicked by Jilly Cooper - I just got them so mixed up. At the beginning of the book is an index of all the characters which does help but this was 4 pages long so it shows you how many characters there were

 

There's a lot of cross-referencing between her books too, I find. Bit of a nuisance if you've not read the book or it was so long ago you've forgotten the characters

 

Ms Cooper, please note, I read stuff other than yours

[angerball]

I think it depends on the size of the book, and the story. I don't mind reading a book filled with a lot of characters, as long as they are quite different from each other and easy to keep track of. I can't recall too many books I have read that have far too many characters. Pandora's Star by Peter Hamilton has quite a few characters, many who pop up once and then disappear for several (long) chapters; that wasn't too hard to keep track of though, as all the characters were listed at the front of the book, so I could flip back if I didn't remember who was who.

 

Also, the names of the characters are important in how easy they are to remember. If it's foreign names, I get utterly confused. When I read Crime and Punishment a few years ago, I got so confused that I had to start over and then keep a written list of all characters and a brief description. Otherwise I would have got completely lost.

[Liz]

I sometimes struggle with books where for the first 6 or more chapters there are whole different sets of characters and settings for each chapter. I'm usually fine once the characters have started to be revisited, but I find that I can get a little confused at the beginning.

[Icecream]

This is an interesting question. I wonder whether the number of characters in a book is my flaw in re-reading. I think it may be part of it.

[Kylie]

Also, the names of the characters are important in how easy they are to remember. If it's foreign names, I get utterly confused. When I read Crime and Punishment a few years ago, I got so confused that I had to start over and then keep a written list of all characters and a brief description. Otherwise I would have got completely lost.

 

I had a hard time with Crime and Punishment too. It wasn't so much because there were a lot of characters but, being Russian, they were all referred to by several different names! Luckily my copy of the book has a list of characters and their alternative names at the beginning so I could just refer back to it.

[samgrosser]

I just gave up on Vanity Fair (I got about half-way) for exactly this reason. There are so many characters in it called Crawley that I just kept losing track of who was who, although other parts of the novel about other characters I really enjoyed. I guess books with a lot of characters need a lot more concentration than ones with a few and I suppose it depends if you think it's worth the effort.

 

Also, it's sometimes easier to engage emotionally with a book where a few characters feature more predominantly, and for me, that's one of the most important aspects of my enjoyment of a novel.

[Kell]

I kind of felt that way about the 5 Bennet sisters in Pride and Prejudice - really ther was only a need for 3: Jane (the eldest, for her storyline), Elizabeth (the heroine) and Lydia (for the part she plays in the Elizabeth/Darcy storyline). The other two were superfluous (in my opinion). I loved the book, but I would have been happier with 2 fewer sisters!

[Maureen]

annie, an excellent observation. I never realised it before actually, but I really agree with you! Sometimes there are so many characters that making head or tail of who's who is really tough!