I just finished Natsume Soseki’s Gubijinso and it was pretty hard, but that made finishing it even more worth it. I want to find something else that’s not an easy read, so I was wondering what the most difficult novel everyone has read is! If you know what JLPT Level it is, that’d be great too.
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You can check here: [https://learnnatively.com/resources/search/?min=41&jlpt=n1+&sort=level_desc](https://learnnatively.com/resources/search/?min=41&jlpt=n1+&sort=level_desc)
I would say, either [Kajiri Kamui Kagura](https://vndb.org/v5844) or [Hanachirutani Sanjinkou](https://vndb.org/v7661). As for JPLT level, these pieces are much more difficult than N1.
[小倉百人一首](http://www.manabu-oshieru.com/hyakunin.html)
Really, anything written in classical literary Japanese. I’m only singling that one out because it’s the only one I’ve read in full as opposed to just excerpts.
As for the level, it would be above N1, unless my assumption that N1 doesn’t fully cover 古文 happens to be false. I don’t study for the JLPT specifically; I just recall seeing somewhere that it introduces stuff with classical roots in the grammar.
(Generic, but) probably something like 三島由紀夫 or 太宰治 stuff. Also some stereotypical “difficult” vns.
Read anything you want, reading something because its said to be hard is usually dumb. JLPT level is fake.
I need to go through it again now that I am N1+ – but “Umineko no Naku Koro ni”. Was working my way up to Dies irae, but got sidetracked by a lot of other stuff. I cannot focus on long passages at work and it still takes me about a minute or two to read a page of a novel – so I’ve been actually just reading the Kingdom Hearts 2 novels for fun. Still making my way through Kuma Kuma Kuma Bear – which is about as long as Umineko… three months of on and off reading is not enough for me to get through it lol.
Nihon Shoki and Kojiki. Absolutely difficult.
Youjo Senki by far, I don’t even know half the military vocab I got from it in English
1Q84
Not so much difficult as long. It’s like 2,400 pages.
Not Murakami’s best work, either.
Whatever that’s written by non-natives who’ve just begun learning the language with grammatical and spelling errors. It’s always a brain-twister trying to decypher what they wanted to say.
Jokes aside, I’ve read some old novels such as “Ukigumo” by Shimei Futabatei, as these are usually rendered in historical kana orthography. Let’s say you know the word for butterfly in Japanese is 蝶々/ちょうちょう (chōchō). In historical kana orthography, it’s てふてふ, but it’s not pronounced “tefutefu”.
敗戦後論 by Kato Norihiro. Some revisionist Japanese history, pretty gruelling stuff
装甲悪鬼村正 dies irae and some三島由紀夫 books like 太陽と鉄 若きサムライのために because they really touch on the philosophical aspect while being hard vocab wise
If we’re not talking about literature, then medical journals for sure. There is lots of specialized jargon that you need to learn, and it even helped to reinforce my general knowledge of the subject.
books by “Seishi Yokomizo” are very difficult..at least for me