Bagpuss, I confess I've found a few of Dickens' works heavy going, too. I'm not sure why, because I've read a lot of "the classics" including a lot of other authors from the same period, and mostly I can get through the books without too much difficulty (there have been a few exceptions though).

I used to struggle through books because I didn't like to give in, and in a few cases it has paid off - books that took me a while to 'get into' turned out to be some of the best I'd ever read.

But I'm afraid these days, I'm more likely to give up on a book and go onto another one, mainly because I figure what's left of my life is too short to waste reading stuff I have to struggle through. When I was in my 20s, a friend of mine and I worked out we'd never be able to read everything we want to, even if we spent the rest of our lives reading. And now I'm older, I'm even more conscious of the need to be selective. That's not to say I don't spend some of my time reading rubbish though (e.g. newspapers).