[Daithi]

In regards to simpler, I'd point to Steinbeck -- think Of Mice and Men. It is written in the same language we use in conversation. This applies to the dialog, the internal thoughts of characters, and descriptions of the scenes. A smart 12-year-old wouldn't have a problem reading it. Even Grapes of Wrath is an easy read even though it is a lot longer.

Contrast this with Faulkner's Sound and Fury. The story begins through the eyes of a mentally handicapped man who doesn't process time in the same manner as normal people. The author also likes to use the "stream of consciousness" technique of showing thoughts, feeling, memories, etc., and this is bizarre when you are in the head of someone who is mentally handicapped and already distorts the concept of time. Faulkner also has a tendency to use language that is full of similes and metaphors and isn't always straightforward. It is a far more difficult book than Steinbeck's books.

Even Edgar Allan Poe is more difficult than the likes of Steinbeck and Hemingway. Poe has the ability to use language to set a mood that is down right terrifying, but getting through the language can make the stories harder to read if you don't have a solid vocabulary (I really like them though).

Actually, pretty much any author over 150 years old is more difficult to read. Anything by Shakespeare, The Faerie Queene by Edmund Spenser, Clarissa by Samuel Richardson, A Tale of a Tub by Jonathan Swift. Even Dickens, Hugo, and Dumas are difficult to read because the language is different from modern usage, and the sentence structure tends to be long and elaborate.

I find it easier to lose myself in a story if I don't have to struggle with the language or have to struggle trying to figure the plot. I like to just get lost in a story, to become the protagonist. These must be simpler stories in terms of language and style, but they can still be profound works of art.