# Please recommend some novels based on included criteria **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 12, 2016, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-recommend-some-novels-based-on-included-criteria/754626 "2016-05-12T18:40:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![KidCharlemagne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ed8c4c/32.png) [@KidCharlemagne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KidCharlemagne)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2016, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-recommend-some-novels-based-on-included-criteria/754626/1 "2016-05-12T18:40:10Z")
I’m looking for novels, classic is fine though contemporary is better, with beautiful prose. Not prose like Faulker or McCarthy - I prefer grammatical, highly readable prose that I think “Wow what a beautiful way to say that.” Nice metaphors and keen psychological insights (like Wharton - just finished Age of Innocence) are a plus. The last book I read that fits my criteria is Michael Chabon’s Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Klay. I’ve also read Hilary Mantel if anyone was gonna recommend her. Thanks! ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2016, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-recommend-some-novels-based-on-included-criteria/754626/2 "2016-05-12T19:42:57Z")
You might try the novels of H. Ryder Haggard, such as “She”, “King Solomon’s Mines” and “Allan Quatermain”. The latter is a very early forerunner of Indiana Jones. A quote from “She”: “Ah! how little knowledge does a man acquire in his life. He gathers it up like water, but like water it runs between his fingers, and yet, if his hands be but wet as though with dew, behold a generation of fools call out, ‘See, he is a wise man!’ Is it not so?” From “King Solomon’s Mines”: “It is a hard thing when one has shot sixty-five lions or more, as I have in the course of my life, that the sixty-sixth should chew your leg like a quid of tobacco. It breaks the routine of the thing, and putting other considerations aside, I am an orderly man and don’t like that. This is by the way.” ---
**Author:** ![InsomniaMama](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/ad7895/32.png) [@InsomniaMama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/InsomniaMama)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2016, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-recommend-some-novels-based-on-included-criteria/754626/3 "2016-05-12T20:55:01Z")
Bel Canto ---
**Author:** ![TroutMan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/troutman/32/6721_2.png) [@TroutMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TroutMan)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2016, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-recommend-some-novels-based-on-included-criteria/754626/4 "2016-05-12T21:35:15Z")
Try _[Station Eleven](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/20170404-station-eleven)_ by Emily St. John Mandel. It’s not prose that strikes you immediately as quotable or fraught with meaning, but I found it beautiful in its simplicity. “The night was dark and full of movement, snow falling fast and silent, the cars parked on the street swelling into soft outlines of themselves.” “He found he was a man who repented almost everything, regrets crowding in around him like moths to a light. This was actually the main difference between twenty-one and fifty-one, he decided, the sheer volume of regret.” ---
**Author:** ![SpoilerVirgin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4491bb/32.png) [@SpoilerVirgin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SpoilerVirgin)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2016, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-recommend-some-novels-based-on-included-criteria/754626/5 "2016-05-12T22:52:30Z")
[City of Glass](http://www.amazon.com/City-Glass-New-York-Trilogy/dp/0140097317/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1463093122&sr=8-3&keywords=City+of+Glass) by Paul Auster (actually a trio of three short novels) has the most beautiful prose I’ve ever read. You might also try some E.L. Doctorow – I like [World’s Fair](http://www.amazon.com/Worlds-Fair-Novel-E-L-Doctorow/dp/081297820X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1463093266&sr=8-1&keywords=World%27s+Fair), [Loon Lake](http://www.amazon.com/Loon-Lake-Novel-E-L-Doctorow/dp/0812978218/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1463093287&sr=8-1&keywords=Loon+Lake), and especially [Welcome to Hard Times](http://www.amazon.com/Welcome-Hard-Times-E-L-Doctorow/dp/0812978226/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1463093311&sr=8-1&keywords=Welcome+to+hard+times). I second Bel Canto, and would add [State of Wonder](http://www.amazon.com/State-Wonder-Novel-Ann-Patchett/dp/006204981X/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1463093403&sr=8-3&keywords=Ann+Patchett), also by Ann Patchett. ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2016, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-recommend-some-novels-based-on-included-criteria/754626/6 "2016-05-12T23:06:11Z")
I’m a huge fan of Talbot Mundy, who is a sort of low-calorie Americanized Kipling. He has a wonderful tone, suave and subtle. He is a master of understatement. A good place to start is “Guns of the Gods,” which takes a Kiplingesque setting – India, under a restive Princedom – and develops it with gentle fairness to all sides. In science fiction, take a poke at the “Demon Prince” novels by Jack Vance. You don’t have to read them in their internal order. You could start with book 3, “The Palace of Love,” and I think it would give you more of what you want than any other book in the series. (“The Mad Poet Navarth” is one of Vance’s most wonderful characters!) In classics (free on Project Gutenberg!) you might take a look at A.E.W. Mason, whose “The Four Feathers” is a deeply insightful study of personal character and courage. It’s good enough to have been made into a movie more than once. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2016, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-recommend-some-novels-based-on-included-criteria/754626/7 "2016-05-12T23:59:50Z")
I really liked Lolita. Nabakov, it felt, must have spent an hour carefully crafting each and every sentence. Easy to read\*, don’t get me wrong, but these words didn’t just flow out of his head and onto the paper. \*I mean, other than the subject matter. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2016, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-recommend-some-novels-based-on-included-criteria/754626/8 "2016-05-13T00:02:18Z")
I was also going to recommend most of Nabokov for beautiful, grammatically readable prose, but Lolita also has the advantage of being easy to read. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2016, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-recommend-some-novels-based-on-included-criteria/754626/9 "2016-05-13T00:03:20Z")
> [@Ludovic](#): > > I was also going to recommend most of Nabokov for beautiful, grammatically readable prose, but Lolita also has the advantage of being easy to read. FTR, I loved Lolita, hated Pale Fire. Someday, when I get to the point where I’m re-reading books, Lolita is at the top of that list. I was well into the book when I kinda got over the subject matter and realized how well it was written. I’d like to go back and see if I can appreciate it more. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2016, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-recommend-some-novels-based-on-included-criteria/754626/10 "2016-05-13T00:25:25Z")
> [@KidCharlemagne](#): > > I’m looking for novels, classic is fine though contemporary is better, with beautiful prose. Not prose like Faulker or McCarthy - I prefer grammatical, highly readable prose that I think “Wow what a beautiful way to say that.” Nice metaphors and keen psychological insights (like Wharton - just finished Age of Innocence) are a plus. The last book I read that fits my criteria is Michael Chabon’s Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Klay. I’ve also read Hilary Mantel if anyone was gonna recommend her. Thanks! I recently read **For Whom The Bell Tolls** , and it was beautiful but maybe more McCarthy than you’d like. (Not that I read a lot of hifalutin lit; that may have been my only one for the year). Something I read recently that may qualify: [The Watchmaker of Filigree Street](http://www.amazon.com/Watchmaker-Filigree-Street-Natasha-Pulley/dp/1620408333). It looks at first blush like a bog-standard steampunk in 19th century London, but it’s really not: the magical elements are there, but understated, and it’s gorgeously written, with the focus more on character and mood than on whizbang wowzer. Slightly more fantasy than Kavalier and Klay, but only slightly. If you’ll take more fantasy recommendations, have you read **Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell**? There’s a strong, wonderful voice to that work as well. ---
**Author:** ![Dendarii\_Dame](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bbce88/32.png) [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2016, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-recommend-some-novels-based-on-included-criteria/754626/11 "2016-05-13T00:40:56Z")
**Three Men in a Boat** by Jerome K. Jerome ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2016, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-recommend-some-novels-based-on-included-criteria/754626/12 "2016-05-13T00:44:25Z")
What about the dog? ---
**Author:** ![araminty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b5e925/32.png) [@araminty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/araminty)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2016, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-recommend-some-novels-based-on-included-criteria/754626/13 "2016-05-13T00:46:17Z")
Have you read Watership Down? Although it’s ostensibly about rabbits, I often feel it’s really about summer in the downlands of Hampshire. ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2016, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-recommend-some-novels-based-on-included-criteria/754626/14 "2016-05-13T00:47:14Z")
Guy Gavriel Kay’s _Sailing to Sarantium_ and sequel. Thomas Hardy’s _Far from the Madding Crowd_ Shirley Jackson’s _We Have Always Lived in the Castle_ Willa Cather’s _My Ántonia_ A novella, but if you’ve never read Charles Dickens’s “A Christmas Carol,” it’s a wonderful treat And short stories, but if you’ve never read James Joyce’s _Dubliners_, it’s spectacular. The ending of “The Dead” is, in my opinion, the finest bit of prose I’ve ever read. ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2016, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-recommend-some-novels-based-on-included-criteria/754626/15 "2016-05-13T00:50:22Z")
_Motherless Brooklyn_ by Jonathan Lethem. ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2016, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-recommend-some-novels-based-on-included-criteria/754626/16 "2016-05-13T00:54:47Z")
_Housekeeping_ (1980), by Marilynne Robinson. The prose is gorgeous. ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2016, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-recommend-some-novels-based-on-included-criteria/754626/17 "2016-05-13T00:59:11Z")
I forgot Jonathan Safran Foer’s _Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close_ which has some extraordinarily beautiful prose. It also has some gimmicks that I found distancing. I think it’s very worth reading. ---
**Author:** ![Dendarii\_Dame](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bbce88/32.png) [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2016, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-recommend-some-novels-based-on-included-criteria/754626/18 "2016-05-13T01:03:10Z")
> [@Joey\_P](#): > > What about the dog? Quite right, the book’s full title is Three Men in a Boat, (To Say Nothing of the Dog). ---
**Author:** ![KidCharlemagne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ed8c4c/32.png) [@KidCharlemagne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KidCharlemagne)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2016, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-recommend-some-novels-based-on-included-criteria/754626/19 "2016-05-13T01:32:00Z")
> [@beowulff](#): > > _Motherless Brooklyn_ by Jonathan Lethem. This is on my short list. Just read the first few pages and dig the punchy prose. Think I’ll have to add this to my shorter list. Thanks all and keep them coming! ---
**Author:** ![MacSpon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/34f0e0/32.png) [@MacSpon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MacSpon)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2016, 2:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-recommend-some-novels-based-on-included-criteria/754626/20 "2016-05-13T02:01:09Z")
> [@jsgoddess](#): > > Guy Gavriel Kay’s _Sailing to Sarantium_ and sequel. Second that. In fact, for beautiful writing, anything by Guy Gavriel Kay. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-recommend-some-novels-based-on-included-criteria/754626.md?page=2)