Perfect novels

[Anonymous No.13364837]

What novels are perfect, flawless? I can think of a few perfect poems but perfect novels, being, by nature, a little unwieldy, seem a little harder to come by?

[Anonymous No.13364862]

I thought this was flawless when I read it, but that does not necessarily mean it is my favourite novel, or the the best. I don't know why I think it's 10/10. I haven't sat back and analysed it. But finishing I was filled with the same feeling I get watching a gymnast land something insane. I'd be interested in prying it apart in dialogue with those disagree/agree though.

[Anonymous No.13364865]

An undisputed 10/10 desu senpai

[Anonymous No.13364867]

Hero of our time

[Anonymous No.13365000]

Emma

[Anonymous No.13365009]

Memoirs of Hadrian

[Anonymous No.13365255]

Die Schachnovelle

[Anonymous No.13365278]

>>13365000
Trips confirm.

[Anonymous No.13365292]

>>13364837
Stay Out of the Basement (Goosebumps, #2)

[Anonymous No.13365370]

>>13365292
Ahahahahahahahaha xd ahaha lul haha ah

[Anonymous No.13365490]

Nikolai Gogols Dead Souls. I know the book is unfinished but based on what is there, it's a perfect book with absolutely stunning usage of prose and the fact that each character represents seperate portions of Russian society is an ingenious idea. And plus the book is just overall witty without being too direct or too slapstick.

[Anonymous No.13365497]

>>13364837
there isn't. the longest piece of perfect prose is the second section of the sound and the fury.

[Anonymous No.13365515]

>>13365490
Have a translation you can recommend?

[Anonymous No.13365551]

>>13365497
>Sound and Fury
>perfect
Come on now, it's a mess. A great mess but a mess.

[Anonymous No.13365579]

>>13365515
The one done by Constance Garnett is good. It's the Barnes and Noble Classic version.

[Anonymous No.13365584]

>>13365579
Thanks I'll see if they sell it here in Geneva

[Anonymous No.13365587]

>>13365551
i said the second section, which could not have beeb written better. the rest i can come up with complaints over, but i really do believe that perfectly captured quentin's broken mental state

[Anonymous No.13365651]

>>13364837
literally the Tunnel by William Gass or another great idea is Gravity's Rainbow

[Anonymous No.13365742]

I can think of perfect plays: Macbeth and The Importance of Being Earnest come to mind

>>13365651
You must be stupid

[Anonymous No.13365759]

Sentimental education

[Anonymous No.13366142]

pic related gets pretty damn close

>>13364865
not a bad choice either

Other candidates would be Anna Karenina, Don Quioxte, and The Magic Mountain

[Anonymous No.13366169]

>>13366142
There's an awful lot of fat on the novels you listed. Great works, undoubtedly but ones that wouldn't have been hurt by an edit here and there.

[Anonymous No.13366178]

>>13366169
eh it's probably a matter of taste to some extent. For what it's worth I don't think Nostromo has any sections that could be cut in good faith

but there's probably an argument to be made in the cases of the other ones I listed. Idk, for me part of a novel's appeal always comes from its comfiness and a narrative that spills out in that picturesque sense (which sometimes does mean less than necessary digressions), I don't think I'd be able to do without all the tiny village scenes in Anna, nor the silly adventures in Quioxte, or with even one less Settembrini moment in Mountain

[Anonymous No.13366180]

noticias del imperio

[Anonymous No.13366187]

Can’t we agree stoner was the perfect novel? Perfect size, 17 chapters? The monologues were prime, stoner a shitty charter, wrote in a way which you understand and be sympathetic. Great depiction of university life(Williams himself was a uni prof in Denver. Currently reading butchers crossing and it’s pretty lit but won’t be the same, enjoying the story regardless

[Anonymous No.13366193]

[Anonymous No.13366221]

Moby-Dick
Anna Karenina
Diary of A Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules

[Anonymous No.13366240]

>>13366193
based

[Anonymous No.13366280]

>>13366221
Absolute Kino, Rodrick Rules perfectly encapsulates childhood angst, and how infantile the troubles we faced then compare to the abyss of adulthood

[Anonymous No.13366287]

Great Gatsby

[Anonymous No.13366298]

>>13364837
I think The Woman in the Dunes by Kobo Abe is a candidate for a novel which has almost no extraneous parts.
The English translation is actually really good too. The translator did an excellent job bringing the language over.

[Anonymous No.13366322]

Coleridge thought Tom Jones was perfect.

I'd say Great Expectations

[Anonymous No.13366348]

The Picture of Dorian Grey
Moby Dick

These novels had a perfect length and perfect pacing for what their subject matters were with no extraneous fluff.

[Anonymous No.13366595]

>>13366187
No, we can't

[Anonymous No.13366639]

>>13364865
+

[Anonymous No.13366697]

>>13366169
>>13366178
I'd agree that those works aren't perfect (while still great) but I disagree about the idea that they need a trim. Perfection is about consistency above all else. Hamlet and Ulysses are the greatest works of their respective authors but Macbeth is the more perfect tragedy and The Dead a more perfect prose narrative. It's basically the divide between the classical and romantic sensibility in a different form.

[Anonymous No.13366732]

>>13365742
Why are you inferring that I'm stupid from my opinion? Do you know what motivates me to say that the tunnel or Gravity's Rainbow are "perfect novles"?

[Anonymous No.13366754]

Madame Bovary

[Anonymous No.13366940]

>>13366754
This

>>13365759
Not this

[Anonymous No.13367214]

Salammbo
The Abyss

[Anonymous No.13367259]

>>13364837
For me, it’s Moby-Dick, Madame Bovary, Don Quixote, The Trial (unfinished but I have no critiques for it), and One Hundred Years of Solitude.

[Anonymous No.13367286]

Nostromo by Joseph Conrad

[Anonymous No.13367299]

>>13366697

>Macbeth is the more perfect tragedy

Wtf am I reading? This board sucks.

[Anonymous No.13367347]

>>13367299
>moaning without argument
If it sucks it's because of people like you who clog it up with your braying.

[Anonymous No.13367628]

>>13364865
This board has done a big 180 on this guy as of late. I was the biggest fan of him in highschool, and while I still think hes great, he doesnt crack my top 5 anymore

[Anonymous No.13367664]

>>13364865
I am reading The Grapes of Wrath for the first time right now and loving it.
Knowing that East of Eden is considered his crowning achievement I'm really excited to read it next.

[Anonymous No.13367667]

can a stone be flawless?

[Anonymous No.13367687]

>>13367667
Can a man?

[Anonymous No.13367878]

>>13367664
def dont listen to that. East of Eden, while more focused, loses the edge that makes Steinbeck stand out. That edge is sharpest in GoW

[Anonymous No.13367942]

Lolita

[Anonymous No.13367948]

Petersburg
Oblomov
The Man Without Qualities
The Castle
Mason & Dixon

[Anonymous No.13368025]

>tfw everyone itt just lists their favourite books

[Anonymous No.13368149]

>>13365490
>the fact that each character represents seperate portions of Russian society is an ingenious idea
no. no its not

[Anonymous No.13369340]

The Stranger

[Anonymous No.13369382]

>>13364865
Based, I'm actually thinking of rereading this book. Such a classic