I want to start reading a new novel—and I find myself caught in this conundrum of choices. For me, to quote Nabokov, "only the style and structure" matter in the art of literature. I'm chiefly interested in the way an author makes use of his vocabulary, which I'd rather it was vast. What I love when reading is being incumbent upon me to consult a dictionary, the author compelling me with his lexical choices to do so.
I have these titles: "The Portrait of a Lady" by Henry James, "The Mill on the Floss" by George Eliot, "The Heart is a lonely hunter" by Carson McCullers and, last by not least, "The French lieutenant's woman" by John Fowles.
Which, in your opinion, would satisfy me the most in my search for fine commandement of the English idiom, would fit my stylistic views and would quench my thirst for complex, elitistic, idiosyncratic, latinized or hellenized, purple, fancy, obscure, sometimes illegible and incomprehensible, highly ininteligibile, high effort demanding, peculiarities ridden, insurmountable difficulties permeated, sophisticated language?
So far I'd go with Fowles, maybe because he also introduces flashes of literary theory and the kind.
So, what from that shortlist should I read next?