Please suggest interesting writers

[Kalapishev]

Wow, thank you everyone for all the recommendations! Of those I’ve read some Flaubert and Tolstoy, but not much.
I’m looking for certain moods that are hard to describe – something like passion and detachment at the same time. I’ve sensed that in the books of the writers I mentioned. I’m not against tragedies, I love many of those I’ve read. I think in all arts the “how” is more important than the “what”, so the guidelines I gave are just general.

@ stlukesguild
Regarding my paintings – I do mostly landscape and still life, but I love to paint people, figures and meaningful scenes as well. I’m just not very inspired by modern life, that’s why I turn to literature of old times to get that powerful vision and purpose. I’ve uploaded a few of my works here – www.kalapishev.com

Thanks again, if anything else comes to mind, please share. Looks like I’m going to the library tomorrow, you got me excited!

[ChicagoReader]

Herman Hesse's Narcissus and Goldmund. Not exactly what you're looking for but it meets several of your requirements.

[stlukesguild]

The lack of Tolstoy disturbs me. Sorry, I am very into Tolstoy these days.

My list was in no way intended to be all-inclusive. Just a few suggestions. I would certainly include War and Peace, some tales by Gautier, probably something by D.H. Lawrence, Garcia-Marquez' Love in the Time of Cholera, Vargas-Llosa's In Praise of the Stepmother, G.B. Shaw's Man and Superman and Pygmalion, and any number of others....

[stlukesguild]

Stefan... I asked about your painting because I am an artist myself. I quite like Modernism... up through the mid-20th century... and after that I admire some artists... and have little use for a great many more. Perhaps, not unlike yourself, I have made a conscious choice to abandon or reject Modernism in my own work. Where you are enamored of the 19th century (and it is surely a period worthy of admiration in the art of painting) I have turned elsewhere... to the early Italian Renaissance, the Byzantines, Japanese Ukyio-e prints and screen painting, Persian painting, etc...

[Brett Cottrell]

The Awakening, by Kate Chopin.

[christinamellow]

There are many interesting writers in literature, some writings inspire few and so not, it depends on one's mindset understanding the writers way of presenting the story / characters, try to read some and continue the wchich you like the most i mean their collections