Need novel recommendations with spesific features

[retardedidiot]

I want to read novels with certain stylistic features such as complex metaphors, long sentences (by long I don't mean ones that have hundreds of short sentences juxtaposed by removing commas, I mean sentences that contain a lot of adjectives, auxialary verbs etc a lot of elements), lengthy paragraphs, hard to read stuff. Only ones I know are Proust, Faulkner and Claude Simon. Genre, era isn't important though I suppose most of them belong to early 20th century, though it doesn't really matter. English or translated to English please. Thanks.

[Panglossian]

Possibly Hungarian novelist Laszlo Krasznahorkai [?]

Two of his novels I've read are:

The Melancholy of Resistance
War is War

[hanzklein]

Joyce's Ulysses is what you're looking for. Some (lengthy) chapters are composed in that style.

http://www.online-literature.com/james_joyce/ulysses/14/

http://www.online-literature.com/james_joyce/ulysses/16/

[kiki1982]

Kafka! Can't go wrong with him! He goes on, and on, and on and on and on and even more on.

Good stuff, though, but sentences are challenging.

Saramgo should also do. In Dutch at least, his sentences are challenging. And the contenats is absolutely fabulous.

Hugo is also a good one if you are looking for good metaphors.

[dfloyd]

He can take a page and a half describing a tea cup handle.

[ChicagoReader]

William Gaddis. I read Agape Agape for class last year and sentences regularly go on for pages. It's very complex with always more than one thing going on at a time and it also has a very all over the place narrative.

[logophile]

Umberto Eco's The Name of The Rose is pretty heavy reading. Translated from Italian.

[stlukesguild]

Kafka? Kafka writes is a rather dry... almost bureaucratic manner. No heavy use of adjectives or especially complex sentences.

Since you mention Proust, I would look at the other French writers of that time, especially Flaubert and Theophile Gautier. I especially agree with the Henry James recommendation... and for once, Hanz' obsession with Ulysses actually makes sense... it is indeed a novel rich in vocabulary and symbolic language.

I would also second Saramago... and McCarthy... although both run on in a manner dismissive of traditional punctuation, they are also quite rich in terms of vocabulary.

Look also at some older writers: Sterne's Tristram Shandy, or even some non-fiction like Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.

And Thomas Mann!! Can't forget Thomas Mann.

[Alexander III]

I think what you are looking for is literature following the style of "roman rhetoric". This literary style was popular amongst the Elizabethans, and also in the 18th century. The romantics killed it, then it had a small resurfacing with the victorians and part of modernism; but the majority of modernism like romanticism killed the "roman rethoric" style, and up to post modernism the simple lingua franca style seems to be the prevalent norm for now. Eventually Roman rhetoric shall become popular again and die out and back and forth as with most things in all the arts.

Now as for prime examples:

Sir Philip Sidney - The countess of pembroke's arcadia (a big novel, but a fabulous read, I definitely recommend this one)

Lawrence Sterne - The life and opinions of tristram shandy gentleman

Jonathan Swift - Gulliver's Travels, A Tale of a Tub

Oscar Wild - Dorian Gray

James Joyce - Ulysses (this one is not exactly what you are looking for as it is so experimental it deviates heavily from the standard of Roman rhetoric, but nonetheless I mention it.)

Joseph Conrad - Lord Jim, Heart of Darkness, Nostromo, Under Western Eyes

[Panglossian]

Omensetter's Luck - William Gass

Ada - Vladimir Nabokov

Locus Solis - Raymond Roussel

[Mutatis-Mutandis]

I'd look at some of the Romantics: Hawthorne, Melville, Poe, Dickens (not really a romantic, but from the same era) etc. No shortage of adjectives and lengthy descriptions there, though I never took note of sentence length. I second Joseph Conrad: amazing writer. Thomas Pynchon's Gravity's Rainbow also has some pages-long paragraphs.

[prickly_pete]

Just reading stuff because it's long and verbose? Isn't anyone going to mention what a worthless project that is? Isn't this the very definition of mental masturbation?

[stlukesguild]

Just reading stuff because it's long and verbose? Isn't anyone going to mention what a worthless project that is? Isn't this the very definition of mental masturbation?

Perhaps they'll get around to mentioning how worthless seeking out a certain style of writing is after they get around to mentioning just how worthless just about everything you've had to contribute to a site devoted to literature (in case you haven't noticed) has been.

[Syd A]

I'd look at some of the Romantics: Hawthorne, Melville, Poe, Dickens

Dickens??? The man is a paragon of clear, non-pretentious writing (for a 19th century Englishman, that is)

Henry James is definitely what the OP is looking for, especially those works written in the third person (so, almost all of them except for The Aspern papers).

[kiki1982]

Just reading stuff because it's long and verbose? Isn't anyone going to mention what a worthless project that is? Isn't this the very definition of mental masturbation?

I think I would have to agree with StLukes, although I wouldn't put it like that ;).

But who are you to doubt someone's motives? There is something about a ingeniously crafted sentence that is sublime and moves a reader to the point of tears. I have had that with Kafka. The contents couldn't be any duller, but his way of getting that sentence on paper was the very best I have ever read. And that includes romantics. Read it two times, three times, four times, five times, six times or more, that sentence will never bore you.

If you find that 'mental masturbation' then some of us can be really lucky that they can get a mental orgasm that way. Maybe you should try that too ;).

By the way, I wouldn't really agree with Dickens. He has well-crafted sentences, but only to the point of a pretty normal 19th century person. And he certainly does not have great metaphors. That's why I don't like him. All too dull and easy.

[Alexander III]

Just reading stuff because it's long and verbose? Isn't anyone going to mention what a worthless project that is? Isn't this the very definition of mental masturbation?

I assume he is not reading it for the sake of it being complex and verbose, he is reading it to explore the style or because he has come to enjoy the style.


To derail a bit, May I ask you a question which appears to be the elephant in the room; after having seen some of your posts on various threads, it appears that your expressed opinions lead one to believe that you are a philistine. Now There is nothing wrong with being a philistine in the greater sense; (some people don't enjoy and find useless: science, some politics and some culture, we all have our various tastes and talents/limitations) -

However, to be blunt; what is a philistine doing on a Literature forum? Is that not merely masochistic mental masturbation?

[esferica]

John Fowles "The Magus"

John Updike "The Centaur"

[kiki1982]

:lol: ALexander! :devil:

[Mutatis-Mutandis]

Maybe Dickens was a poor suggestion, since his writing isn't complex, but he does tend to be long-winded and plodding, which seemed sort of like what the OP was looking for.

And what's wrong with mental masturbation?

[retardedidiot]

Huge thanks to everyone for recommendations - wasn't expecting this much. Thanks!


To derail a bit, May I ask you a question which appears to be the elephant in the room; after having seen some of your posts on various threads, it appears that your expressed opinions lead one to believe that you are a philistine. Now There is nothing wrong with being a philistine in the greater sense; (some people don't enjoy and find useless: science, some politics and some culture, we all have our various tastes and talents/limitations) -

However, to be blunt; what is a philistine doing on a Literature forum? Is that not merely masochistic mental masturbation?

I'm Turkish, living in Turkey, Istanbul. Although average middle class here isn't really interested in literature as much as in Western countries, situation is better than most middle-eastern countries. I consider my own interest above average than the middle class of Turkey that I belong to.

[Alexander III]

Huge thanks to everyone for recommendations - wasn't expecting this much. Thanks!



I'm Turkish, living in Turkey, Istanbul. Although average middle class here isn't really interested in literature as much as in Western countries, situation is better than most middle-eastern countries. I consider my own interest above average than the middle class of Turkey that I belong to.

Hehe sorry, that was addressed to Pete not to you; I a sure your intentions are sincere.

[esferica]

I'm Turkish, living in Turkey, Istanbul.

What about Orhan Pamuk? Isn't he a writer with a style you are searching for? :))

[kiki1982]

Oh, now someone has mentioned someone from that realm, I'm thinking of Naguib Mahfouz. Quite wordy, but intersting.

[gruntingslime]

Rabelais

[kiki1982]

Alexander III and StLukes, I think you scared him off. :devil:

[Syd A]

Maybe Dickens was a poor suggestion, since his writing isn't complex, but he does tend to be long-winded and plodding, which seemed sort of like what the OP was looking for.

And what's wrong with mental masturbation?

True story: last summer I was on a date with this woman, a doctor at one of Harvard's hospitals. While we were talking, she asked me what book I was reading at the time. I told her that I had been reading Old Curiosity Shop and that I was about halfway through my quest to read all of Dickens's novels. "Dickens? Wow, that's really tough read!" she said, and looked genuinely impressed.

I wanted to get up and leave right then, but I didn't want to miss the assorted seafood platter I had coming.

That was a big mistake. Good seafood didn’t come close to making up for the torture of spending over two hours with that idiot. I guess the moral is you're never too dumb to be a Harvard doctor, or to date one.

Hey Mut, if you're ever in the Boston area, perhaps I can hook you up?

[kiki1982]

Haha, she didn't come close to any book ever by the sounds of it.

This year on the 1st of January, my husband and I were in the swimming pool/sauna/outside pool with friends of ours. Great, so at some point I take my book and the male friend asks what I am reading. I say, Waverley by Sir Wakter Scott. The answer, 'Oh, I have to get onto Scott some time,' and ensuing long silence.

He's a painter though, so to me it is amazing how many people don't get into reading these days, or only into reading light stuff, which is good for some time, but not constantly.

@OP:

Maybe you could try some 18th century stuff. Now reading Clarissa by Richardson (:D) and love it. Though there are no imaginative metaphors, there is great wordiness and some great all time favourite sayings.
Very colourful too although incredibly long.

Can you tell I love it already and I am only on letter 7 or so.