"In Defense of Purple Prose" by Paul West

http://www.nytimes.com/1985/12/15/bo...ple-prose.html

An editorial from the 1980s in defense of the thing we call "purple prose," the prose that we commonly associate with both a majority of 19th century novels and, nowadays, with bad and verbose writing.

A writer like Michael Chabon can carry off Purple Prose, because he's brilliant. His writing is vivid and audacious, clever and lively; never blustery or ornate. Very few modern writers are in his league, yet nowadays the purple prose flows like wine! When done poorly (which is most of the time), I find it exhausting to read.

^ cool. Also, other masters of "purple" or "elaborate" prose include Vladimir Nabokov, William Faulkner, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Cormac McCarthy, Herman Melville, Joseph Conrad, Henry James, Thomas Pynchon, and (perhaps) Don DeLillo.

Also J. R. R. Tolkien and Edgar Allan Poe

Immediately thought of Gaston Leroux's Phantom of the Opera. Erik's final scene with Christine is melodrama at its finest.

Bump.