Hi,
With reading to the little girl, I am rediscovering the joy of the _sound_ of words - regardless of meaning - and so have begun looking for something a bit different. Now, obviously, Dr Seuss didn't write any full length, adult novels, but...

I invite you to recommend - including a sentence or two to justify it - any book, story or writing that you think is worth reading _solely_ for the quality of the prose.

To put it another way, I am trying to understand what it is that transforms a paragraph from a humdrum series of statements into something beautiful and / or captivating. (Besides the obvious factors of story and character.)

Thanks,

Anapaestic Seeker of Dublin

Hello....
WEll, I've just read a series of short stories by Sarah Hall called the Beautiful Indifference. I couldn't get into them at first - another creative writing graduate, I thought. But infact, regardless of whether or not you think they are convincing stories, I would say the writing is pretty exquisite, and I think the stories from the middle to the end are fantastic.
Lindsey

I think you can't beat the slow, black, Bible-black Under Milk Wood for reading aloud (not to little girls, obviously)

I loved reading aloud to my son too. It does give a great feel for the words, especially as you naturally give them fuller emphasis when reading to a child.

One of the books I've most enjoyed for the prose is Thomas The Rhymer by Ellen Kushner. There are not many books where I could honestly say the prose is enchanting. Many reviews on the book also commented on the quality of the prose also, what to speak of the story itself and the depth she brings to the characters.

Set in 13th Century Scotland, the story is told in four parts, each from a different character in first person. A sentence alone wouldn't do it justice, so excuse my indulgence to quote a short section. This is from the first part and from the POV of Gavin as he watches the sparring between Thomas and Elspeth (the bonnie lass Thomas has an eye for!). It starts with Thomas recounting a story where he claims to have met the Queen of France -

'Her eyes flashed royally at me. And, do you know, the queen has eyes the same colour as yours.'

Elspeth flushed. 'That's a lie.'

'Well, maybe it is, and maybe it isn't.' The cunning lad sat back, satisfied to have caught her interest. 'I'm the one who's seen her, not you.'

'Oh?' says Elspeth craftily. 'And what colour are her eyes?'

'Different colours,' he answers without pause. 'Depending on her mood. When she's happy, almost the blue of the clear lake. When she grieves, grey as stormheads over Blackhope Scar. And when she's angry (which, of course, is seldom), they flash with green like an Elf cloak disappearing through the woods on a May morning.'

Elspeth scowled into her lap. Those were her very eyes, and the dear knows how he fathomed that.

'What did you do,' she asked, 'to see the queen angry?'

'Cruel lady. Why do you think it was I?'

'I can guess.'

The Odyssey (in translation, obvs. Unless you are very clever. Which I'm not.)

Beowulf. Seamus Heaney's version is lovely.

TS Eliott's Old Possum's Book of Cats



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The latter is lovely for reading to small people. Faber do a very nice illustrated version.

I'm sorry to say, I'm not a Dr Seuss fan. I think they're a triumph of form over content.

Er - these all seem a bit ambitious to me. What about Janet and Alan Ahlberg?

LOL Jem! I was presuming Gaius meant for reading himself

But yy big fan of the Albergs here. And actually the Gruffalo has a lot to teach about narrative structure.

Oh, I'm sorry. I misunderstood! Well, read anything of Seamus Heaney is all I can say. Or Ulysses. Or Dylan Thomas. I'm not going to justify it. I don't see the point of that - the words are there on the page and on your tongue and in your ear.

Impossible to pin down.

I find Under Milkwood almost too much, but it's fabulous to read aloud, with being a play n' all.

The Just So Stories (try them on your daughter now). Again, written to be said aloud.

Mind you, having heard the entire text of The Great Gatsby read aloud last weekend, I'd say that you could do worse...

Almost any paragraph by Angela Carter sets my synapses buzzing.

Or... how about this, not least (but not only) for an education in how to use verbs. The protagonists are in a bar:

Overhead, an enemy plane had been dragging, drumming slowly round in the pool of night, drawing up bursts of gunfire - nosing, pausing, turning, fascinated by the point for its intent. The barrage banged, coughed, retched; in here the lights in the mirrors rocked. Now down a shaft of anticipating silence the bomb swung whistling. With the shock of detonation, still to be heard, four walls of in here yapwed in the bellied out; bottles danced on glass; a distortion ran through the view. The detonation dulled off into the caracting roar of a split building: direct hit, somewhere else.

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yawped in then bellied out

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Graham Greene's prose is another synapse-starter...

Faulkner. Beckett.

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Dickens.

Blimey, difficult question. Angela Carter and Ali Smith are the two that immediately spring to mind for me.

The following link is to a short extract from Hotel World (actually, probably my least favourite Ali Smith but it's what Penguin have made available online).

http://www.penguin.co.uk/UKExtract/0,,MTQ2MjA1JTNBMCUzQUhvdGVsK1dvcmxk,00.html

If you want something to read to *her*, Mr Gum fits all your needs.


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Oh, and also James Thurber's children's stories.

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"any book, story or writing that you think is worth reading _solely_ for the quality of the prose. "

Though I have to say I'm not sure that this can ever be true. A good book will have form and function, beautiful prose that tells you something valuable, interesting, important, exciting.

What about Janet and Alan Ahlberg?

Each peach pear plum, I spy a slight misconception-di-dum.

Yes, looking for me rather than little girl, but... also will check out the Mr Gum stories etc as she is getting through good children's books almost as quickly as I find them. (Some odd and unexpected hits that really made me think.)

Interested by the recommendation of the Odyssey as, intuitively, I think a translation should be less good than an original work in its native tongue, but my wife suggested the same thing.

Anyway, plenty here for me to start my research!

Thanks, greatly appreciated

G

I think it depends on the translation. Some translations are great works of art in their own right - The King James Bible. Fitzgerald's Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam.

But is the writing in the bible actually art? Surely that's a case of perceived significance and familiarity rather than great writing?