Who Writes the Most Felicitous Sentences?
I enoy the literary discussions on Ricochet. Each time we have one my reading list gets that much longer. In the past week or so we’ve talked about the most moving scenes in literature, the funniest scenes, and the books that have been turned into great movies -- and those are the ones I remember.
For years, I’ve been a collector of sentences.
Tom Clancy could put together a great plot, but his sentences were mostly leaden. D H. Lawrence’s novels are filled with animal passion, but the prose is horrid. Vince Flynn is a master of the well-written action scene, but we don’t read him for the beautiful prose (don’t get me wrong, he can really write).
Other writers are poetic, writing the occasional great sentence or paragraph, but their books just don’t hold together as stories.
The best writers combine plot, characterization, scene, dialogue, humor, and “felicitous” sentences. (Random House: “Felicitous: well-suited for the occasion, as an action, manner, or expression; apt . . . .”). Jane Austen may be the best at combining all the elements.
For the most part the great sentences I’ll quote below come from great pieces of literature, but a great sentence can exist in an inferior piece of writing.
What do I mean by a “great sentence”? They come in many varieties. Some perfectly describe an event or scene. Some are pure poetry. Some state with clarity a beautiful truth. Others are perfectly hilarious.
The opening line of Pride and Prejudice is “all the above”: “It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.”
In political writing, Mark Steyn and Jonah Goldberg create memorable, telling sentences.
The Bible is filled with great sentences. How about these three from just the first chapter of Ecclesiastes?:
“One generation passeth away, and another generation cometh: but the earth abideth forever.” [KJV Ecclesiastes 1:4]
“All the rivers run into the sea; yet the sea is not full; unto the place from whence the rivers come, thither they return again.” [KJV Ecclesiastes 1:7]
“For in much wisdom is much grief; and he that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow.” [KJV Ecclesiastes 1:18]
Great sentences can transform even the simplest scene into a spiritual moment. In Willa Cather’s My Antonia, Jim, the young narrator, and his friend Antonia visit two Russian bachelors eking out a living on poor, remote farmland. As they sit in the Russians’ ramshackle cabin, Jim, the young narrator, describes the sound of the wind (to be fair, there are three sentences here, but the first two lead in to the last one, which is perfect):
“The wind shook the doors and windows impatiently, then swept on again, singing through the big spaces. Each gust, as it bore down, rattled the panes, and swelled off like the others. They made me think of defeated armies, retreating; or of ghosts, who were trying desperately to get in for shelter, and then went moaning on.”
With its two similes and powerful verbs, Cather in this sentence creates an unforgettable image of the wind rolling across open prairie.
Consider a single sentence from the “The Martyr,” a short story by the Japanese writer Ryunosuke Akutogawa. In 18 simple words, the author captures the essence of the passage of time:
“A year passed like a snowflake that falls into the river, a moment white and then gone forever.”
For the young, time is glacial. But for people like me, who long ago passed life’s mid-point, this sentence describes time as we now experience it: a brief white moment, then forever gone.
Or this very long sentence from the Robert Fagles translation of the Iliad, where Homer uses the advancing sea as a metaphor for the attacking Achean (Greek) army:
“As a heavy surf assaults some roaring coast,
piling breaker on breaker whipped by the West Wind,
and out on the open sea a crest first rears its head
then pounds down on the shore with hoarse,
rumbling thunder against some rocky spit, exploding salt foam to the skies—
so wave on wave they came, Achean battalions ceaseless surging on to war.”
Because the sea was a constant presence to the Acheans (they fought with their backs to the sea throughout the decade-long Trojan War), it is a perfect metaphor for inexorable Achean battalions surging forward to destroy Troy.
Finally, consider this sentence from Charles Frazier’s Cold Mountain. Ada and Inman, now reunited, contemplate their future together. A lesser writer might have written: “The prospect of long happy lives together stretched out before them.” Instead, Frazier found a vivid, beautiful way of saying much the same thing:
“They would grow old together measuring time by the life spans of a succession of speckled bird dogs.”
It's quite easy to tell a great sentence: after you read one, you think, "Wow! I could die happy if I'd written that."
The floor is yours. Who writes great sentences? Give us examples. What makes them great? [Note: Jane Austen sentences gratefully accepted in this thread].
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Jun '11
Re: Who Writes the Most Felicitous Sentences?
"If I had not spoken so disparagingly just now about real things that have really happened, I would tell you the story of Ibrahim and the eleven camel-loads of blotting paper. Also I have forgot exactly how it ended."
That is from the very short story The Romancers, by Saki (H. H. Munro).
Saki is in a dead heat with P. G. Wodehouse as a sentence writer. Runner-up: Douglas Adams.
Sunday afternoons, when you realise you have had all the baths you can usefully have in one day, and however long you stare at the paragraph in the colour supplement, you will never actually read it, or use the revolutionary new pruning technique it describes, and as the hands of the clock creep remorseless onward towards four o'clock, you enter the long dark tea-time of the soul."
I have risked quoting both from memory, because after all, the great sentence tends to stay in the mind.
Aug '10
Re: Who Writes the Most Felicitous Sentences?
tabula rasa
Severely Ltd.
Like favorite bits of poetry, theyimprovewith rereading. . . .
I wish I'd said that--perfect description of the magic of Wodehouse. · 13 hours ago
I'm loving the audiobooks right now. Aunts Aren't Gentlemen is in the IPod now. Sheer bliss.
Jun '10
Re: Who Writes the Most Felicitous Sentences?
William Laing: "If I had not spoken so disparagingly just now about real things that have really happened, I would tell you the story of Ibrahim and the eleven camel-loads of blotting paper. Also I have forgot exactly how it ended."
That is from the very short story The Romancers, by Saki (H. H. Munro).
Saki is in a dead heat with P. G. Wodehouse as a sentence writer. Runner-up: Douglas Adams.
I've read quite a bit of Saki. He wasn't as prolific in Wodehouse, and--in my opinion--not quite as good. He also wrote in a very different form: very short stories--no real novels. But he's better than good.
His satire had far more bite than Wodehouse. Wodehouse created a world of sweetness and light; in Saki's world, people were not only fallen, they were downright mean ( in a hilarious way).
Here's a good example:
Jun '11
Re: Who Writes the Most Felicitous Sentences?
Jun '10
Re: Who Writes the Most Felicitous Sentences?
Squishy Blue RINO
I'm loving the audiobooks right now. Aunts Aren't Gentlemen is in the IPod now. Sheer bliss. · 1 hour ago
Aunts Aren't Gentlemen was his last completed work (a Blandings novel was let unfinished at his death). Aunts was published in 1974, when Wodehouse was 93. It's certainly not the best Jeeves book, but even at that age, he had nothing to be ashamed of. He died in 1975.
Interesting fact: Wodehouse became an American citizen at age 74. So, to be accurate, he's an "American writer," though it's hard to conceive of a more English writer.
Jun '10
Re: Who Writes the Most Felicitous Sentences?
Fricosis Guy
3 minutes ago
That brought tears to my eyes. Positively Biblical.
Oct '10
Re: Who Writes the Most Felicitous Sentences?
I think we would have to distinguish types of sentences; those from literature have different standards than, say, maxims or squibs.
Here's one from literature, Stephen Dedalus meditating on words (the second sentence is the money quote):
But for aphorisms, concision is key. This sentence is a keyhole through which one glimpses the lofty spaces of a philosophy.
Apr '11
Re: Who Writes the Most Felicitous Sentences?
"All this excitement has put us behind in our drinking." (Nick Charles)
The Thin Man - Dashiell Hammett
The novel is bursting with excellent sentences, many of them carried over to the movie.
(No, I sha'n't be silent until this is acknowledged.)
Aug '10
Re: Who Writes the Most Felicitous Sentences?
tabula rasa
Squishy Blue RINO
I'm loving the audiobooks right now. Aunts Aren't Gentlemen is in the IPod now. Sheer bliss. · 1 hour ago
Aunts Aren't Gentlemenwas his last completed work (a Blandings novel was let unfinished at his death). Auntswas published in 1974, when Wodehouse was 93. It's certainly not the best Jeeves book, but even at that age, he had nothing to be ashamed of. He died in 1975.
Interesting fact: Wodehouse became an American citizen at age 74. So, to be accurate, he's an "American writer," though it's hard to conceive of a more English writer. · 47 minutes ago
Thanks for that, I have only read a few Jeeves books so far, so much to look forward to!
And I greatly appreciate your literature conversations. I will have to give this one some thought before I offer something.
Thanks again.
Jun '10
Re: Who Writes the Most Felicitous Sentences?
Glenn the Iconoclast: "All this excitement has put us behind in our drinking." (Nick Charles)
The Thin Man- Dashiell Hammett
The novel is bursting with excellent sentences, many of them carried over to the movie.
(No, I sha'n't be silent until this is acknowledged.) · 1 hour ago
Awesome!!
Sep '12
Re: Who Writes the Most Felicitous Sentences?
Pff. Probably modern Dutch. :)
Apr '11
Re: Who Writes the Most Felicitous Sentences?
Bob McMaster
Pff. Probably modern Dutch. :)
Omigosh.
Jul '11
Re: Who Writes the Most Felicitous Sentences?
"There are 10 kind of people in this world. Those that understand binary and those that don't," from a friend.
-E
Jul '11
Re: Who Writes the Most Felicitous Sentences?
After discussing it a bit with my better half, we humbly submit that Lady Bracknell in The Importance of Being Earnest is a treasure trove of delightful sentences, such as:
"To lose one parent, Mr. Worthing, may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose both looks like carelessness."
"To be born, or at any rate bred, in a hand-bag, whether it had handles or not, seems to me to display a contempt for the ordinary decencies of family life that reminds one of the worst excesses of the French Revolution."
" The General was essentially a man of peace, except in his domestic life."
-E
Aug '12
Re: Who Writes the Most Felicitous Sentences?
Russell Kirk in "A Creature of the Twilight: His Memorials" : grandiose fun:
"But just now, bride of my twilight victories, accept these memorials of one who has aspired to ride the whirlwind and direct the storm. You will find an energetic shadow warmer than a hollow man. For you, this bird of windy darkness sheathes his talons. Stroke his plumage, and he will preen for you...
Were there no owls, my darling and delight, rats would inherit the earth. Buss me, sibyl! Strolling in forgotten ways with your mirabilary lover, remember always that the owl-light belongs to us."
Or, "Shadows, dreams, divinations-how they flee before the tramp of modernity! Fortify us, Melchiora, by Orphic utterance, declaring that truly, when brummagen Progress seems to have established its illimitable boredom, the gods of the copybook headings with fire and sword return. Having served those implacable deities, a man has no relish for dying with his boots off. Melchiora, you are joined to an unquiet spirit, exalted when the tocsin sounds. Yet could you love him if he were not the Father of Shadows? To him, as to Odysseus, the hour will come for one last grand attitude.
Jun '11
Re: Who Writes the Most Felicitous Sentences?
Sandy, old thing? That cow creamer -- guard it closely. Right. I'll be popping then, shall I? And don't forget about the c.c.
Aug '12
Re: Who Writes the Most Felicitous Sentences?
I love Dostoevsky, and I wish I read Russian because I know I'm missing a lot of the beauty in the translation. I like this: "It is not as a child that I believe and confess Jesus Christ; My hosanna is born of a furnace of doubt."- Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov
Aug '10
Re: Who Writes the Most Felicitous Sentences?
How about Raymond Chandler? His plots don't always quite hold together, but oh mercy, if I could write sentences like this one from The High Window:
"Then he picked the glass up and tasted it and sighed again and shook his head sideways with a half smile; the way a man does when you give him a drink and he needs it very badly and it is just right and the first swallow is like a peek into a cleaner, sunnier, brighter world."
Apr '11
Re: Who Writes the Most Felicitous Sentences?
There are examples on every page of Chandler:
"He looked about as inconspicuous as a tarantula on a slice of angel food."
Re: what makes a sentence great, and for the best compendium of great sentences, check out Farnsworth's Classical English Rhetoric.
Edited on September 17, 2012 at 4:25pmSep '10
Re: Who Writes the Most Felicitous Sentences?
Matt Blankenship: There are examples on every page of Chandler:
"He looked about as inconspicuous as a trantula on a slice of angel food."
Re: what makes a sentence great, and for the best compendium of great sentences, check out Farnsworth's Classical English Rhetoric. · 57 minutes ago
Ah yes, I own it, I read it, I love it.