Can you recommend some books by authors that are lyrical?

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checkmodem12

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I love words and like the work of James Joyce, Virginia Woolf, etc.. I am looking for authors along those lines. It could be a classic or modern writer.
 
One person gave a rather extraordinary list below, which I won't attempt to top, but here are my few cents.

Nabokov loves wordplay. I recommend his "Pale Fire."

Garcia Marquez has some absolutely lovely prose in "A Hundred Years of Solitude," "Love in the Time of Cholera," and many of his novellas and short stories. Edith Grossman and Rabassa do good translations.

Along those lines but with greater translation problems is Pablo Neruda. Try his 100 Love Sonnets but note that whichever translation you choose will have its proponents and opponents.

Salman Rushdie's "Midnight's Children" is (to me) self-consciously lyrical and often very beautifully written, but some of the lyricisms seem to border on the puerile, in my opinion. But lyricially speaking, it's a gem.

Stereotypy approaching, but: Shakespeare's plays. His ability to pun, if you pick up on them, can be just wondrous at times.

Pauline Melville is capable of lyrical prose, though you won't like her sense of flow if you dislike Marquez's, as their styles are very similar.

Thomas Pynchon may interest you, specifically "Gravity's Rainbow."

Ralph Ellison's "Invisible Man" has some lovely, lovely passages in it.

Emily Dickinson.

Rick Moody.

Jack London's "Martin Eden" comes to mind, but it may not fully be what you're looking for. Still, give it a try; it's very unlike what you may expect from London.

If you can stand it, Thomas Hardy's "Tess of the D'ubervilles," and Hardy's poems.

Derek Walcott.

All right, hope that helps.
 
There is a book called Nothing I forgot who wrote it but, its in freeverse and its really good. Also, the author Angela Johnson is good too.
 
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