'I vow to thee, my country'

[oliver sudden]

I appear to have made it insufficiently clear that my reference to verdure was meant in the sense of a well-known proverb.

[Ein Heldenleben]

The question to pose being, "When you suggest these are the BEST novels, what do you base that opinion on?". It's like when people say, "Make America Great Again": one would want to know what do you think makes America great? People latch to 'thoughts' like they latch on to junk food.

But if one was to use a phrase like literary quality. ..
Well I guess some variant of the Arnold concept of the consent of the learned ..a phrase which no doubt used in academe these days would lead to rapid ejection,
Why are Balzac’s Lost Illusions , James’ Portrait of a Lady “better “ than all the 100 or so contemporary novels I’ve read this year.
They’re much better written for a start..even down to minutiae like paragraphing and punctuation. They are vastly more complex , full of insight into human psychology and motive and in the case of Balzac create a portrait of industry and a point of time in France so vivid you can imagine yourself in it, James command of symbol and what Eliot calls the objective correlative (the creaking boot of the policeman outside Ralph Touchetts house as he muses on his mortality ) .., there’s nothing like it.

I would wear a t shirt saying ‘Make The Great American Novel Great Again ‘ though

[LMcD]

It’s the predominant type of agricultural Grass , fast growing and productive allowing for several hay cuts a year. Think it was first developed in Italy . But boy is it boring.

Sorry, I meant it would be interesting to hear some French thoughts on the subject.

[french frank]

In my case: embarrassingly early, and not _that_ long before the point at which I gave up thinking any ‘conclusions’ I might come to are anything but provisional even solely for myself.

But that seems fine: life is too short to spend excessive time considering non essentials. It's the point at which having come to conclusions which are 'provisional solely for myself' one declares them absolute that the trouble starts. I have considered this matter long and hard and finally I can reveal that this is The Truth of the matter. Definitively.

[Roslynmuse]

But that seems fine: life is too short to spend excessive time considering non essentials. It's the point at which having come to conclusions which are 'provisional solely for myself' one declares them absolute that the trouble starts. I have considered this matter long and hard and finally I can reveal that this is The Truth of the matter. Definitively.

I suspect that there are very many people who do not make any distinction between conclusions which are 'provisional solely for myself' and 'absolutes' - or are unaware that any such distinction might be possible. Even the concept of a 'provisional conclusion' is unknown to many.