46 Of The Most Beautiful Literary Passages According To Reddit

    Ask Reddit, and you shall receive.

    Sarah Galo
    by Sarah Galo

    BuzzFeed Staff

    Last week Reddit user TheRealNayef asked users to answer this question: "What's the most beautiful paragraph or sentence you've ever read?" The inspiration? The first paragraph of Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita:

    I just read the first page of Lolita, and it was just so good that I put it down and appreciated it.
    "Lo-lee-ta: the tip of the tongue taking a trip of three steps down the palate to tap, at three, on the teeth. Lo. Lee. Ta. She was Lo, plain Lo, in the morning, standing four feet ten in one sock. She was Lola in slacks. She was Dolly at school. She was Dolores on the dotted line. But in my arms she was always Lolita."
    I can't think of anything else that is this beautiful... Maybe the start of Fahrenheit 451.

    Reddit users responded, and now the thread has nearly 4,000 upvotes and 4,713 comments. Here is just a small selection of their picks.

    Penguin Books Australia
    Dutton Children's Books
    HMH Books for Young Readers

    1. This selection from Gary Provost's 100 Ways to Improve Your Writing received 4,436 upvotes. It's not hard to see why.

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    Copper Canyon Press
    Vintage Books
    Del Rey

    8. Julian Barnes made us think about time in a whole new way.

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    9. Douglas Adams was a definite favorite of Reddit users.

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    Scribner
    Vintage
    Harper Perennial

    14. Haruki Murakami mended hearts, and broke them all over again.

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    16. Gabriel Garcia Marquez wowed with his masterful prose.

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    Vintage Classics
    Ballantine Books
    DC Comics
    Penguin
    Penguin

    20. Charlotte Bronte made users want to fall in love.

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    23. Charles Dickens made the night sky a little sadder.

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    24. Albert Camus gave a whole new perspective on Sisyphus.

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    William Morrow
    Victor Gollancz
    Penguin

    25. Neil Gaiman's words made an appearance, of course.

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    Simon & Schuster
    Penguin
    Signet

    31. Ernest Hemingway's to-the-point prose made users swoon.

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    33. Herman Melville made a rainy November day sound poetic.

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    34. Victor Hugo's words put God in a new light.

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    The Egoist Ltd
    Dell
    Dell

    35. The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock made even loneliness seem beautiful.

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    36. Kurt Vonnegut captured hearts and made everyone want to re-read all his books.

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    39. Cormac McCarthy's command of prose demanded users' rapt attention.

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    Penguin
    Dutton Juvenile
    Penguin

    40. The Iliad inspired friendly debate over which translation was the most beautiful.

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    44. John Green described love in the best possible way.

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    45. James Joyce took readers to unsurpassed narrative heights.

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    Check out the rest of the beautiful passages Redditors suggested.

    Keep up the good work, Reddit!

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