The Dead

Candidate for best piece of fiction in English, though it helps to read the whole novella: 

“A few light taps upon the pane made him turn to the window. It had begun to snow again. He watched sleepily the flakes, silver and dark, falling obliquely against the lamplight. The time had come for him to set out on his journey westward. Yes, the newspapers were right: snow was general all over Ireland. It was falling on every part of the dark central plain, on the treeless hills, on the Bog of Allen and, farther westward, softly falling into the dark mutinous Shannon waves. It was falling, too, upon every part of the lonely churchyard on the hill where Michael Furey lay buried. It lay thickly drifted on the crooked crosses and headstones, on the spears of the little gate, on the barren thorns. His soul swooned slowly as he heard the snow falling faintly through the universe and faintly falling, like the descent of their last end, upon all the living and the dead.”

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Paul McGoran
Posts: 1

The Dead
Reply #1 on : Mon April 09, 2012, 13:05:06

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A great piece of writing, without doubt. But has anyone noticed it lays waste to the commonest of all writing advice? We're always told to get rid of the adverbs. Well, this little sample of exceptional prose has nine adverbs in its short course. (Note that westward--used twice--is an adverb)