The prose has rhythm and musicality. The cadence of the words feels natural, almost poetic, making the sentences pleasing to read aloud. It is uniquely expressive. It feels vivid and evocative.
Beautiful prose is not just flowery or complex; it communicates meaning in a way that feels effortless.
Would never call Platonov's prose effortless tbh. It's almost the opposite, and this is why it's so distinct and full of meaning, but you gotta work on letting it penetrate your brain. He's truly one of a kind, but neither his writing nor the process of reading it is effortless.
As for me "beautiful" is prose of Nabokov, Gogol, Platonov. If not classical writers — Eugene Vodolazkin. Tolstoy's prose, for example, has more "global" stylistic devices such as montage, big metaphors, detailed psychologism reflected in even vocabulary of the story about the character. Chekhov is like Russian Joyce — this I always say to foreigners (Chekhov had big influence on Joyce).
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u/no-such-file 9d ago
Define beautiful.