Nightwood

Djuna Barnes’s short novel Nightwood is set in the bleak and seedy world of 1920s Paris, as it follows two reckless women who roam the streets at night. The book doesn't really add up to much, but Barnes's prose is excellent, with a rich and sonorous tone:

"When she fell in love it was with a perfect fury of accumulated dishonesty; she became instantly a dealer in second-hand and therefore incalculable emotions... She was a squatter by instinct."

"I have been loved," she said, "by something strange, and it has forgotten me."

"Love is the first lie; wisdom the last"

“We are but skin about a wind, with muscles clenched against mortality.”  

“I talk too much because I have been made so miserable by what you are keeping hushed.”

Recommended.