What is the most beautiful book you have ever read?

And if we're getting retro, Little Women and What Katy Did.

The basket of flowers by Christoff Von something?
I read it as a child about 8 or 9 and I remember crying a lot as the story was so touching. It entered around the persecution of a poor man and his daughter but I think it had a good ending. Never met anyone who's ever read it or heard of it though.

Oh goodness, yes, The Go between and Black beauty are lovely.

Oh and Swann's Way. Passages of that come back to me surprisingly frequently, and not just when I've been eating madeleines. Gorgeous writing.

The Go Between. So evocative of lost summer and lost childhood.

One from childhood, but Black Beauty is a unique book, and it placed itself so perfectly in my mind that I only have to hear those two words together and I can feel the green spine and smell the new pages of the first copy I read.

Agree remus; I think Lolita is one of the most beautiful books ever written, and the beauty of the telling stands out even stronger against the wrongness of the tale.

Oh yes, Le Grand Meaulnes! All that lovely French countryside, and such beautiful words. I wouldn't be able to watch a film of it, I'd be too busy crying over Yvonne de Galais. At risk of sounding ridiculously poncy, it is best in the original though [embarrassed]

Milan Kundera - the unbearable lightness of being. It's the most incredible off beat love story.

Douglas coupland's generation x - the last chapter reduces me to floods of happy cathartic tears.

Anything by orhan pamuk and kazuo Ishiguro.

I am now, following this thread, going to give the god of small things another try!

I also love The God of Small things.
Also, Love in time of Cholera and Perfume.
Complicity by Iain Banks and anything by Evelyn Waugh make me happy,

I also loved The God of Small Things and I'm also a big fan of David Mitchell. But two other beautiful written books I enjoyed are Ben Okri's The Famished Road and Tan Twan Eng's The Garden of Evening Mists

Cider With Rosie by Laurie Lee for the descriptions of character and settings, it's like being at the cinema only better.

I recently read A Small Island by Andea Levy which dealt with a difficult theme (racism and immigration in the 1940s) very movingly. The main characters were so very human - flawed, exasperating, occasionally hateful, often admirable. And it was witty. A beautiful book.

I love how Le Guin has maintained her brilliance. I remember getting A Wizard of Earthsea from the school library, 40 years ago and being utterly transported by it.

And, only recently, Powers, which she wrote a couple of years ago, had me completely mesmerised.

I love how she's grown so very, very wise and empathetic over the years.

Just remembered, "Breakfast at Tiffany'." A bit of an out there choice, maybe, but some of the lines are perfect poetry.

Also, and these might be less popular choice, both, "Lolita" and, "A Clockwork Orange" describe horrible things in absolutely impeccable prose.

Another really beautiful book is In the Place of Fallen Leaves by Tim Pears - his debut novel.

It is set in Devon during a long, hot summer, about an adolescent girl and a rural community. It is uplifting and quite simply beautiful. It is probably almost 20 years since I read it but I still remember many parts of it vividly.

My Antonia. Beautiful beautiful book.

The great gatsby.

Two different visions of America equally breathtaking.

"Paula" by Isabel Allende makes me weep every time I read it. It is heartbreaking and exquisitely written and very moving. I think it's an absolute masterpiece, and don't say that lightly.

Steinbeck's, "Of Mice and Men" packs such a lot into just six small chapters, and certain lines in it will always haunt me.

Some of the sections of Stephen King's Dark Tower series are also hauntingly beautiful. Without giving spoilers, there is a section where a character is being buried in a wood at the side of the road, and it is so, so powerful. I've read it over and over again and it just breaks me, every time.

Oops, meant The House At Pooh Corner!

You can't go wrong with Winnie the Pooh and The House and Pooh Corner for a meditative read

I also really enjoyed Vikram Seth's From Heaven Lake. About travelling in China and Tibet and beautifully written.

And lastly, Khaled Hosseini's And The Mountains Echoed. It's the first book I've read for ages that I could not put down.

Definitely The God of Small Things. The most beautiful book ever - the language is absolutely stunning. It's hard to describe - you just have to read it.

I also agree with The Remains of the Day (beautifully understated and terribly moving at the same time) and Gilead (some gorgeous stand-out passages).

Amongst Women by John McGahern is a quiet masterpiece that has an austere beauty about it.

The Humans by Matt Haig is a beautiful, warm, funny, uplifting book. He wrote it while suffering from depression....I can't put into words how good this book is. Everyone should read it.

Recently, I have loved 'the Paris wife', and 'newlyweds(?)' both very beautiful, lyrical stories about love.

Ring of Bright Water by Gavin Maxwell
Feast by Nigella Lawson

Maybe a bit of poetry?

Tennyson 'Come into the garden, Maud' is what I often read when feeling a bit bruised by life.
Also George Herbert, 'Love bade me welcome'

Cold Comfort Farm is surprisingly beautiful.

Lovely thread; so many of my favourites already mentioned. I think Le Guin is my favourite writer simply for her beautiful prose.

Lovely thread, there are some great suggestions here Taking notes.