Pnin
Vladimir Nabokov
On one level, this is an academic satire, and a very good one indeed. Pnin, a rather ridiculous absent-minded professor, comes in for mostly gentle mocking. The set pieces and depictions of academia are at times laugh-out-loud funny. But soon enough we discern an undercurrent of deep melancholy and even tragedy, and various indications that the omniscient narrator may not be completely reliable. Who is this narrator? And who is this Pnin? Fool, or modest hero? And the prose: Many sentences and passages will make you catch your breath. As close to perfect as a little novel can be.
The Surgeon's Mate
Patrick O'Brian
This one finds intrepid Aubrey and Maturin on a clever and successful mission in the Baltic Sea, later shipwrecked in Brittany and imprisoned in Paris, with an escape and wedding to close out the yarn. Maybe too much plot?... but never too much Aubrey, Maturin, or seafaring adventure.
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