Anyone who writes knows the struggle of crafting a good sentence. In an email from Publishers Weekly, there was a post on 5 Perfect Sentences II (there is a link to the first instance).

That got me to thinking about “perfect sentences” that I can remember. Two that stand out to me are:

Rafael Sabatini

1. “He was born with a gift of laughter and a sense that the world was mad.” Scaramouche, by Rafael Sabatini. The apposition of “laughter” and “mad” and the crystallization of a character in this brief summary is masterful.

Alan Paton

2. “There is a lovely road that runs from Ixopo into the hills.” Cry, The Beloved Country, by Alan Paton. Reading that, I wanted to follow that road into the hills to discover the loveliness. It led me into Paton’s wonderful novel about South Africa.

I can’t say any of the instances in the Publishers Weekly post were examples I would have thought of although I can see why they were chosen. But it suggests to me that there are a number of others one might come up with.

I’m curious, particularly for the writers out there, what makes a perfect sentence? And for the readers out there, what examples of perfect sentences can you come up with?