Best Novel / Short Story / Poem

[Steerpike]

In or out of the fantasy genre, which novel, short story, and poem do you think is the best. Quantifying "the best" is impossible, but if you had to pick, what would you choose? Feel free to put a couple down in a category if you can't pick just one. The ones that come to my mind are:

Novel:

The Brothers Karamazov
Moby Dick

Short Story:

A Good Man in Hard to Find (Flannery O'Connor)

Poem:

Beowulf


If I'm looking specifically at Fantasy, maybe:

Novel:

Gormenghast/Titus Groan, by Meryvn Peake

Short Story:

Wolf-Alice, by Angela Carter

Poem:

Beowulf

Let's see your picks. Don't be shy! Feel free to discuss the merits (or lack thereof) of the choices mentioned in the thread

 

[Sparkie]

Novel: Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut

Short Story: Immortal Blood By Anonymous (I wish more of these writers for the Elder Scrolls series would identify themselves)

Poem: Book of Job (This isn't all poetic verse, but most of it is.)

 

[Chilari]

Novel: Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones

Short story: Don't have a favourite that I can think of right now.

Poem: The Jaberwocky by Lewis Carroll

 

[Ireth]

Novel: Reaper Man by Terry Pratchett.

Short story: Hard to say, I don't often read them.

Poem: The Raven by Edgar Allen Poe; The Lady of Shalott by Alfred, Lord Tennyson; The Highwayman by Alfred Noyes

 

[NeuroticNessie]

Novel:

Jack Maggs by Peter Carey
Mister Pip by Lloyd Jones

Short Story:

"Don't Get Distracted" by Sophia Cara Frydman

Poem:

"The Lady of Shallot" by Tennyson
"Sonnet 29" by Shakespeare