Peter's Favourite Work of Art

My favourite work of art is ... really hard to choose. I like, in fact am passionate about, several different works of art. Some favourites that come quickly to mind are Hamlet, Pride and Prejudice, The Godfather, the Iliad and the essays of David Hume, which also reminds me that I love the dialogues of Plato: his Euthyphro and other works where the perfectly chosen language gives us insights into life in ancient Greece, the character of his Socrates whilst also conveying the philosophical questions that exercised him. My list of favourites is a bit literature heavy, but I also enjoy painting, with some of my favourites being Picasso, van Gogh, Hockney and the older masters such as Rembrandt and even da Vinci. If I had to pick one artist, Picasso is probably my favourite: it's one of his still lifes that appears on the heading for our Classroom group. I think his mastery of organizing lines, forms, colours to perfectly convey ideas in his chosen objects is unmatched by any other artist ever. 

But literature is my real love. How to pick one as a favourite? Although I love a lot of modern writing, from Harry Potter to Fight Club, the choice comes down to the very different works Pride and Prejudice, the novel by Jane Austen, and Homer's Iliad. If I judge based on how many times I've read and enjoyed the work, Austen is the winner: I've worn out several paper editions with rereading, although now that I have her work on Kindle, it doesn't wear out. But when I decluttered my home over the past couple of years, getting rid of most of my accumulated books of decades, I decided to keep all the old copies of Pride and Prejudice. I guess my behaviour tells me that this great novel, the best written in English, is my favourite work of art, but the competition is very close.