A Discussion Devoted To Great Writers.

Pippin Skywalker · 09-17-2001, 07:19 PM

First to start....who do you all think make up the top 5 list of all time?

Here are some that I think are great:

Shakespeare
Victor Hugo
Fyodor Dostyevsky

***IronParrot*** · 09-19-2001, 12:36 AM

I think Shakespeare is overrated. Great writer, but not nearly as... godly... as he is perceived by the literati. He can sure write dialogue and poetry, but he sure as hell can't do anything else.

The following would certainly be on my short-shortlist of English-language fiction authors (this kind of "greatest" thing can get very messy if you talk about all authors):

J.R.R. Tolkien - Depth in all areas, "visual"/imaginative, literary, and linguistic. Absolutely unmatched in storytelling. He created the sword-and-sorcery epic. (Though it had its roots in Beowulf, the Nieblungenlied and Arthurian legend, for sure...)

Lewis Carroll - The original wit-monger of whimsy. I'd list great-among-greats authors along the same vein such as Douglas Adams or J.K. Rowling (or at a stretch, even George Orwell), but it all goes back to him. I'd also go as far as to identify him as the granddaddy of children's literature.

Agatha Christie - In my opinion, more influential in the puzzle-devising-and-solving aspect of early mystery writing than Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, but I haven't read much Sherlock Holmes so I won't make that judgment. On the same note...

Raymond Chandler - one of the two fathers of the Private Eye story. (Hammett's the other.) Anyone who creates characters who are imitated to the point where they are regarded as stereotypes (also see: Tolkien) to this extent deserves a mention.

Charles Dickens - love him or hate him, you can't deny that his voluminous repertoire defined an entire era of English literature. Is he one of my favourites? No, but in terms of sheer influence he deserves a mention at least as much as Shakespeare would ever.

Meanwhile I should note that there are just simply so many authors whose works I haven't experienced... Henry James, Jane Austen, Timothy Findley, J.D. Salinger, and Isaac Asimov, to name a few. So this mini-mini-list of mine is skewed in a way. Also, despite my inclusion of Tolkien and Carroll, whose influence on fiction writing cannot be ignored, I have tried to refrain from naming authors who only produced a handful of works, or maybe even just one. Dashiell Hammett, Margaret Mitchell, William Golding, William Goldman, the list goes on and on.

galadriel · 09-25-2001, 03:19 PM

Tolkien, of course, is up there.

Shakespeare *is* a bit overrated, but he's still pretty good. Agatha Christie and Lewis Carroll are great too.

An extremely talented and somewhat underappreciated writer is Orson Scott Card. He primarily writes science fiction, but he's done some fantasy writing too. His most famous book, Ender's Game, was written when he was just eighteen, and his books get even better from there. His writing style and incredibly realistic characters are really appealing, and you don't have to be a sci-fi fan to enjoy his books.

Edgar Allan Poe? So far, I've only read a little bit of his work, mostly poems, but I really like what I've read. The Telltale Heart is awesome.

Sakata · 10-02-2001, 12:20 AM

Poe is good, Tolkien is better, I think Terry Brooks has a lot of potental if he would get original and stop indirectly copying Tolkien!
(in refrece to the Shannara series)

Finmandos12 · 10-02-2001, 08:55 AM

The Telltale Heart was a little disturbing.. But I guess that's what happens to you when most of your family dies when you're young.

I have never been that impressed with Shakespeare. All he could write was tragedy and romance, albeit very well, and his romance practically is tragedy.

I think Tom Clancy is an awesome wirter as well.

The sword and sworcery genre also had roots in the Elder Edda.

galadriel · 10-03-2001, 03:25 PM

The Telltale Heart *is* disturbing. That's what makes it such a great story! (I suppose that's a morbid point of view. Oh well.)

Shakespeare could do light-hearted romances well too. A Midsummer's Night Dream is one of my favorite plays ever. Some of his other stuff wasn't so great....the Tempest kind of bored me, although it had some good stuff. But I agree, he was definitely best at tragedy.

Pippin Skywalker · 10-03-2001, 05:08 PM

Let us not forget the Russian authors! There were some good ones!

Brothers Karamazov (Dostoevsky)is considered perhaps the greatest novel ever written.Other great works by him include: Crime and Punishment,The Idiot and The devils.

I liked Herman Melville's Moby Dick! What is wrong with it? It is Shakespearian....the whole thing with the white whale is AWESOME....and Ahab is a brilliant character. Sure...there was that long bit about how they do whaling...but it was still a wonderful book!

***IronParrot*** · 10-03-2001, 11:32 PM

I found A Midsummer Night's Dream to be far more exhilirating and witty than any of Shakespeare's other works I've become familiar with over the years.

So that aside, I still say he's overrated.

Pippin Skywalker · 10-04-2001, 02:33 PM

May I ask all of you....

How much Shakespeare have you ACTUALLY READ?

***IronParrot*** · 10-07-2001, 01:49 AM

Admittedly, not much. Just four or five of his plays. I've seen maybe just a tad more than that performed (plays were not meant to be *read*!)

But usually that's enough of a sample to make me decide whether or not I'll keep reading a writer's works, stop reading them, or defer them to the bottom rung of my incredibly-long priority ladder.

ringbearer · 10-09-2001, 11:03 PM

Iron Parrot has the best answer about why Shakespear is not a good author!

Quote:

(plays were not meant to be *read*!)

He is not an author he is a playwrite!

Matto Baggins · 12-19-2001, 05:56 PM

have any of you ever read shakespeare's sonnets. they were meant to be read and anyone who can write sonnets that well is a great writer.

that aside, my list is as follows:

shakespeare
Leo Tolstoy
Louis L'Amour
JRR TOLKIEN
john steinbeck(who can argue with the grapes of wrath and of mice and men)

Matto Baggins · 12-19-2001, 05:59 PM

dickens is my absolute favorite author
(don't know why i left him off the list????)

Desdemona · 12-19-2001, 09:17 PM

Graham Greene and Evelyn Waugh definitely belong on the list.

About Shakespeare - gotta agree with IronParrot - Shakespeare wrote plays meant to be seen by an almost entirely illiterate audience. He never expected anyone to actually sit down and read them.

Matto Baggins · 12-19-2001, 10:27 PM

i will say again: read the sonnets

Lumina · 12-30-2001, 09:06 PM

Thumbs up to Shakespeare (overrated? Bah, humbug!), Evelyn Waugh (I adore Brideshead Revisited and A Handful of Dust), Tolstoy (read The Death of Ivan Ilyich), Hugo (Les Mis!) and Dostoyevsky (everything!) - and, of course, Tolkien. Some of my very favourite writers. Of course there are countless others to be added - for now I'll just content myself with mentioning Oscar Wilde.

CardenIAntauraNauco · 12-30-2001, 10:39 PM

My favourite Authors are in order

J.R.R. Tolkien
C.S.Lewis
Charles Dickens
Jules Verne
Carl Stephenson
Frank Peretti
Stephen Lawhead

Lis Kester · 01-04-2002, 02:54 PM

I can only say that the BEST writers are simply the ones I love the most, the ones I return to again and again. So here's few of my favorites, although I know I'm forgetting some:

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Sherlock Holmes stories
JRR Tolkien
Dennis Lehane
Stephen King, The Body, Bag of Bones
Susan Cooper
George RR Martin
Robert Jordan
Mark Twain, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Laurell K Hamilton - her books are just FUN!
E Nesbit
Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities

And so many more that I'm forgetting!

FrodoFriend · 01-23-2002, 12:00 AM

Yay! I love literature! Best authors & their best works for me would definitely be:

George Orwell - 1984
JRR Tolkien - Lord of the Rings
Charles Dickens - Hard Times
Ray Bradbury - Fahrenheit 451
Ursula K. LeGuin - The Dispossessed
Ken Kesey - One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

There are too many to go on . . .

cee2lee2 · 01-23-2002, 11:05 PM

I don't feel qualified to determine the greatest but Jane Austen is one of my favorites. I like her attention to ordinary people.

09-17-2001, 07:19 PM	#1
Pippin Skywalker Enting Join Date: Aug 2001 Location: Long Island, New York Posts: 93	A Discussion Devoted To Great Writers. First to start....who do you all think make up the top 5 list of all time? Here are some that I think are great: Shakespeare Victor Hugo Fyodor Dostyevsky

09-19-2001, 12:36 AM	#2
*IronParrot* Fowl Administrator Join Date: Dec 1999 Location: Calgary or Edmonton, Canada Posts: 53,420	I think Shakespeare is overrated. Great writer, but not nearly as... godly... as he is perceived by the literati. He can sure write dialogue and poetry, but he sure as hell can't do anything else. The following would certainly be on my short-shortlist of English-language fiction authors (this kind of "greatest" thing can get very messy if you talk about all authors): J.R.R. Tolkien - Depth in all areas, "visual"/imaginative, literary, and linguistic. Absolutely unmatched in storytelling. He created the sword-and-sorcery epic. (Though it had its roots in Beowulf, the Nieblungenlied and Arthurian legend, for sure...) Lewis Carroll - The original wit-monger of whimsy. I'd list great-among-greats authors along the same vein such as Douglas Adams or J.K. Rowling (or at a stretch, even George Orwell), but it all goes back to him. I'd also go as far as to identify him as the granddaddy of children's literature. Agatha Christie - In my opinion, more influential in the puzzle-devising-and-solving aspect of early mystery writing than Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, but I haven't read much Sherlock Holmes so I won't make that judgment. On the same note... Raymond Chandler - one of the two fathers of the Private Eye story. (Hammett's the other.) Anyone who creates characters who are imitated to the point where they are regarded as stereotypes (also see: Tolkien) to this extent deserves a mention. Charles Dickens - love him or hate him, you can't deny that his voluminous repertoire defined an entire era of English literature. Is he one of my favourites? No, but in terms of sheer influence he deserves a mention at least as much as Shakespeare would ever. Meanwhile I should note that there are just simply so many authors whose works I haven't experienced... Henry James, Jane Austen, Timothy Findley, J.D. Salinger, and Isaac Asimov, to name a few. So this mini-mini-list of mine is skewed in a way. Also, despite my inclusion of Tolkien and Carroll, whose influence on fiction writing cannot be ignored, I have tried to refrain from naming authors who only produced a handful of works, or maybe even just one. Dashiell Hammett, Margaret Mitchell, William Golding, William Goldman, the list goes on and on. __________________ All of IronParrot's posts are guaranteed to be 100% intelligent and/or sarcastic, comprising no genetically modified content and tested on no cute furry little animals unless the SPCA is looking elsewhere. If you observe a failure to uphold this warranty, please contact a forum administrator immediately to receive a full refund on your Entmoot registration. Blog: Nick's Café Canadien

09-25-2001, 03:19 PM	#3
galadriel Elven Warrior Join Date: Aug 2001 Location: a castle made of clouds Posts: 459	Tolkien, of course, is up there. Shakespeare is a bit overrated, but he's still pretty good. Agatha Christie and Lewis Carroll are great too. An extremely talented and somewhat underappreciated writer is Orson Scott Card. He primarily writes science fiction, but he's done some fantasy writing too. His most famous book, Ender's Game, was written when he was just eighteen, and his books get even better from there. His writing style and incredibly realistic characters are really appealing, and you don't have to be a sci-fi fan to enjoy his books. Edgar Allan Poe? So far, I've only read a little bit of his work, mostly poems, but I really like what I've read. The Telltale Heart is awesome. __________________ Human kind cannot bear very much reality. dreamflower - for all things Lady Galadriel

10-02-2001, 12:20 AM	#4
Sakata Elven Warrior Join Date: Sep 2001 Location: Lothlorien Posts: 216	Poe is good, Tolkien is better, I think Terry Brooks has a lot of potental if he would get original and stop indirectly copying Tolkien! (in refrece to the Shannara series) __________________ "When evil people come to destroy me, when my enemies and foes attack me, they will stumble and fall. Though a mighty army surrounds me, my heart will know no fear." -Psalms 27:2-3 -Dare you venture into Gollum's Lair? JESUS LIVES!

10-02-2001, 08:55 AM	#5
Finmandos12 Elven Warrior Join Date: Jul 2001 Location: Tampa Posts: 327	The Telltale Heart was a little disturbing.. But I guess that's what happens to you when most of your family dies when you're young. I have never been that impressed with Shakespeare. All he could write was tragedy and romance, albeit very well, and his romance practically is tragedy. I think Tom Clancy is an awesome wirter as well. The sword and sworcery genre also had roots in the Elder Edda. __________________ The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it.

10-03-2001, 03:25 PM	#6
galadriel Elven Warrior Join Date: Aug 2001 Location: a castle made of clouds Posts: 459	The Telltale Heart is disturbing. That's what makes it such a great story! (I suppose that's a morbid point of view. Oh well.) Shakespeare could do light-hearted romances well too. A Midsummer's Night Dream is one of my favorite plays ever. Some of his other stuff wasn't so great....the Tempest kind of bored me, although it had some good stuff. But I agree, he was definitely best at tragedy. __________________ Human kind cannot bear very much reality. dreamflower - for all things Lady Galadriel

10-03-2001, 05:08 PM	#7
Pippin Skywalker Enting Join Date: Aug 2001 Location: Long Island, New York Posts: 93	Let us not forget the Russian authors! There were some good ones! Brothers Karamazov (Dostoevsky)is considered perhaps the greatest novel ever written.Other great works by him include: Crime and Punishment,The Idiot and The devils. I liked Herman Melville's Moby Dick! What is wrong with it? It is Shakespearian....the whole thing with the white whale is AWESOME....and Ahab is a brilliant character. Sure...there was that long bit about how they do whaling...but it was still a wonderful book!

10-03-2001, 11:32 PM	#8
*IronParrot* Fowl Administrator Join Date: Dec 1999 Location: Calgary or Edmonton, Canada Posts: 53,420	I found A Midsummer Night's Dream to be far more exhilirating and witty than any of Shakespeare's other works I've become familiar with over the years. So that aside, I still say he's overrated. __________________ All of IronParrot's posts are guaranteed to be 100% intelligent and/or sarcastic, comprising no genetically modified content and tested on no cute furry little animals unless the SPCA is looking elsewhere. If you observe a failure to uphold this warranty, please contact a forum administrator immediately to receive a full refund on your Entmoot registration. Blog: Nick's Café Canadien

10-04-2001, 02:33 PM	#9
Pippin Skywalker Enting Join Date: Aug 2001 Location: Long Island, New York Posts: 93	May I ask all of you.... How much Shakespeare have you ACTUALLY READ?

10-07-2001, 01:49 AM	#10
*IronParrot* Fowl Administrator Join Date: Dec 1999 Location: Calgary or Edmonton, Canada Posts: 53,420	Admittedly, not much. Just four or five of his plays. I've seen maybe just a tad more than that performed (plays were not meant to be read!) But usually that's enough of a sample to make me decide whether or not I'll keep reading a writer's works, stop reading them, or defer them to the bottom rung of my incredibly-long priority ladder. __________________ All of IronParrot's posts are guaranteed to be 100% intelligent and/or sarcastic, comprising no genetically modified content and tested on no cute furry little animals unless the SPCA is looking elsewhere. If you observe a failure to uphold this warranty, please contact a forum administrator immediately to receive a full refund on your Entmoot registration. Blog: Nick's Café Canadien

12-19-2001, 05:56 PM	#12
Matto Baggins Hobbit Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: NJ Posts: 23	have any of you ever read shakespeare's sonnets. they were meant to be read and anyone who can write sonnets that well is a great writer. that aside, my list is as follows: shakespeare Leo Tolstoy Louis L'Amour JRR TOLKIEN john steinbeck(who can argue with the grapes of wrath and of mice and men) __________________ The Road May Be Long And Hard, But I Will Follow The Course To It's End. HOBBITS LIVE FREE!

12-19-2001, 05:59 PM	#13
Matto Baggins Hobbit Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: NJ Posts: 23	dickens is my absolute favorite author (don't know why i left him off the list????) __________________ The Road May Be Long And Hard, But I Will Follow The Course To It's End. HOBBITS LIVE FREE!

12-19-2001, 09:17 PM	#14
Desdemona Sapling Join Date: Oct 2001 Location: Essex Co., NJ Posts: 8	Graham Greene and Evelyn Waugh definitely belong on the list. About Shakespeare - gotta agree with IronParrot - Shakespeare wrote plays meant to be seen by an almost entirely illiterate audience. He never expected anyone to actually sit down and read them.

12-19-2001, 10:27 PM	#15
Matto Baggins Hobbit Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: NJ Posts: 23	i will say again: read the sonnets __________________ The Road May Be Long And Hard, But I Will Follow The Course To It's End. HOBBITS LIVE FREE!

12-30-2001, 09:06 PM	#16
Lumina Sapling Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Sydney, Australia Posts: 14	Thumbs up to Shakespeare (overrated? Bah, humbug!), Evelyn Waugh (I adore Brideshead Revisited and A Handful of Dust), Tolstoy (read The Death of Ivan Ilyich), Hugo (Les Mis!) and Dostoyevsky (everything!) - and, of course, Tolkien. Some of my very favourite writers. Of course there are countless others to be added - for now I'll just content myself with mentioning Oscar Wilde. __________________ I trust I make myself obscure?

12-30-2001, 10:39 PM	#17
CardenIAntauraNauco Elven Warrior Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: rural oklahoma Posts: 324	My favourite Authors are in order J.R.R. Tolkien C.S.Lewis Charles Dickens Jules Verne Carl Stephenson Frank Peretti Stephen Lawhead __________________ "We will have peace","Yes we will have peace...we will have peace when you and all your works have perished - and the works of your dark lord to whom you would deliver us. You are a liar,Saruman,and a corrupter of men's hearts. You hold out your hand to me and I percieve only a finger of the claw of Mordor. Cruel and cold! Even if your war on me was just - as it was not,for were you ten times as wise you would have no right to rule me and mine, for your own profit you desired-even so, what will you say of your Torches in westfold and the children that lie dead there? And they hewed Hama's body before the gates of Hornburg, after he was dead. When you hang from a gibbet at your window for the sport of your own crows, I will have peace with you and Orthanc. So much for the House of Eorl. A lesser son of greater Sires am I, but I do not need to lick your fingers. Turn elsewither for I fear your voice has lost it's charm.

01-04-2002, 02:54 PM	#18
Lis Kester Sapling Join Date: Dec 2001 Posts: 6	I can only say that the BEST writers are simply the ones I love the most, the ones I return to again and again. So here's few of my favorites, although I know I'm forgetting some: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Sherlock Holmes stories JRR Tolkien Dennis Lehane Stephen King, The Body, Bag of Bones Susan Cooper George RR Martin Robert Jordan Mark Twain, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Laurell K Hamilton - her books are just FUN! E Nesbit Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities And so many more that I'm forgetting!

01-23-2002, 12:00 AM	#19
FrodoFriend Halfwitted Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Eryn Vorn Posts: 1,659	Yay! I love literature! Best authors & their best works for me would definitely be: George Orwell - 1984 JRR Tolkien - Lord of the Rings Charles Dickens - Hard Times Ray Bradbury - Fahrenheit 451 Ursula K. LeGuin - The Dispossessed Ken Kesey - One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest There are too many to go on . . . __________________ Fingolfin lives! ... in my finger! The Crossroads of Arda - Warning. Halfwit content. Not appropriate for people with IQ of over 18. The Fellowship of the Message Board Nyáréonié - The Tale of Tears

01-23-2002, 11:05 PM	#20
cee2lee2 Elf Lord Join Date: Aug 2001 Location: 2nd star to the left..... Posts: 566	I don't feel qualified to determine the greatest but Jane Austen is one of my favorites. I like her attention to ordinary people.

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