Who is your favorite CLASSICAL writer and why?

Question

I want to know about your opinions on poetry, novels, plays, etc. Anything by a classical writer, such as: Dickenson, Austen, Shakespeare, Dumas, etc. Don't just give names. Please give your feelings on that person/work and his/her influence or insight. :)

I love Charles Dickens, but I meant Dickinson - Emily Dickinson to be precise. (although I did slightly misspell her last name the first time I have read and love all her known works)

Answer 1

My first choice has to be Shakespeare. Four hundred years ago he wrote stories that still apply to our lives. It's not even that his stories are unique, as most of them are "borrowed" from other sources. The characters and relationships in Shakespeare's plays have emotional cores that resonate with a fundamental truth of what it means to be human. His use of language goes beyond being masterful--he sculpted with words, and introduced more words and phrases into the English language than most people realize.

My second choice is Jane Austen, for her elegant, witty, and loving representations of the society in which she lived. Edith Wharton gives similarly insightful and witty portrayals of her society, although she has a more cutting than loving angle.

Answer 2

Robin McKinley Philip Jose Farmer Tara ok Harper Thomas Burnett Swann Mercedes Lackey Katherine Kerr Katherine Kurtz Barbara Hambly Steven Brust Peter Morwood Andre Norton Marion Zimmer Bradley Elizabeth Peters aka Barbara Michaels Terry Goodkind George R R Martin Raymond E Feist Janny Wurtz David Brin et al

Answer 3

I do love Jane Austen. I love PRIDE AND PREJUDICE. But I also really enjoyed PERSUASION. (Well, really almost all of her novels). I love her work because it's all about the characters, dialogue, and the setting.

I do like Shakespeare, in small doses. I've probably read ten or twelve plays. My favorite being Much Ado About Nothing. I absolutely adore that one :) I like reading plays and then finding a film version to watch.

I absolutely LOVE Alexander Dumas though. I particularly love The Count of Monte Cristo. (Be aware that they like to sell that one abridged in most editions.) And I really enjoyed The Three Musketeers.

Kate Chopin (The Awakening) has some great short stories which I love.

Edith Wharton has some great short stories as well. I love "Roman Fever."

I enjoyed EVELINA by Frances "Fanny" Burney (although I think that's probably one of the few novels in print by her these days).

I also enjoyed Moll Flanders by Daniel Defoe, although I did not care for Robinson Crusoe (because it causes nightmarish flashbacks of high school).

I've read Mill on the Floss and Middlemarch by George Eliot (Mary Ann Evans) and enjoyed them although I have not read any more of her work.

I've read Frankenstein too many times to even count. But it does grown on you after the third or fourth time.

More "modern" classic authors, I'd have to say that I absolutely love Zora Neale Hurston. I especially love Their Eyes Were Watching God.

Why are my favorite authors my favorite? I'd have to say because each one has a way with developing characters and using language in a memorable way. They've got a certain something that makes them timeless. And these writers happen to have influenced the time in which they lived. They influenced other writers. They influenced their genre, etc. They contributed something valuable to society.

Answer 4

I love Jane Austen! My favorite of all her works is Pride and Prejudice. Her novels have shade, and they teach a lesson while telling an interesting story (believe me, that's harder then it sounds!) She was such a brilliant woman, whatever she wrote was guaranteed to be a classic!

Answer 5

Oh My God me too I realy love the way Emily gives her writing a sense of realism. Although borderline satyr if not there allready her work presents a very dark emotion which i feel sadness and despondency show more emotion. All the while retaining her philisophical notins as in "we never know how tall we are untill were brought to rise"

Answer 6

I really like Jane Austen. She writes about relationships, and her observations still ring true today. She has wit as well. I think you mean Charles Dickens, and he is a great writer too.

Answer 7

Well I think It is Jane Austen, her work is wonderfully enjoyable and absolutely timeless, I'm sure it will be loved for many hundreds of years to come But I also like Anne Radcliffe who, lets not forget inspired Jane's work in many ways and was one of her own favorites.

Answer 8

My personal favorites are the Bronte sisters, especially Charlotte. I love "Jane Eyre" because it is so progressive for its time. Charlotte creates characters that are so intense and so real. Jane in particular is a great example of the Bronte tradition of creating strongwilled female protagonists. She is fiesty and intelligent, but afraid to be compassionate and lovable either. Plus, you can't beat Victorian England settings either.

Answer 9

jane austen is a good one. pride and prejudice was very well-written and it had a moral. it trys to tell people to be open-minded and not judge based on social status and things of that nature. charles dickens is another with his book great expectations. its about moral redemption. those are just two but i could go on forever so.........

Answer 10

Herman Melville because he wrote Moby Dick with such a passion and great detail. Moby Dick gives such insight into life and human suffering.