Who are the 5 best novelists in English literature?

Question

It's a broad question, and I leave it open to your own tastes. I narrowed it down to "novelists", as opposed to writers who were primarily poets or playwrights (ex: Shakespeare, Yeats, Eliot). My question includes all writers in the English language, not only from England. If you can, give the name of one book by each author and/or a reason for your choices! But please, don't rank authors based on bestseller status, only your personal preferences! Thanks!

Wow! Thanks for all the answers everyone! This was a good question to ask. Happily surprised to see everyone still reads! But really...Rowling?? Ranked among the classics? No...

Answer 1

John Bunyan - Pilgrims progress
Charles Dickens - The cricket on a hearth
Jane Austen - Pride and Prejudice
Charlotte Bronte - Wuthering heights
Daphne de Maurier - Rebecca
Alistair McLean - When eight bells toll
Bertolt Brecht - The Caucasian Chalk Circle

William Wordsworth - To a skylark
"Ethereal minstrel! pilgrim of the sky!
Dost thou despise the earth where cares abound?"

John Donne - Community
"Changed loves are but changed sorts of meat ;
And when he hath the kernel eat,
Who doth not fling away the shell?"

John Ruskin - quote
"The highest reward for man's toil is not what he gets for it, but what he becomes by it".

Lord Byron - To Women
"Surely experience might have told me,
That all must love thee, who behold thee;
Surely experience might have taught,
A woman's promises are naught,
But plac'd in all thy charms before me,
All I forget, but to adore thee.
Oh, memory! thou choicest blessing,
When join'd with hope, when still possessing;
Thou whisperest, as our hearts are beating,
"What oft we've done, we're still repeating."
But how much curst by every lover,
When hope is fled, and passion's over.
Woman that fair and fond deceiver,
How prompt are striplings to believe her,
How throbs the pulse, when first we view,
The eye that rolls in glossy blue;
Or sparkles black, or mildly throws,
A beam from under hazel brows;
How quick we credit every oath,
And hear her plight the willing troth;
Fondly we hope 'twill last for aye,
When lo! she changes in a day,
The Record will forever stand,
"That woman's vows, are writ in sand."

Shelley - On Life
"What is life? Thoughts and feelings arise, with or without our will, and we employ words to express them. We are born, and our birth is unremembered, and our infancy remembered but in fragments; we live on, and in living we lose the apprehension of life."

Thomas Gray - Curfew
"The Curfew tolls the knell of parting day,
The lowing herd winds slowly o'er the lea,
The plowman homeward plods his weary way,
And leaves the world to darkness and to me."

John Milton - on his blindness
"To serve therewith my Maker, and present
My true account, lest he returning chide,
"Doth God exact day-labour, light denied?""

Andrew Marvell - Eyes and Tears
"How wisely nature did decree,
With the same eyes to weep and see ;
That, having viewed the object vain,
They might be ready to complain !"

Chauser - Cantebury Tales
"And smale foules maken melodie,
That slepen alle night with open eye,
So priketh hem nature in hir corages;
Than longen folk to gon on pilgrimages."

Shakespeare - Midsummer Nights Dreams
Helena - "Ay, do, persever, counterfeit sad looks,
Make mouths upon me when I turn my back;
Wink each at other; hold the sweet jest up:
This sport, well carried, shall be chronicled."

Maxim Gorky - Mother (english translation)

But overcoming her fatigue, she again shouted with the remnants of her power:
"People, gather up your forces into one single force!"

She snatched her hand away from the gendarmes and caught hold of the doorpost.
"You will not drown the truth in seas of blood----"



a lots and more ......

Answer 2

Dickens Great Expectations
Vonnegut Slaughterhouse Five
Hemmingway I have to go with a short story here - Hills Like White Elephants
Fitzgerald The Great Gatsby
and Faulkner As I Lay Dying

I would have to add a 6th - Nathaniel Hawthorne - The Scarlet Letter.

And a 7th Margaret Atwood - The Handmaid's Tale

Can't be done in just five LOL

Those would be my choices. Pax - C.

Answer 3

Interesting question, and tough choices. My top five would be:

Charles Dickens, BLEAK HOUSE - almost every novel is a treasure and a classic, and his characters have become part of the world's cultural heritage

Jane Austen, PRIDE AND PREJUDICE - the greatest writer of the novel of manners, with a keen eye and ear to the foibles of society

George Eliot, MIDDLEMARCH - someone who could write intelligently about all classes and expose the secrets that lie inside us

William Faulkner, THE SOUND AND THE FURY - one of the greatest experimenters in the English language who could also tell a good story that could attract a mass audience

Thomas Hardy, JUDE THE OBSCURE - again, someone who could write intelligently of all classes and sexes

Answer 4

Diana Wynne Jones, author of "Deep Secret" is the author I admire most. She is wholly original, has a good style, and never writes down. Three of her books are on my all time best list.

Elizabeth Marie Pope's "The Perilous Gard" is close to perfect in every area.

Margaret Mahy's "The Changeover" shows her as another wholly original author with a wonderful style and command of character. This is also a close to perfect book.

There are so many other authors I admire that I'm going to stop at three, as I couldn't accurately place the others.

Answer 5

I have listed 2 modern best novelists and 3 classical figures in English lierature.


Joanne K. Rowling....The adventures of Harry Potter

Charles Dickens........Great Expectations

Lewis Carroll..............Alice Adventures in Wonderland

Ian Fleming.................James Bond, 007

Agatha Christie..........Witness for the Prosecution

Answer 6

What I like:Kurt Vonnegut,Slapstick,Welcome to the Monkey House...,Thomas Hardy,Far From the Madding Crowd,Return Of The Native...,Jane Austen,Pride And Prejudice,Ayn Rand,The Fountainhead,Robert M. Pirsig,Zen and The Art Of Motorcycle Maintenance,Lila...,Carlos Castenada,Tales of Power,Mary Renault,The King Must Die.If you haven't read some of these,check them out.I don't read as much as I used to because I am obsessive.I will stay up all night and zone out of the world reading a novel.A good test of the writer's art is how it holds up in multiple readings.I read "The Grapes Of Wrath" for the first time last summer and I have to say that it is as near to perfect as I have seen.I cried out loud on the last page.Steinbeck was beautiful.

Answer 7

Jane Austen, Terry Goodkind, Frank Herbert, JK Rowling (hey, what can I say? Harry Potter is too good to resist!), and JRR Tolkien. I'm not offering any explanation, I figure that most people wouldn't understand my reasons anyway. :) I would say Shakespeare, but you already said no poets/playwrights.

Did you want specific works? Jane Austen: Um, everything...She's just all around awesome!

Terry Goodkind: The Sword of Truth series.

Frank Herbert: Dune. Best book I've ever read. :) I guess it's because I like scifi, but still.

JK Rowling: Harry Potter series. Very entertaining when there's nothing else to do! In case people on here aren't "HP Sleuths" or whatever they're called, the rhyme from the prophecy in book 5 says when the next book will be announced. "At the solstice will come a new"...Ok, I have too much time on my hands...

JRR Tolkien: Lord of the Rings. The books are better than the movies, as always. :)

Answer 8

I felt sure some div would say Rowling,I wasn't wrong

Answer 9

'Shakespeare','Thomas Hardy','Charles Dickens',plus two others

Answer 10

i'm not sure...but if I was you I would go to
www.ask.com
they have sum pretty good answers for things if your always looking for things...best of luck!
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