Lit Net Top Author?

oh, Fifth, Halldor Laxness is incomparable, he is also one of my top five.

1. Dostoevsky
2. Shakespeare
3. Beckett
4. Tolstoy
5. Proust

Now Dostoevsky's most formidable rivals come together in my list: Tolstoy and Shakespeare. Let's see where it leads to.

Great thread! And Goethe makes my list. I'll put him first, although really these aren't ranked in order of preference. I'd be changing the order every few days.

1. Goethe
2. Dostoevsky
3. Thomas Hardy
4. Tagore
5. John Dickson Carr

Hardy seems to be making these lists quite a lot, I have a lot of time for Hardy especially with the likes of Jude and Tess, but for me his earlier works didn’t come close to this level of intensity, he's not consistant enough. I would personally choose Austen over Hardy for British prose due to her tight consistently across all of her works including Northanger Abbey. There would be several others to make the list before Hardy in British prose too I would put in Woolf, Emily Bronte, on the strength of one novel alone, perhaps Lawrence and maybe even my old friend Wilde. There maybe a case for Hardy in the top 25, maybe, but not in the top 5 surely?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by kelby_lake

In no order...

1- F Scott Fitzgerald
2- Tennessee Williams
2- Charles Dickens
3- Franz Kafka
4- Ambrose Bierce
5- Jane Austen

---

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Thespian1975

No cheating now ;)

---

kelby_lake; that's six authors, you have Dickens and Williams both on 2nd place :D

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Dark Muse

You know, it is just for fun, you needn't take everything so deathly seriously. If you are so against lists you needn't partake, but no need to be a humbug on everyone else for having a little fun.

---

Exactly!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by andave_ya

1. J.R.R. Tolkien
2. Fyodor Dostoevsky

Can I come up with my other three later?

---

Yes, of course.

1. Goethe
2. Hugo
3. Tolkien
4. Moliere
5. Shakespeare

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Riesa

oh, Fifth, Halldor Laxness is incomparable, he is also one of my top five.

---

There is something about his work isn't there? I've only read one, The Atom Station and will read more, but I already am sure that he's one of my favourites.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Thespian1975

I meant you chose 6 authors.

---

Whoops :blush: I'll go back and change it!

EDIT:
In no order...

1- F Scott Fitzgerald
2- Tennessee Williams
3- Charles Dickens
4- Franz Kafka
5- Vladimir Nabokov (sorry Austen!)

Without thinking about it too much, my favourite authors in alphabetical order-

1. Austen

2. Bronte (Charlotte)

3. Dickens

4. Tolstoy (Though I've read only two of his works)

5. Shakespeare

Okay, here's my top 5:

Selimović
Krleža
Kafka
Pushkin
Dostoevsky

If I had one more space available, it'd probably go to Danilo Kiš.

In no Order
1. Dickens.
2. Franz Kafka .
3. Albert Camus.
4. Joseph Conrad. (talent vastly under appreciated)
5. Dostoevsky.

JRR Tolkien
Virginia Woolf
Sylvia Plath
Ernest Hemingway
Anne Sexton

but a few of my favorites...

My list:

Dostoevsky
Hesse
Wilde
Dickens
Shakespeare

Dang, its hard to chose!

Let's see...

1. Nabokov
2. Fowles
3. Marquez
4. Caragiale (to add some of my own culture's flavour)
5. Sienkiewicz (for good memories)

Dostoevsky
Pushkin
Shakespeare
Nabokov
Hugo