Best Novelist in the History of Literature?

[Bakunin]

I didn't know the best charcter from Soul Calibre wrote books!

I always preferred the mighty lone Samurai, Mitsurugi, personally.

With the even more powerful Siegfried coming a close second.

 

[Fictionist]

Leitmotif time.........

 

[DotCommunist]

I always preferred the mighty lone Samurai, Mitsurugi, personally.

With the even more powerful Siegfried coming a close second.

Mitsrugi pwns if you can get him in his high-guard stance, but killik and his pole is a tricky bugger regardless.

 

[ajk]

I didn't know the best charcter from Soul Calibre wrote books!

Calibur.

 

[scooter]

Jane Austen

 

[Diamond]

No question for me. Dostoevski. Particularly Brothers Karimasov

By a mile simply the greatest novel in the history of literature.

I feel sorry for anyone who has never had the privilege to read this fantastic book.

I have read lots of good novels but nothing, nothing has given me the electricity in the blood satisfaction of this perfect book.

If you have never read it, read it.

Needs a good editing.

 

[Diamond]

What is to be valued?

Height of their powers? Consistency? Breadth of achievement? Imagined personal relationship to said novelist? Etc............

Against all my instincts I find myself drawn towards recommending Thomas Mann on the strength of The Magic Mountain alone.

Also Tolstoy is the only legitimate answer.

(any chance of a pretentious smiley - maybe a monocle and a moustache?)

 

[phildwyer]

Dostoevsky

 

[Winston Legthigh]

Also Tolstoy is the only legitimate answer.

Needs a good editing.

 

[phildwyer]

No question for me. Dostoevski. Particularly Brothers Karimasov

By a mile simply the greatest novel in the history of literature.

I feel sorry for anyone who has never had the privilege to read this fantastic book.

I have read lots of good novels but nothing, nothing has given me the electricity in the blood satisfaction of this perfect book.

If you have never read it, read it.

I was going to write these exact words but I couldn't be bothered. Yer man speaks the truth--Karamazov is about ten times better than the closest contender (which is Devils also by Dos). Sorry if that sounds dogmatic, but I think anyone who's read it will agree.

 

[pk]

Not strictly a novelist but told a better tale than anyone else:

Wicked sense of humour, a real sense of passion and drama.

Failing that - I'll have Marcus Aurelius Antoninus Augustus.

 

[cesare]

Needs a good editing.

---------------

I'm quite keen on Flann O'Brien or maybe J.P. Donleavy. But that's just the mood I'm in tonight.

 

[dylans]

Devils is great but number 2 in my Dostoevski list would be Crime and Punishment. Good old Raskolnikov.

 

[gnoriac]

Another vote for Joyce (and I'm not Irish).

 

[dessiato]

For me it has to be this man Papa Hemingway. No matter how often I read him I always enjoy his writing. I'm even sad enough to visit places he did. He is why I went game fishing, and, perhaps, where my interest in Pamplona and fighting the bulls comes from.

 

[Dirty Martini]

Apart from 1984 (and maybe Animal Farm) I don't think any of his novels qualify as 'great'. He was a brilliant essayist/journalist though.

I think Coming Up For Air does. Better than anything else he did.

 

[Buddy Bradley]

I'd go for Marquez, but then I've never really read any Dostoevsky apart from The Idiot, and no Nabokov or Tolstoy at all.

 

[Belushi]

 

[Bakunin]

I had the complete collection at one time.

 

[dylans]

I'd go for Marquez, but then I've never really read any Dostoevsky apart from The Idiot, and no Nabokov or Tolstoy at all.

I really liked 100 years. exquisite writing style. Thats certainly one of my all time great reads. I read a few others too, The General In His Labyrinth and Noone Writes To The Colonel. All good stuff.

If you have only read The Idiot you should definitely read The Brothers Karamasov or Crime and Punishment. I found The Idiot a bit boring to be honest.

If you like magical realism, the Egyptian writer Naguib Mahfouz is great in that style. Try The Harafish. His writing reminds me of Marquez in many ways albeit from an Arabic perspective

 

[rich!]

Flann O'Brien is already on the list, I see, so I can go for Thos. Pynchon.

Although Ian MacDonald's Desolation Road is a strong contender...

 

[El Jefe]

not sure how to judge the "best", and I've missed too many greats to do so. But if we're talking the writer who has given me most reading pleasure in my life, I think I'd probably go for Jeffrey Eugenides.

Although if he doesn't write a new fucking book SOON, he's getting replaced by Michael Chabon.

 

[editor]

Dickens wasn't bad, you know.

 

[Cerberus]

Another vote for Orwell here. Although Graham Greene is right up there for me.

Its all pretty subjective though innit?

 

[Barking_Mad]

No question for me. Dostoevski. Particularly Brothers Karimasov

By a mile simply the greatest novel in the history of literature.

I feel sorry for anyone who has never had the privilege to read this fantastic book.

I have read lots of good novels but nothing, nothing has given me the electricity in the blood satisfaction of this perfect book.

If you have never read it, read it.

Agreed, a truly outstanding read for so many reasons.

 

[Maurice Picarda]

Giving anyone "best" is tricky but Robertson Davies should be in the top ten.

 

[Dozy]

Personally I do enjoy...

Stephen King
Charles Dickens
Terry Pratchett
George Orwell

 

[Idris2002]

Admit defeat, sasanaigh

 

[Orangesanlemons]

In terms of the beauty the writing alone, I'd pick Vladimir Nabokov.

The first and only correct answer in this thread thus far. Pale Fire, Lolita, Ada, all

 

[prunus]

Calvino. Blows me away every time.