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/lit/ - Literature

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1505571 No.1505571 [Reply] [Original]

Who is the greatest novelist? I want to here your opinion /lit/. I want to set a few criteria though. It must be someone best known for his novels and he must have wrote 4 novels, so no one who just happened to write one or two really good novels.

Here are some of my picks:

William Faulkner. Most notable works include: The Sound and the Fury, As I Lay Dying, Light in August, Absalom, Absalom!

Charles Dickens. Most notable works include: David Copperfield, A Tale of Two Cities, Bleak House, Hard Times

Henry James. Most notable works include: The Portrait of a Lady, The American, The Wings of the Dove

Thomas Hardy. Most notable works include: Tess of the d'Urbervilles, Jude the Obscure, Far from the Madding Crowd, The Return of the Native

>> No.1505591

Jane Austen.

I do find it interesting that my mind tends to immediately go to 19th century English writers, the Victorians mainly - I think I associate that with the heyday of the novel, which historically I suppose it was. I think there's going to be a lot of people on /lit/ arguing for one of a number of Russians, and I suppose that's the other great novelist culture.

>> No.1505619

I'd say Charles Dickens, simply because he's my favorite, his popularity, and mythic aspect of his work. G.K. Chesterton said that he didn't so much write novels and create mythologies.
But really, the question is too ambiguous as well as too personal to ever be answered with more than an opinion. Frankly, it's pointless to ask anything more than "who is your favorite author?" That's certainly more to the point then "Who is the greatest novelist?"

>> No.1505621

james motherfucking joyce.

>> No.1505620

You really do suck shit.

>> No.1505630

>>1505620
Who are you even talking to?

>> No.1505632

>>1505621
>It must be someone best known for his novels and he must have wrote 4 novels

>> No.1505639

>>1505632

>implying james joyce isn't best known for his novels
>implying quantity trumps quality
>my fucking face when

>> No.1505641

Cervantes.

/thread

>> No.1505645

>>1505639
One could argue that one truly great novel is worth more than four good ones, but prove to me that the man who wrote one great novel can write four more like it and I'll believe you have a point. I'd argue that being consistently good is better than being sporadically great.

>> No.1505652

>>1505621

Four novels... but that's a stupid requirement. If you want to toss out one novel novelists (Murakami Shikibu, Ralph Ellison, Harper Lee) okay but four seems just like an arbitrary number to screw Joyce.

>> No.1505655

>>1505639
I only meant to imply the second part, the quantity part. He is obvious best known for Portrait and Ulysses. I couldn't call him one of the greatest novelists ever though simply because he has such a small body of work. The other part, the first part, would apply to someone like Samuel Beckett.

>> No.1505656

>>1505645

Ulysses alone counts for at least 3 novels. Portrait of the Artist is a masterpiece, too. Finnegans Wake is trash, though.


also, Doestoyevsky

>> No.1505658

I'm sitting about half a mile from Faulkner's grave. I'll bet there's people sitting out there as we speak. People leave whiskey bottles on his tombstone and stick pens in the ground there.

>> No.1505659

>>1505652
How about five then? It seems less arbitrary.

>> No.1505661

>>1505652
>Murakami Shikibu

Hahah, what the fuck dude. I think you meant Murasaki, not Murakami. Though that's a mindfuck to think about.

>> No.1505662

>>1505656
>Doestoyevsky

What would you consider to be his best works as a novelist?

>> No.1505664

>>1505656
No, it doesn't. It counts are one. I'm not saying Joyce was a bad author, and I'm not saying that writing a lot makes you good. In fact, I already said what I wanted to say with perfect clarity, so I'll stop explaining myself.

>> No.1505665

>>1505662

Crime and Punishment, Notes From Underground, Brothers Karamazov.

the 4-novel thing is ridic.

>> No.1505670

>>1505661

Yeah I realized that a few seconds after I posted (I even have the Royall Tyler translation right next to me). That would be way too many authors named Murakami

>> No.1505683

David Foster Wallace

>not trolling

>> No.1505684

Fuck it... "Stephen Hero", a fourth James Joyce novel, who is the greatest novelist ever.

>> No.1505701

>>1505683
Didn't he write like only 2 novels?

>> No.1505703

>>1505701

Yep. Only three if you include "The Pale King".

>> No.1505715

>>1505703
And you think he has done enough to be mentioned along with William Faulkner and Charles Dickens?

>> No.1505724

>>1505715

Not that guy, but yes. He did something completely unique in constructing his Infinite Jest. It's distinctly DFW, wacky, sentimental, and very smart. It is the best book of the 1990s and isn't mentioned with many of the greats because most people don't want to take the journey with DFW. It's a very rewarding read.

I would prefer to read DFW to Faulkner, but that's just my opinion. I appreciate both for different reasons.

>> No.1505751

>>1505724
So I guess Infinite Jest would be as good as The Sound and The Fury, As I lay Dying, Absalom and Light in August combined, and his other novel would be as good as the rest of Faulkner's novels combined.

Or you could put it this way, Infinite Jest is as good as David Copperfield, A Tale of Two Cities, Great Expectations, Bleak House and Hard time combined and as his other novel is as good as the rest of Charles Dickens novels combined.

I see. That's pretty much what you think right? It seems so. Just want to make sure.

>> No.1505760

>>1505751
Frankly this kind of WHO IS BEST NOVELIST dickmeasuring contest stuff is always bullshit because of course there's no best novelist - there's a bunch of different novelists each of whom has his own particular excelleneces, his own intrinsic goodness. It's even less meaningful or useful or enjoyable when it descends into stupid bitching and pedantic rules lawyering. Knock it the fuck off. It's a meaningless question anyway.

>> No.1505765

>>1505751

Heh. You like being snotty to people on the internet or something?

I said I'd rather reread Infinite Jest than Great Expectations, The Sound and The Fury, or Absalom, Absalom!

That's all. You're the one that insists on making an objective rating.

>> No.1505772

>>1505760
And why was this directed at my post? A post dedicated to breaking down and comprehending someone else opinion...

>> No.1505776

"It must be someone best known for his novels and he must have wrote 4 novel"

I find this criterion strange. A good number of the best bnovels seem to be the ones where an author poured everything into one work. Moby Dick, Wuthering Heights, Don Quixote, The Trial/The Castle

>> No.1505780

>>1505765
>Heh. You like being snotty to people on the internet or something?

How is it snotty? I don't think there was anything snotty in my post. I don't think there was anything about making an "objective ranking" in my post either. You seem to have reacted strangely to my post as if it bothered you even though it was merely trying to understand your opinion. Are you somewhat embarrassed about your opinion? I wouldn't think so, you posted it after all.. Very interesting.

>> No.1505787
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1505787

Evening all.

>> No.1505791

>>1505776
You don't know any other Melville novels outside Moby-Dick?

>> No.1505796

>>1505787
Back on track. Let's see, Lolita, Pale Fire, Ada or Ardor.. good stuff.

>> No.1505797

>>1505776

A Confederacy of Dunces as well.

>> No.1505802

>>1505787
Came in here to say this.
>Lolita, Pale Fire, Ada, or Ardor, Transparent Things

Anyway, since we clearly cannot name Joyce, either Proust (ISoLT is seven books; first four are masterpieces) or Pynchon (Gravity's Rainbow, V, Mason, and Crying of Lot).

>> No.1505803

>>1505776
>>1505791
Not to mention he put Wuthering Heights next to Moby Dick and Don Quixote.

>> No.1505804

>>1505797
Did they poor everything they had into one work? I mean, they might have had other great works, but they died. I mean Kafka, Bronte and Toole.

>> No.1505806

>>1505791

Fair point. I'd only heard of Billy Budd and the Bartleby story.

>>1505803

Wuthering heights is a great book. It moved me as much as Moby Dick and Don Quixote. Emily Bronte had a lot of power.

>> No.1505810
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1505810

Stephan king

>> No.1505814

>>1505806
Yeah, a lot of power to suck.
Seriously though, Anne is the best Bronte, and even she doesn't belong up there with Moby Dick or Don Quixote. I'll concede that Wuthering Heights can be a personal favorite, but it is not, academically and artistically speaking, on the same level as those two. Although, even calling Don Quixote a novel feels wrong to me.

>> No.1505829

>>1505814
I disagree. Anne was a great writer but Emily was greater. And I'd rate WH as being as artistically deep as DQ and MD in places. I don't have much interest in the academic value of novels.

>> No.1505832

>>1505829
I'm not going to get into this argument again. You can't talk to people who like Emily Bronte. They'll never change.

>> No.1505836

>>1505804
Deaths happen for as good reasons as people write books though. And in the cases you mention: Toole killed himself intentionally. And Kafka had faith he'd die young and seems to have worked with that in mind.

>> No.1505839

>>1505832
What a silly comment.

>> No.1505844

>>1505839
Not as silly as preferring Emily Bronte, but whatev's.

>> No.1505852

>>1505724
Are you the OP, or just a faggot strolling on by?

>> No.1505853
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1505853

James Joyce. He wrote four novels and they're all great. Anybody who says Finnegans Wake is bad has not even picked it up and tried to read any of it.

Also Thomas Pynchon. Nothing he has ever written is bad.

>> No.1505855
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1505855

Tossup between OP's Henry James and Faulkner.

No one else mentioned in the thread even comes close.

Not even close...

>> No.1505862

Victor Hugo: Les Miserables (Fuck your stupid critera, this counts at least as two), The Hunchback of Notre-Dame, Toilers of the Sea

Fyodor Dostoevsky: Crime and Punishment, Notes From Underground, The Brothers Karamazov, The Idiot

>> No.1505872

WUTHERING HEIGHTS FOREVER

>> No.1505877

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JtOQi7xspRc

James Joyce.

>> No.1505886

>>1505862
>Victor Hugo: Les Miserables (Fuck your stupid critera, this counts at least as two), The Hunchback of Notre-Dame, Toilers of the Sea


Victor Hugo wrote more than 3 novels..

>> No.1505899

>>1505886

In fact, he wrote more than 3 good novels.

>> No.1505903

>>1505886
Apparently some people don't look into an author's complete body of works anymore. I'm surprised Toilers of the Sea was mentioned over The Man Who Laughs or The Last Days of a Condemned Man.

>> No.1505908

>>1505903
Well there's 2500 years of lietartuire and 24 hrs a day

>> No.1505923

>>1505886

I'm aware of that. But because I can't get my hands on any of the English translations, I'm stuck with the three I've read.

>> No.1505927

Not the greatest but Virginia Woolf has to count as a great novelist.

Best known for: Mrs Dalloway (1925), To the Lighthouse (1927) and Orlando (1928), and the book-length essay A Room of One's Own (1929).

>> No.1505994

>>1505927
>Best known for: Mrs Dalloway (1925), To the Lighthouse (1927) and Orlando (1928), and the book-length essay A Room of One's Own (1929).

You copied that directly from wikipedia. Also, we are only talking novels so A Room of One's Own shouldn't be mentioned.