The Greatest Writers of All Time: Part One

They came, wrote, and left us with works so beautiful that reading them leaves us changed people or at times makes us want to cry or stop writing altogether. They are the greatest writers of all time, great souls who ever earned the noble title of writer. Who are the greatest writers of all time?

Who are these great men and women who shaped the world of literature?

Count Leo Tolstoy – Arguably the greatest man who ever put words on paper, Tolstoy is best known for his monstrous novels that left critics either bitter or enthralled by their sheer magnanimity. He is best known for War and Peace and Anna Karenina.

William Shakespeare – Give it to the bard for introducing more than 3000 words into the English language and penning dozens of sonnets, tragedies and comedies. He is arguably one of the greatest writers best known for Romeo and Juliet and Hamlet.

Fyodor Dostoyevsky – Crime and Punishment, The Idiot, The Brothers Karamazov and many others make him one of the greatest Russian writers of all time and one of the world’s greatest ever. It’s a great wonder that he was epileptic!

Ernest Hemingway – No American ranks in the same league as this journalist who survived the Second World War and many other tumultuous happenings only to kill himself in frustration. He gave us The old man and the sea, a real gem and A farewell to arms among many other novels and short stories. He won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1954.

Gustave Flaubert – There is only one word to describe a man who could come up with, Madame Bovary, what is widely accepted as one of the greatest and most beautiful works of art ever created. Great. He added Salammbo and Sentimental Education, both of them great works of art in their own right.

Rabindranath Tagore – Give it to this great Indian soul who gave us the beautiful Gitanjali and even left two countries (India and Bangladesh) with inspiring national anthems. He scooped the Nobel Prize for literature in 1913 for his greatest work, Gitanjali. Is there a greater poet from the East?

Charles Dickens – A great English writer whose troubled childhood created memorable characters that became part of our every day conversations. Who can ever forget David Copperfield and Oliver Twist? Who can forget A tale of two cities?

Miguel de Cervantes – This is the Spaniard who penned the immortal Don Quixote, the subject of all literature classes since then. If he hadn’t written anything else thereafter, he still would have ranked as one of the best.

Victor Hugo – You must have come across Notre-dame de Paris and Les Miserables, two magnificent works of art that makes this Frenchman rank among the greatest writers of all time. He was a great influence to most novelists of the time including Tolstoy.

Patrick White – He is responsible for putting a whole continent onto the world literary map. Who knew Australians could write until White came along with some of the best novels ever written? Eye of the Storm and Riders in a chariot are among the best. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature in 1973.


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