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Pastimes : Let's Talk About Our Feelings!!! -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: epicure who wrote (45881)7/17/1999 11:50:00 AM
From: jbe  Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 108807
 
X, actually I don't think it makes sense to rank novelists (or poets) in order of greatness, to try to decide who is "best." After they reach a certain generally recognized level of "greatness," it becomes a matter of personal taste how one ranks them.

For example, there are writers whose greatness I can recognize, but whose work I do not enjoy reading (Melville, for example). Austen is fun to read and re-read -- Pride and Prejudice especially -- but in terms of breadth and depth, I would not personally rank her up there with Dostoyevsky, Tolstoy, or Mann (my favorites). But, as I said, that is a matter of personal taste.

Joan



To: epicure who wrote (45881)7/17/1999 11:49:00 PM
From: The Philosopher  Respond to of 108807
 
Well, one of the top three or four. I would be hard pressed to rank Austen, Shakespeare, and Trollope one above the other. And there are a few others who have certain books that nose into the 99.9th percentile along with them (I know, you damn mathematicians, there ain't no such thing, but I just invented it, so now there is).


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