Nominate your best authors by language
 

English: Shakespeare, bar none. Although Milton was darn good, as was Chaucer.

King Lear or Henry the Eighth.

Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness, the best short story of all time.

French: Victo Hugo, Les Mis, nothing even close.

German: Goethe, Schilling or Lessing. Faust or Nathan the Wise.

Chinese: don't read it well enough to opine though there are many classics.

Japanese: same as above.

Russian: Doystoyevski, or Tolstoi. I liked Anna Karenina or Brothers Karamosov.

Spanish: not certain, still deciding. Cervantes, but a long read.

Italian: oh geeze, the levels of heaven and hell, his name, or crimeny.

Re: Nominate your best authors by language
 

I believe you're talking about Dante.

I agree with this, though I could claim that because I have a copy of The Godfather printed in Italian and because Mario Puzo's name is as Italian as they come, perhaps he should get a nod as well. ;)

I've loved everything that Victor Hugo has written. I'd also put Dumas up there (he is French, isn't he?)

I also agree about Shakespeare. Love his stuff, but I prefer writers like Mark Twain and James Fennimore Cooper. Heart of Darkness is one of my favorites as well.

Haven't read enough of the others.

Actually, I prefer books with pictures.

Re: Nominate your best authors by language
 

Um, Schiller, right? I think Lessing probably played an even more important role in the development of German literature than Goethe did, but reading Goethe's prose is amazing. I mean, it's 200 years old and it still reads so cleanly...

How about worst by country?

German: Guenther Grass

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Re: Nominate your best authors by language
 

Wasn't Conrad Polish?

Re: Nominate your best authors by language
 

Wasn't Conrad Polish?

English: Book of Mormon

French: French translation of Book of Mormon

German: German translation of Book of Mormon

Chinese: Chinese translation of Book of Mormon

Japanese: Japanese translation of Book of Mormon

Russian: Russian translation of Book of Mormon

Spanish: Spanishtranslation of Book of Mormon

Italian: Italian translation of Book of Mormon

that's the easiest question you have ever asked.

You forgot favorite Reformed Egyptian author?

Re: Nominate your best authors by language
 

Yes Conrad was Polish, lived in Paris and wrote in English. Amazing he could craft something so unique, in his third language; yet I can't author anything of note.

Archaea, if you wanted us to be impressed with how many languages you can read well enough to understand them, why didn't you just post "Guess how many languages I can read?"

;)

I doubt anything I do is impressive; just ask my wife she more than keeps me a humble puppy.

I would like to know about your favorite foreign authors, whether you read them in the original language or not.

Hugo comes across much differently, albeit I read with dictionary in hand, in French than in English. I imagine many of these authors were taking contemporary swipes which probably fly right over our heads.

My Italian, as Il Padrino knows is so horrible, it's really a mish mash of French, Spanish with some words of Italian thrown in.

And Schiller, not Schilling, the former Austrian denomination.

Does anybody disagree that Shakespeare is the preeminent English speaking author?

It is sad that our language devolves rather than evolves. Of course, the Arabs state the Koran is the highest form of expression, and modern parlance does not rise to its level. Again, I have failed to learn Arabic, every time I tried. I failed Hebrew, because I couldn't keep interested.

As I list them, I have more failures than successes. Wow, for a psych, you sure know how to get a guy down. :(

Re: Nominate your best authors by language
 

Twain is great. Ironic that you liked both, since Twain often ripped Cooper and his indians and that they have two very different perspectives.

This morning I had a 4-hour flight to Boise (with layover in SLC) and reread The Great Gatsby for fun. It was my first since eleventh grade. I nominate Fitzgerald for early 20th century, old sport.

Everyone suspects himself of at least one of the cardinal virtues, and this is mine: I am one of the few honest people that I have ever known.

Beautiful.

Re: Nominate your best authors by language
 

I've heard that Twain didn't much like Cooper, though I'll admit I don't know why. Of course, Twain wasn't too fond of Mormons either, but I won't hold that against him.

I like them both because I see their work for what I think it is: Cooper is much more descriptive and Twain is more clever, but both tell a heck of a story.

I'm probably too dumb to participate in this but I'll put out one of my favorites.

English: David McCullough

One of my favorite authors (although not THE best in the english language) is Kurt Vonnegut.

So it goes.

Hugo's Les Miserable is fabulous, although I am not as enamored of his other works.

I'm sure Waters is smarter than this. He likes to be provocative. But he raises an interesting question: How does the Book of Mormon rate as a work of literature? Myself, I have some definite views on the subject. What are any of yours? Seems to me this is not a question without relevancy, given how many people purport to found their faith at least in part on an assertion that "no one could have written the Book of Mormon," or a variant, "A rube like Joseph Smith couldn't have written the Book of Mormon" (my observation is that people who say these things invariably haven't read many books themselves, so their data base for comparison is sparse).

By the way, my own view is that in terms of pure literary merit the Old Testament towers over the restof the "standard works." I was left with this strong impression when I read the four standard works straight through, and I think most scholars agree with this assessment, particularly with regard to the Pentateuch, or first five books of the OT.

Why do think the Old testaments "Towers" over the rest of the standard works? I would like to hear your thoughts

Of course my opinion is to a large extent founded on feeling and is intensely subjective. But I'll try to make some objective comments.

The Old Testament is painted on a broader canvas than any of the other works. This appeals to my personal taste in literature. (It is on the complete opposite end of the spectrum form the modern short story about suburban angst, etc.) There are the large scale battle scenes, miracles, etc. Also, it tells the entire story--admittedly gilded by myth, but the mythical element imparts its own truth in a way that pure facts cannot--of the western world during a time for which we have very little other history, and is incomparable in this respect.

The Old Testament is also fraught with Shakespearean phychological and philosphical drama, depth, ambiguity and nuance where, in terms of the stories they tell, the other works tend to tilt more toward melodrama (particularly the B of M). Take for example the story of the Rebekah/Jacob/Esau triangle; how do you explain that story? Also, Job's famous words, "Naked I came into this world, and naked shall I go." These little stories were the source of Shakespeare's, Dostoyevski's, Melville's, etc. collective inspiration and genius. I see their works as almost a common text with the OT.

Then there is the voice. Like the Illiad, the OT to me breathes the autentic voice of our forefathers and their tribalism. I love the savage tribalism, the bleak, pitiless world it evokes, etc. Somehow this seems to me a more authentic representation of the subject matter.

Finally, there's something scary and Ahab like about the OT's protagonist, Jehovah, which I see as pure genius and to me deeply satisfying. He's crusty, emotional, and pure eloquence. Really he's an altogether different persona and personality than Jesus of the NT.

This is not to say that I don't think the NT, particularly in the Gospels and Revelations, has many sublime parts.

This is my inarticulate opinion, anyway.

Message deleted.

OT has some very tedious passages IMO. On the other hand it has some of the coolest stuff too. Most human, most flawed--the legends of a people. They don't aren't trying to sell you their religion so much.

My favorite is probably the New Testament--the gospels and Acts. Paul I can do without.

Hard for me to say about the BoM. I read most books once. At most, I may read a book twice. I read the BoM multiple times on my mission, and sort of burned out on it. I can't vouch too much for the literary style, but there does seem to be an earnestness and directness in the BoM that the others don't have. That's my opinion at least.

Of course the greatest religious writing is yet to be produced. It will be the Mormon who is like unto Shakespeare and Milton. I'll let you know if I ever get around to it.

If an apostate (not referring to you, Mike) writes it, can it count as the Great Mormon Opus?

No you guys are making me wonder if I will regret not being part of the writer's workshop you have going here.