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. :(