Greatest Novelists

The Top Ten
1 Charles Dickens Charles John Huffam Dickens (7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian era. ...read more.
2 Marcel Proust Valentin Louis Georges Eugène Marcel Proust (10 July 1871 – 18 November 1922), better known as Marcel Proust, was a French novelist, critic, and essayist. He is considered by English critics and writers to be one of the most influential authors of the 20th century.
3 Thomas Mann Paul Thomas Mann was a German novelist, short story writer, social critic, philanthropist, essayist, and the 1929 Nobel Prize in Literature laureate.
4 Dostoevsky
5 Hermann Hesse Hermann Karl Hesse (2 July 1877 – 9 August 1962) was a German-born Swiss poet, novelist, and painter.
6 Franz Kafka Franz Kafka was a German-language writer of novels and short stories who is widely regarded as one of the major figures of 20th-century literature.
7 Sholokhov
8 Reymont
9 J. R. R. Tolkien John Ronald Reuel Tolkien (3 January 1892 – 2 September 1973), known by his pen name J. R. R. Tolkien, was an English writer, poet, philologist, and university professor who is best known as the author of the classic high-fantasy works The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and The Silmarillion.
10 Victor Hugo Victor Marie Hugo (26 February 1802 – 22 May 1885) was a French poet, novelist, and dramatist of the Romantic movement. Hugo is considered to be one of the greatest and best-known French writers. ...read more.

The Newcomers

? T.H. White
The Contenders
11 C.S. Lewis Clive Staples Lewis (29 November 1898 – 22 November 1963) was a British novelist, poet, academic, medievalist, literary critic, essayist, lay theologian, broadcaster, lecturer, and Christian apologist. ...read more.
12 Leo Tolstoy Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy, usually referred to in English as Leo Tolstoy, was a Russian writer who is regarded as one of the greatest authors of all time.
13 Ernest Hemingway Ernest Miller Hemingway (July 21, 1899 – July 2, 1961) was an American novelist, short story writer, and journalist. His economical and understated style had a strong influence on 20th-century fiction, while his life of adventure and his public image influenced later generations. Hemingway produced ...read more.
14 William Faulkner William Cuthbert Faulkner (September 25, 1897 – July 6, 1962) was an American writer and Nobel Prize laureate from Oxford, Mississippi. Faulkner wrote novels, short stories, a play, poetry, essays, and screenplays. He is primarily known for his novels and short stories set in the fictional Yoknapatawpha ...read more.
15 George Orwell Eric Arthur Blair (25 June 1903 – 21 January 1950), who used the pen name George Orwell, was an English novelist, essayist, journalist and critic. His work is marked by lucid prose, awareness of social injustice, opposition to totalitarianism, and outspoken support of democratic socialism.
16 Alberto Moravia Alberto Moravia, born Alberto Pincherle (November 28, 1907 – September 26, 1990), was an Italian novelist and journalist. His novels explored matters of modern sexuality, social alienation and existentialism.
17 Charlotte Brontë
18 James Joyce James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (2 February 1882 – 13 January 1941) was an Irish novelist and poet. He contributed to the modernist avant-garde and is regarded as one of the most influential and important authors of the 20th century. ...read more.
19 Martin Andersen Nexø
20 Dacia Maraini
21 Mark Twain Samuel Langhorne Clemens, better known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American writer, humorist, entrepreneur, publisher, and lecturer.
22 Joan Didion

She was 1 of the best novelists in modern history & perhaps the best in modern American history. She contributed to the stories of American society. She was also a great playwright & was considered the female Shakespeare or William Faulkner of modern American culture. R.I.P. to the godmother of American chronicles (1934-2021).

23 Barbara Cartland Barbara Cartland was an English writer, known as the Queen of Romance, who published both contemporary and historical romance novels, the latter set primarily during the Victorian or Edwardian period. Cartland is one of the best-selling authors worldwide of the 20th century.
24 James Baldwin
25 Licia Troisi
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