Top 10 Historic European Writers

Before novels were sold in bookstores or downloaded onto tablets, before authors had agents or awards named after them, there were the voices who shaped literature from scratch. They lived in a world without printing presses for most of their lives, where words were painstakingly copied by hand and the idea of copyright was about as real as a unicorn. But their influence wasn't small. These writers helped define languages, built genres from nothing, and gave future generations something to plagiarize with pride.

This list is all about those original minds from Europe who were putting ink to parchment long before the modern era. The rules here are simple. If they were born in the year 1800 or later, they don't qualify. You're voting on the true old-school crowd, the ones whose work came centuries before modernism made everything confusing on purpose.

The Top Ten

William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare was an English poet, playwright, and actor, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He wrote approximately 39 plays, 154 sonnets, and numerous poems. His works are still widely studied, performed, and celebrated globally... read more

The legendary playwright and poet whose work had such an influence on the English language that he's even responsible for the invention of several words. He is best known for Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, and many sonnets as well.
Dante Alighieri

Durante degli Alighieri, commonly known as Dante (c. 1265-1321), was a major Italian poet of the Late Middle Ages. He is best known for his epic poem The Divine Comedy, which explores the realms of Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven. The work is widely regarded as the greatest literary achievement in the Italian... read more

The Italian writer and philosopher was highly influenced by Virgil, and his descriptions of hell in his Divine Comedy have gone on to influence modern depictions of hell.
Virgil

Publius Vergilius Maro, commonly known as Virgil or Vergil (October 15, 70 BC - September 21, 19 BC), was an ancient Roman poet of the Augustan period. He is best known for writing the Aeneid, an epic poem that has been influential in Western literature. His other works include the Eclogues and the Georgics... read more

Commonly referred to as the greatest poet in Roman history, Virgil's style has influenced many writers and poets throughout the centuries. He is best known for the Aeneid, which tells the tale of a Trojan becoming the ancestor of the Romans.
Horace

Quintus Horatius Flaccus, commonly known as Horace, was born on December 8, 65 BC and died on November 27, 8 BC. He was the leading Roman lyric poet during the reign of Augustus, also known as Octavian. Horace is celebrated for works such as the Odes, Satires, and Epistles, which have influenced Western... read more

Originally a commander for Brutus, Horace eventually became a well-recognized poet, gaining the love of figures such as Augustus. His elegant rhythm can best be felt in his Odes, four books that compile many different lyric poems.
Geoffrey Chaucer

Geoffrey Chaucer, born around 1343 and died on October 25, 1400, is often called the Father of English literature. He is widely regarded as the greatest English poet of the Middle Ages. Chaucer was the first poet to be buried in Poets' Corner at Westminster Abbey.

Considered the "father of English poetry," Chaucer had a very busy life, having been a civil servant, philosopher, astronomer, and writer. His most notable work is The Canterbury Tales, which helped give rise to the Middle English language.
Giovanni Boccaccio

Giovanni Boccaccio (1313 - December 21, 1375) was an Italian writer, poet, and Renaissance humanist. He was a close friend and correspondent of Petrarch and is best known for his work The Decameron, a collection of novellas that had a major influence on Italian literature. He also authored On Famous... read more

Boccaccio helped give rise to the Italian language through writing in dialects that would later develop into the modern language. He is best known for Decameron, a series of tales about people trying to survive the Black Death.
Homer

The Greek poet Homer was born sometime between the 12th and 8th centuries BC, possibly on the coast of Asia Minor. He is best known for composing the epic poems The Iliad and The Odyssey, which have had a profound influence on Western literature. Although these works are central to the classical canon... read more

The mysterious figure who is commonly accepted as the author of the Odyssey and the Iliad, two of Ancient Greece's most important works of literature. Not much is known about the man himself.
Aristophanes

More of Aristophanes's works than any other writer in Ancient Greece have survived the passing of time. He wrote many works during the Peloponnesian War and was best known for comedies. His most famous work is probably Lysistrata.

Extremely important and old philosopher who contributed greatly to society.
Miguel de Cervantes

Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, assumed to have been born on September 29, 1547, and died on April 22, 1616, was a Spanish writer. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the Spanish language and one of the most important novelists in world literature. His most famous work, Don Quixote, is considered... read more

Cervantes faced struggle after struggle in his life, but it was from here where he worked on several different forms of literature: plays, novels, poems, and more. His most notable work is Don Quixote, a novel that has gone on to influence many future novels such as Huckleberry Finn and The Three Musketeers.
Sophocles

Sophocles (c. 497/6 - winter 406/5 BC) is one of three ancient Greek tragedians whose plays have survived. His first works were written later than those of Aeschylus and earlier than or contemporaneous with those of Euripides. He wrote 120 plays during his lifetime, but only seven have survived in complete... read more

A major contributor to Athenian society, Sophocles had many roles in life, from a military commander to a playwright. He is probably best known for the tragedy Oedipus the King. Many of his works are incomplete or missing.

The Newcomers

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Jane Austen

Jane Austen was an English novelist known principally for her six major novels, which interpret, critique, and comment upon the life of the British landed gentry at the end of the 18th century... read more
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Tacitus

The Contenders

Molière

Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, known by his stage name Molière (January 15, 1622 - February 17, 1673), was a French playwright and actor considered one of the greatest masters of comedy in Western literature. He was the official playwright of court entertainments under the reign of Louis XIV. Molière's most... read more
Ludvig Holberg
Michel de Montaigne

Michel Eyquem de Montaigne (February 28, 1533 - September 13, 1592) was one of the most significant philosophers of the French Renaissance, known for popularizing the essay as a literary genre. His major work, Essais, is a seminal collection of reflections on a wide array of topics. Montaigne's style... read more
Voltaire

François-Marie Arouet, known by his pen name Voltaire, was born on November 21, 1694, and died on May 30, 1778. He was a French Enlightenment writer, historian, and philosopher who became famous for his sharp wit, his criticism of the Catholic Church, and his strong support for civil liberties such... read more
John Milton

John Milton (December 9, 1608 to November 8, 1674) was an English poet, polemicist, man of letters, and civil servant for the Commonwealth of England under Oliver Cromwell. He wrote during a period of intense religious and political change. Milton is best known for his epic poem Paradise Lost, published... read more
Jonathan Swift

Jonathan Swift (November 30, 1667 - October 19, 1745) was an Anglo-Irish satirist, essayist, political pamphleteer, poet, and cleric who became Dean of St. Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin. He initially wrote political pamphlets for the Whigs and later for the Tories... read more
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (August 28, 1749 - March 22, 1832) was a German writer and statesman. His body of work includes epic and lyric poetry written in various meters and styles, as well as prose and verse dramas, memoirs, an autobiography, literary and aesthetic criticism, and treatises on botany,... read more
Niccolò Machiavelli
Ovid
Thomas More
François Rabelais

François Rabelais (between 1483 and 1494 - April 9, 1553) was a French Renaissance writer, physician, monk, and Greek scholar. He is historically regarded as a writer of fantasy, satire, the grotesque, and bawdy humor. His best-known work is the series Gargantua and Pantagruel.
Daniel Defoe
Plutarch
Aphra Behn
John Bunyan