Hi Poets,

Just tell us Who is your greatest novelist,greates poet and give a few explanaton why do you like them .( from Chaucer to Modern age.)

regards

stem

About favorite poems and poets, the question has been asked here at e-mule before:

[www.emule.com] />
[tinyurl.com] />
[tinyurl.com] />
Les

Stem:

Novelist: John Steinbeck - The depth of emotion in his characters and the simplicity of his language.

Poet: Tennyson - His use of language is absolutely stunning.

JoeT

HI,

I saw the thread Ig. Actually it is collection of poems chosen as the favourites.It was nice to read . But I meant of authors pecularities. It was nice to know about this novelist. Yes,Joseph,tennyzon use of language is stunning. I have read the poems of most of the ancient poets. I find each one different in thier style. but lately i have shown a likeness to Hardy both his poems and novels. I was not a avid novel reader at first. It was then i came to read far from madding crowd. I too was stunned by hardys language and his ability to descirbe a scenary or expression or emtoion what ever it is. I was so caught by the way in which the novel begin by the description of character Gabriel Oak. Below is the extract from the novel. i put it here for ur reading. I have also liked Thomas Eliot. Waste land is a master piece.

thanks anyway for sharing

stem

This is the beginning

When Farmer Oak smiled, the corners of his mouth spread till they were within an unimportant distance of his ears, his eyes were reduced to chinks, and diverging wrinkles appeared round them, extending upon his countenance like the rays in a rudimentary sketch of the rising sun.

This is the end part.

He accompanied her up the hill, explaining to her the details of his forthcoming tenure of the other farm. They spoke very little of their mutual feelings; pretty phrases and warm expressions being probably unnecessary between such tried friends. Theirs was that substantial affection which arises (if any arises at all) when the two who are thrown together begin first by knowing the rougher sides of each other's character, and not the best till further on, the romance growing up in the interstices of a mass of hard prosaic reality. This good-fellowship - camaraderie - usually occurring through similarity of pursuits, is unfortunately seldom superadded to love between the sexes, because men and women associate, not in their labours, but in their pleasures merely. Where, however, happy circumstance permits its development, the compounded feeling proves itself to be the only love which is strong as death - that love which many waters cannot quench, nor the floods drown, beside which the passion usually called by the name is evanescent as steam.

Damn, that's good! (That ending to "Far from the Madding Crowd.")

Maybe I should read more Hardy.

Stem, I don't generally try to come up with "best" lists. But I gather from the Hardy quotation that you enjoy novels that include beautifully written passages contemplating the nature of relationships and other human experiences. That makes me suspect that you would enjoy TOM JONES, by Henry Fielding. Also perhaps Milan Kundera (UNBEARABLE LIGHTNESS OF BEING). And the Russians: Dostoyevsky and Tolstoy.

I recently found the phrase "lightness of being" in Tolstoy's WAR AND PEACE. Could be where Kundera got it.

Marian, there are many criteria one can use to validate the mastery of a novelist:


Do they paint beautiful pictures with their words?

Do they create believable characters?

Do they weave a fantastic storyline?

Do they capture men's dreams or fantasies?

Do they take us to other worlds?

Do they ask important questions, or make valid statements, about the human condition?


I like to think of great novelists in terms of these questions. When evaluating a novel, I judge it in relation to how well it accomplishes the goals of the author.


Les

I recently saw the Tom Jones movie (from the 60's) in my lit class. Shcoking that such "smuttiness" was popular in its time. It was similar to "The Country Wife".

After taking numerous English lit classes, I must say that I am looking forward to my American lit classes. I love Hemingway and Fitzgerald.

Mariel and Ella?

Shcoking that such "smuttiness" was popular in its time.

Talia, I think it was only popular because it was smutty. Other movies such as I Am Curious Yellow and Blowup really pushed the envelope and did have some success at the box office as well. But the blockbusters of the era were movies like The Sound of Music, Grand Prix, the James Bond series, The Great Escape, and others which must seem pretty tame by today's standards.

Les

"A child said What is the grass? . . ."

Walt Whitman, who else?

hi ,

Marian It was nice to know about these authors. If i got a chance , I will read it. Nice to read the observation by others.

Stem

When I said "in its time" I meant the time that the original Tom Jones was written...(I think the late 18th or ealy 19th century). Compared to the tactful way that such things (sex and promiscuity) were mentioned in literature. As far as the movies of the 60's go...I love them! Especially Audrey Hepburn's (of which, none were smutty).

TOM JONES is a book whose HERO was an illegitimate, hard-drinking, sexually aggressive young man. In the traditional popular novels of the time, he would have been the BAD GUY, and some GOOD GUY would have saved Sophie Western from him. He has sexual relations with several women in the course of the book, and one of those affairs is incestuous.* To the readers of the time, he simply did not DESERVE a happy ending.

But with Fielding (as with other "shocking" authors of many ages), the naughty bits were probably just an excuse for banning the book. It's REAL offense was exposing the hypocrisy of the "good guys", e.g., the morals of his tutors and the 180-degree turn everyone takes when a certain bit of information is revealed at the end of the book. Tom doesn't obey conventional mores, and that's why he's a bad guy, despite his heart of gold and tendency to rescue people in distress.


*Those who've read the book, please don't give away anything about that.

Everything is relative, which is why Einstein married his cousin

Les:

You said, "there are many criteria one can use to validate the mastery of a novelist;" one of them is, "do they capture men's dreams or fantasies?"

I guess Hugh Hefner and Larry Flynt should now be considered master novelists(?)

JoeT

I guess Hugh Hefner and Larry Flynt should now be considered master novelists(?)


I was thinking more of Kurt Vonegut and Jules Verne, Joe.

But as Wall Street says, "Whatever turns you on...makes money."


Les

Novelist- Toss up between Josh Gardner and George Orwell, for Gardner's depth and satire, and for Orwell's mind and ability to apply it to paper.

Poet- I would have to say William Blake for his treatment of language, and beauty while doing it.

I remember reading Chaucer's Canterbury Tales for a collage class and being totally shocked by some of the more smutty ones. They were much worse than anything published at the time (the 60's)--and even made Tom Jones look tame. And Canterbury Tales was written in the 1400's!

You are correct...an excellent summary.

That was one of the troubles with the 60's, we thought we had invented sex and were suprised when we found it had been around for a long time.

we thought we had invented sex

Even the Victorians, thought to be a prudish era, had their moments. Still nothing compares to the raunchiness we accept as normal in books and films today.


Les

With the possible exception of The Pearl