Reading 21 Famous Writers and their Masterpieces Books/Works has a great influence on our world structure and values.
Today, the editor recommends 21 famous literature books and their authors for everyone.
Choose a few best authors of all time and their books for yourself, which are famous authors today and their books are worth reading.
21 Famous Writers and Their Masterpieces Books/Works
These Top 21 famous authors and their works represent the most representative world-famous writers in English literature masters of Britain, France, Russia, and the United States, and the most influential famous authors and their books in the world.
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1. Homer and "Homer Epic"
Homer, was an ancient Greek blind poet. According to legend, the famous epics "Iliad" and "Odyssey" were written by him.
The works are rich in content and have created heroic images with different personalities and distinctive personalities. The layout of the story is clever and the language is vivid.
The artistic characteristics of Homer's epic:
- The combination of realistic factors and mythological factors.
- The originality of the structure. An interception of a whole picture reflecting the event, numerous episodes, character dialogues, and monologues make the work dramatic.
- Using objective narrative methods.
- Put the hero in a specific situation, and use exaggerated techniques and colorful verses to describe the characters' language, actions, and psychology in detail, and to show their personality characteristics.
- Use metaphors more and better. These metaphors come from nature or daily life. They are called "Homeric metaphors" in history. They play an important role in portraying characters, strengthening the image of the poem, and enriching the color of the poem.
2. Dante and "The Divine Comedy"
Dante is the founder of Italian national literature, "the last poet in the Middle Ages, and at the same time the first poet of the new era". His "Divine Comedy" expresses the contradiction between the old and the new in both ideology and art.
The poet uses the dark forest to symbolize the dark reality of Italy, the poet’s lost journey to symbolize the confusion of mankind, the three beasts to symbolize the social evil forces that hinder people from leading to the light, Virgil to symbolize reason and philosophy, and Beatrice Symbolizes theology and faith.
With an allegorical story, the poet pointed out to us an ideal way to revive Italy, to know the highest truth, and to achieve perfection. If human beings want to get out of the darkness and return to the right path, they need to be rationally guided to understand the sins committed by human beings, undergo various trials (traveling in hell), purify all kinds of sins, and correct their mistakes (traveling in purgatory).
Purify from above, and then under the guidance of theology and faith, we must understand the highest truth and reach the state of supreme beauty (heaven). What Dante pointed out to us is an "inner holy road" of moral self-improvement.
3. Shakespeare and "Hamlet"
Especially the four major tragedies, namely "Hamlet", "Othello", "King Lear" and "Macbeth" are representative works. Marx called it "the greatest drama genius of mankind."
"Hamlet" represents the highest achievement of Shakespeare's art.
- First, in terms of structure, "Hamlet" highlights the vividness and richness of Shakespeare's plot.
- Second, in terms of character creation, "Hamlet" focuses on revealing the depth of the characters through the description of inner contradictions and conflicts.
- Thirdly, in terms of language, Shakespeare showed the style of a master. He integrated the rhymeless poetry style with prose, rhyming verses, and lyric ballads.
4. Cervantes and "Don Quixote"
Cervantes is the most outstanding writer of the Spanish Renaissance, and his masterpiece is "Don Quixote". He described the adventures of Don Quixote and his servant, Sancho, in the style of knight novels and achieved the purpose of satirizing the knight system and knight literature.
On the one hand, he is obsessed with fantasy, everything is subjective, his behavior is absurd and reckless, and will not learn lessons; on the other hand, what he does is pursue a lofty principle, and he must be a chivalrous man. A knight must protect the strong and support the weak, uphold justice, work hard for this, and have a spirit of self-sacrifice.
Although he is pursuing and defending the truth subjectively, what he pursues is the "chivalry" that is divorced from reality and has long been outdated, so he is destined to only run into a wall and harm others and himself. The author also successfully used contrast.
5. Molière and "Tartuffe"
Molière was the founder and representative of French classic comedy in the seventeenth century. He brought European comedy to the level of true modern drama. "Tartuffe" is his masterpiece.
Through this image, Molière deeply exposed the hypocrisy, viciousness, shamelessness, and greed of the church and aristocratic upper class, and prominently criticized the deceptive and harmful nature of religious hypocrisy. In art, Molière not only followed the "three-in-one rule", but also broke through it, and achieved high achievements.
6. Goethe and "The Troubles of Young Werther"
Goethe is an outstanding representative of German enlightenment writers in the 18th century, a great German poet, playwright, and thinker. His creation brought German literature into the advanced ranks of world literature and had a huge impact on world literature. Representative as "Faust" and "The Troubles of Young Werther".
"The Troubles of Young Werther" is a letter-style novel, which describes the ups and downs of the protagonist Werther's emotions, and truly and detailedly shows the changes in Werther's thoughts and feelings in lyric and argumentation.
Describes Werther’s pain, longing, and despair with a strong poetic flavor and spurting passion, placing his personal love misfortune in a wide range of social backgrounds, exposing and exposing the feudal hierarchical prejudice, the selfishness, and conservativeness of the petty citizens, etc.
Critically and enthusiastically promoted personality liberation and emotional freedom. The novel also bravely shouted out the voice of the young people of that era who demanded to get rid of feudal shackles, establish equal interpersonal relationships, and realize the value of life.
7. Hugo and "Notre Dame de Paris"
Hugo is the standard-bearer of French romanticism. His creations and theories laid the foundation for the development of French romantic literature and pushed romantic literature to a new peak.
His works reflect a profile of the development of French society in the 19th century. The main works include "Notre Dame de Paris", "Les Miserables", "1993" and so on.
The novel exposes the hypocrisy of religion, declares the bankruptcy of asceticism, praises the kindness, friendship, and self-sacrifice of the working people of the lower classes, and reflects Hugo's humanitarianism.
This work shows the typical characteristics of romanticism, that is, the bizarre and tortuous plot, rich imagination, exaggeration and the use of "the principle of contrast between beauty and ugliness", and strong emotional color.
8. Stendhal and "Red and Black"
Stendhal was an outstanding French author of critical realism in the nineteenth century. The masterpiece "Red and Black" created a precedent for later generations of "stream of consciousness novels" and "psychological novels".
Under the influence of external forces from the environment, this self-consciousness gave birth to the concept of freedom and equality. Rebellious consciousness and strong personal ambition. Julien's life struggles spurred political enthusiasm for freedom and equality, and he was also full of egoistic desires for personal happiness.
He not only embodies the spirit of the era of French society where heroism survived after the Great Revolution but also projects Stendhal's own life experience and psychological desires.
The spirit of anti-oppression, seeking freedom, and firm pursuit of self-life value demonstrated by him embodies a kind of universal survival needs of people and therefore has symbolic significance. Detail Book Reviews
9. Balzac
Balzac is one of the most outstanding writers of realism in the 19th century and a great novelist recognized in the world. His and Leo Tolstoy's creations constituted the two peaks of European and American realist literature in the 19th century.
Among them, "Custom Research" mainly describes contemporary French society and has the richest connotation. The writer divides it into six scenes: private life scenes, provincial life scenes, Paris life scenes, political life scenes, military life scenes, and rural life scenes.
This is an "encyclopedia" style work, an all-encompassing history of social customs. Artfully embodies the characteristics of realism, especially in shaping "typical characters in typical environments".
10. Dickens and "A Tale of Two Cities"
Dickens is an outstanding novelist of critical realism literature in the 19th century in England. He has created a rich life, including 15 novels, more than 20 novellas, hundreds of short stories and essays, an essay, two novels, and a large number of letters.
Representative works include "The Pickwick Papers", "David Copperfield", "Great Expectations", "Bleak House", "Oliver Twist", "Our Mutual Friend", and so on.
The main connotation of Dickens’ humanitarian thought is to strive for the return of human nature and the harmonious relationship between people, to show strong protests against the "alienation" of human nature in a capitalist society, and to the kind-hearted and impoverished women, children, and people at the bottom of society. Have great sympathy.
The main character in "A Tale of Two Cities", Dr. Mennett, his daughter Lucie, and Calden, who has a crush on Lucie, all embody this idea.
11. Pushkin and the image of "superfluous people"
Pushkin is an important representative of Russian romantic literature and the founder of Russian realist literature. Because of his unparalleled contribution to Russian literature, Pushkin is known as the "Father of Russian Literature" and the "Sun of Russian Poetry".
The main works include the long poem "Evgeny Onegin", the fairy tale "Novels, Tales, Journeys", the novel "The Captain's Daughter" and so on.
The superfluous people are mostly aristocratic youths who want to change society, but only stay in the imaginary stage, without taking action, or in other words, the image of aristocratic youth who are unable to change society.
The images of superfluous people include Pushkin’s Yevgeny Onegin, Lermontov’s Biqiaolin, Turgenev’s Luoting, Herzen’s Berbatov, and Goncharov’s Oblomov et al.
12. Gogol and "Dead Souls"
Gogol is Russia's most outstanding satire in the first half of the 19th century, the pioneer of satirical literature, and one of the founders of critical realism literature.
In the author's sharp pen, the terrifying reality of all kinds of greedy and ignorant landlords, corrupted and degraded officials, and the tragic situation of the serfs, etc., are fully exposed, thus having a profound ideological content, a clear critical tendency, and a huge artistic power.
13. Dostoevsky and "Crime and Punishment"
Dostoevsky was a novelist who enjoyed a worldwide reputation in Russian literary circles in the 19th century. His creation is extremely complex and contradictory in nature. Realist writers can absorb beneficial nutrition from his creation, while modernist writers regard his works as classics and call him their pioneer and mentor.
Western literary critics have highly regarded him. His artistic talent cannot be denied even by the revolutionary writer who criticized him most sharply. For example, Gorky, the founder of proletarian revolutionary literature, said that he was "the greatest genius."
The main works include novelettes such as "Poor Folk", "The Double and The Gambler", "The Landlady", "White Night" and "The Idiot", as well as masterpieces such as "Crime and Punishment", "Bullied and Insulted", "Idiot" and "Brother Karamazov" Wait.
The author always keeps the characters in the inextricable contradiction, reveals the characters through the tragic inner conflict of the characters, and at the same time, the author's portrayal of hallucinations, nightmares, and abnormal psychology is also very good.
In addition, the scenes of this novel change quickly, and the scenes move quickly, containing a wealth of ideological content in a condensed time and space, and the novel's era and political colors are very vivid.
14. Tolstoy
Tolstoy is Russia's greatest writer and one of the most outstanding writers in the history of world literature. Representative works include the novels "War and Peace", "Anna Karenina", and "Resurrection" and the autobiographical novel trilogy "Childhood", "Juvenile" and "Youth".
Tolstoy’s thought is full of contradictions. This contradiction is a reflection of the intricate contradictions in Russian society. It is the vividness of a noble intellectual with a sense of justice who is sober and confused, struggling and hesitating, crying and depressing in the search for a new life. Portrayal.
The author's large-scale coverage and overall grasp of life, and the full disclosure of the internal connections between individual phenomena and the whole of things, personal destiny, and the surrounding world, give this novel a great ideological and artistic capacity.
The author's description of the characters is both complicated and full and is often expressed by contrasting artistic methods. The genre is an innovation in the history of Russian literature, and it also surpasses the traditional norms of European novels.
Tolstoy made a fierce attack on the entire state apparatus of the time with the soberest realism. "Resurrection" is very distinctive in art. Tolstoy’s psychological depiction of characters is very famous. He is good at going deep into the hearts of characters and grasping every subtle change in thoughts and feelings.
He traces the whole process of great changes or drastic changes in the thoughts and feelings of characters and fully displays the characters. The "spiritual dialectics" of changing from one kind of thought and feeling to another kind of thought and feeling is often the opposite.
Tolstoy's creations generally show the incomparable sincerity of human existence. The deepest part of his works is beating the heart of an upright, selfless, pure, and kind-hearted giant.
15. Romain Rowland and "JEAN-CHRISTOPHE"
Romain Rolland is a French thinker, writer, critical realist writer, music critic, and social activist. Author of the ten-volume novel "JEAN-CHRISTOPHE", biographical "Biography of the Giant" and other works, and won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1915.
At the same time, the music reflects the fusion and impact of different national spirits and vividly expresses the struggle and passion of the generation in the 20th century, which is a true portrayal of the spirit of the times. It praises such a spirit and belief that light will eventually overcome darkness. Detail Book Reviews
16. Hemingway and "The Old Man and the Sea"
Hemingway is an American novelist and the winner of the 1954 Nobel Prize in Literature. He is an original novelist whose greatest contribution is to create a refined and subtle new prose style, which has had a great influence on European and American writers. Representative works include "The Old Man and the Sea", "The Sun Still Rises", "Farewell, Arms" and so on.
Although defeated, he is honored and spiritually unmatched. Not beaten. It can be said that such an image perfectly embodies the author's thought that "you can destroy him as much as possible, but you can't defeat him".
This "tough guy" image has become a representative of Hemingway's heroes, symbolizing the indestructible spiritual power of mankind. The novel won the Pulitzer Prize that year.
17. Sholokhov and "And Quiet Flows the Don"
In 1965, Sholokhov won the Nobel Prize for Literature for his "artistic power and integrity shown in the Don epic which describes the various historical stages of the Russian people's life".
18. James Joyce
Joyce, is an Irish writer, poet, one of the greatest writers of the 20th century, and one of the founders of postmodern literature. His works and the idea of "stream of consciousness" have a huge impact on the world literary world.
Representative works: "Finnegan's Night Watch" and "Ulysses"
19. Maxim Gorky and "Childhood"
Childhood, the first book in Gorky's acclaimed autobiographical trilogy, depicts his early years, when after his father's death he was taken to live in the home of his maternal grandfather, a violent and vindictive man who both provided the child with a rudimentary education and subjected him to savage beatings.
With remarkable freshness and candor, Gorky immerses his reader in a young child's world, recreating in dynamic prose a boy's bewilderment at the senseless cruelty that surrounds him, his solace in the quiet beauty of the natural world, and his often funny, guileless observations of the many vivid characters who enter his early life.
At the center of this story stands Gorky's grandmother, Akulina Kashirina, one of Russian literature's most remarkable heroines. Her tender love for her grandson serves as a vital antidote to the brutality that threatens to consume him.
Her buoyant faith in a merciful, loving, but limited God provides the young Gorky with a life-affirming alternative to the vengeful, omniscient deity his grandfather worships ardently.
Although often unsettling in its portrayal of the poverty and ignorance that gripped nineteenth-century Russia, Childhood is ultimately a heartening account of a young boy's formative struggle to overcome the limitations of a decaying and corrupt society, and the remarkable old woman who enabled him to succeed and instilled in him an abiding, fierce compassion for Russia's destitute and defenseless.
Childhood is freshly and beautifully translated by Graham Hettlinger, lauded for his translations of Ivan Bunin.
20. Emily Bronte and "Wuthering Heights"
The first stage describes Heathcliff's childhood life with Catherine day and night, the special feelings formed by an abandoned child and a young lady in this special environment, and their resistance to Hendry's tyranny.
The second stage focuses on Catherine because vanity, ignorance and ignorance betrayed Heathcliff and became the mistress of Thrushcross Grange. In the third stage, a lot of words are used to describe how Heathcliff turned his hatred into revenge and revenge in despair.
In the last stage, although only the death of Heathcliff is explained, it highlights a brand-new change in his mind, the recovery of human nature, when he understands that Hareton and little Catherine love each other, which makes the tragic love with horror reveal the light of hope.
21. Margaret Mitchell and Gone With The Wind
"Gone with the Wind" is one of the most classic love masterpieces in history. The novel takes the American Civil War as the background, and the mainline is the love and hatred between several men entangled by Scarlett, a strong and willful lady of the manor.
It is accompanied by major changes in society and history. Everything familiar with the old days will never return It is not only a masterpiece of human love but also, a grand historical picture reflecting great and profound changes in social politics, economy, and morality.
