100 Greatest Novelists

[ManPerson]

Criteria: These greatest novelists of all time are ranked according to their initial and lasting acclaim, influence as well as initial and lasting popularity.

Disclaimer: This list is strongly influenced by the Western canon of literature. This means that in the broader scope of a global literature certain regions may be underrepresented, among them India, China, Africa and Latin America.

Edited By: Tim (with contributions from Don-Alexei)
List Begun: 2023-02-12

1. Charles Dickens
2. Leo Tolstoy
3. Miguel de Cervantes
4. Fyodor Dostoyevsky
5. Jane Austen
6. James Joyce
7. Murasaki Shikibu
8. Gustave Flaubert
9. Marcel Proust
10. George Eliot
11. Cao Xueqin
12. William Faulkner
13. Mark Twain
14. Herman Melville
15. Thomas Mann
16. Gabriel Garcia Marquez
17. Stendhal
18. François Rabelais
19. Honoré de Balzac
20. Virginia Woolf
21. Franz Kafka
22. Albert Camus
23. Joseph Conrad
24. Henry James
25. Thomas Hardy
26. Victor Hugo
27. Daniel DeFoe
28. Jonathan Swift
29. Henry Fielding
30. Laurence Sterne
31. Nikolai Gogol
32. Voltaire
33. Ernest Hemingway
34. D.H. Lawrence
35. Vladimir Nabokov
36. F. Scott Fitzgerald
37. Émile Zola
38. Robert Musil
39. Ivan Turgenev
40. Charlotte Brontë
41. Emily Brontë
42. Toni Morrison
43. Ralph Ellison
44. Anthony Trollope
45. Louis-Ferdinand Céline
46. Nathaniel Hawthorne
47. William Makepeace Thackeray
48. James Fenimore Cooper
49. Walter Scott
50. J.R.R. Tolkien
51. George Orwell
52. Lewis Carroll
53. Richard Wright
54. E.M. Forster
55. Edith Wharton
56. Knut Hamsun
57. Italo Svevo
58. Alessandro Manzoni
59. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
60. John Steinbeck
61. Carlo Emilio Gadda
62. Salman Rushdie
63. Chinua Achebe
64. Robert Louis Stevenson
65. Mary Shelley
66. Thomas Pynchon
67. David Foster Wallace
68. Hermann Hesse
69. André Gide
70. Theodore Dreiser
71. Gunther Grass
72. Wu Cheng'en
73. Lanling Xiaoxiao Sheng
74. Heo Gyun
75. Jun'ichiro Tanizaki
76. Yasunari Kawabata
77. Yukio Mishima
78. Umberto Eco
79. Petronius
80. Longus
81. Jack Kerouac
82. Agatha Christie
83. Jules Verne
84. H.G. Wells
85. Robert A. Heinlein
86. Saul Bellow
87. Mikhail Bulgakov
88. Mikhail Sholokhov
89. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
90. Julio Cortázar
91. Mario Vargas Llosa
92. Carlos Fuentes
93. John Dos Passos
94. Doris Lessing
95. Isaac Bashevis Singer
96. Graham Greene
97. Alexandre Dumas
98. Erich Maria Remarque
99. Raymond Chandler
100. Jack London

[Tim]

I remember Tudwell in the old forum arguing that Dickens is the least acclaimed out of these top ten authors and, despite his popularity, probably shouldn't top such a list. While the former is debatable, the latter is worth examing. Doing breakdowns off the top of my head:

Vs Tolstoy

Acclaim: Tolstoy
Influence: Tolstoy close
Popularity: Dickens

Vs Cervantes

Acclaim: close
Influence: Cervantes
Popularity: Dickens

Vs Dostoyevsky

Acclaim: Dostoyevsky
Influence: Dickens close
Popularity: Dickens

Vs Jane Austen

Acclaim: Dickens close
Influence: Austen close
Popularity: Dickens

Vs Joyce

Acclaim: Joyce
Influence: Dickens close
Popularity: Dickens easy

Murasaki Shikibu

Acclaim: Dickens
Influence: Murasaki
Popularity: Dickens

Gustave Flaubert

Acclaim: Flaubert
Influence: Flaubert close
Popularity: Dickens easy

Marcel Proust

Acclaim: Proust
Influence: Dickens
Popularity: Dickens easy

George Eliot

Acclaim: George Eliot
Influence: Dickens
Popularity: Dickens easy

So, I can see the top 10 as more like:

1. Tolstoy
2. Cervantes
3. Dickens
4. Dostoyevsky
5. Austen
6. Joyce
7. Murasaki Shikibu
8. Flaubert
9. Proust
10. George Eliot

[ManPerson]

Dickens at 3 seems reasonable.

[Tim]

Update as it currently stands. Gave a bump to Alexandre Dumas into the top 50 as per Don-Alexei's recommendation.

1. Leo Tolstoy
2. Miguel de Cervantes
3. Charles Dickens
4. Fyodor Dostoyevsky
5. Jane Austen
6. James Joyce
7. Murasaki Shikibu
8. Gustave Flaubert
9. Marcel Proust
10. George Eliot
11. Cao Xueqin
12. William Faulkner
13. Mark Twain
14. Herman Melville
15. Thomas Mann
16. Gabriel Garcia Marquez
17. Stendhal
18. François Rabelais
19. Honoré de Balzac
20. Virginia Woolf
21. Franz Kafka
22. Albert Camus
23. Joseph Conrad
24. Henry James
25. Thomas Hardy
26. Victor Hugo
27. Daniel DeFoe
28. Jonathan Swift
29. Henry Fielding
30. Laurence Sterne
31. Nikolai Gogol
32. Voltaire
33. Ernest Hemingway
34. D. H. Lawrence
35. Vladimir Nabokov
36. F. Scott Fitzgerald
37. Émile Zola
38. Robert Musil
39. Ivan Turgenev
40. Charlotte Brontë
41. Emily Brontë
42. Toni Morrison
43. Alexandre Dumas
44. Ralph Ellison
45. Anthony Trollope
46. Louis-Ferdinand Céline
47. Nathaniel Hawthorne
48. William Makepeace Thackeray
49. James Fenimore Cooper
50. Walter Scott
51. J. R. R. Tolkien
52. George Orwell
53. Lewis Carroll
54. Richard Wright
55. E. M. Forster
56. Edith Wharton
57. Knut Hamsun
58. Italo Svevo
59. Alessandro Manzoni
60. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
61. John Steinbeck
62. Carlo Emilio Gadda
63. Salman Rushdie
64. Chinua Achebe
65. Robert Louis Stevenson
66. Mary Shelley
67. Thomas Pynchon
68. David Foster Wallace
69. Hermann Hesse
70. André Gide
71. Theodore Dreiser
72. Gunther Grass
73. Wu Cheng'en
74. Lanling Xiaoxiao Sheng
75. Heo Gyun
76. Jun'ichiro Tanizaki
77. Yasunari Kawabata
78. Yukio Mishima
79. Umberto Eco
80. Petronius
81. Longus
82. Jack Kerouac
83. Agatha Christie
84. Jules Verne
85. H. G. Wells
86. Robert A. Heinlein
87. Saul Bellow
88. Mikhail Bulgakov
89. Mikhail Sholokhov
90. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
91. Julio Cortázar
92. Mario Vargas Llosa
93. Carlos Fuentes
94. John Dos Passos
95. Doris Lessing
96. Isaac Bashevis Singer
97. Graham Greene
98. Erich Maria Remarque
99. Raymond Chandler
100. Jack London