NationStates Jolt Archive

While I'm partial to British writers I would say that the U.S. has the slight advantage. IMO, Shakespeare can't compete with A Confederacy of Dunces. ;)

Anyways, in the spirit of the best music thread post which nations produce your favorite books! Be prepared for me to tell you that you're wrong however. ;)

Well... America's got Steinback, but Britain's got Orwell...I'm going with Britain.

Not us, we weren't around long enough.

Well... America's got Steinback, but Britain's got Orwell...I'm going with Britain.

Compared with the genius of Yevgeny Zamyatin's We Orwell looks like a buffoon.

Russia is a giant in the arena. Not to forget France and Germany. Hispanic authors deserve a mention, too.

Hmm, I'll have to go with Russia. Ancient Greece and Rome don't count, I suppose.

Not us, we weren't around long enough.

In the brief time that we have existed we have produced some exceptionally good books.

I don't know. Britain certainly produced great literature in the Victorian era, but lost its edge by the Edwardian one. America had the edge in the 20th century. So for this reason, I am evenly split between ancient Greek and mideiival Chinese literature. They both formed the basis of the modern novel.

Russia is a giant in the arena. Not to forget France and Germany. Hispanic authors deserve a mention, too.

Who could forget Gabriel Garcia Marquez? 100 years in solitude was pure genius imo.

Hmm, I'll have to go with Russia.

Good choice. Anna Karenina is truly one of the greatest books ever written, but sadly outside of Tolstoy I find many Russian authors rather dull.

I can't stand that British accent. Good thing you can't write in accents. I go for the Brits, they've just got a way with words (post 1940. Shakespeare sucks)

That's like asking a mother to choose her favorite child -- every culture creates its own great literature.

Personally, though, I'm partial to France's Proust, Ireland's Joyce, Germany's Grass, the US' Faulkner, Columbia's Marquez, Russia/France/US' Nabokov, among others.

A tie between the US and Britain.

The US has two of my favorite writers, Poe and Bradbury, but Britain has Tolken, Shakespeare and Dickens.

china

great lit over 5000 years.

ancient greece had really good stuff but most of it is lost so there is no way to judge the missing literature.

Us has Vonnegut, but Britain has Orwell. Britain wins by 15%.

The US produces an immense number of new books each year, but sadly, te overall quality lacks dramatically in relation to that.

I personally would say:
Germany for Goethe and E.T.A. Hoffmann
France for Victor Hugo and Simone de Beauvoir
Italy for Dante Alighieri, Umberto Eco and Alessandro Baricco
Spain for Miguel Cervantes
South America for Isabell Allende, Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Carlos Fuentes
India for Rabindranath Tagore, Vicram Seth and Citra Divakaruni
North Africa and Arabia for Assia Djebar, Tariq Ali and Tahar Ben Jelloun
China for Gao Xingjiang, Zhang Jie and Su Tong
Japan for Banana Yoshimoto and Kenzaburo Oe
Ireland for James Joyce, Oscar Wilde and Roddy Doyle
England for Jane Austen, Tolkien, Shakespeare and Terry Pratchett
Russia for Dostojevsky and Tolstoj
USA for Toni Morrison and John Irving
Canada for Margaret Atwood, Anne Hebert and Michel Tremblay

... just a few of my personal favourite authors and their respective countries. I might think of some more.

Italy for Dante Alighieri, Umberto Eco and Alessandro Baricco

... just a few of my personal favourite authors and their respective countries. I might think of some more.

Looks to me like you would like Italo Calvini.

From Pushkin, to Chekov, to Ilya Ilf and Yevgeni Petrov. Russia: it would have to be.

Russia: it would have to be.

I reckon Turgenev would be first on the list for Russian authors as far as I'm concerned, but I still have plenty of territory to cover there. Can't forget Gogol, while we're at it.

:(
I lack sophistication!

I like Orwell a lot...LotR is very good fun...and Watership Down.
But I also enjoy the Count of Monte Christo - that's French.

But yeah, I haven't heard of most of those authors you people mention - I need to read some non-Economics books some time...

I dont claim to be an expert, but my limited experience with Russian literature, has shown it to be over rated, and long winded.


Even though American, the majority of my favorite books, had english authors.
Not a large majority, mind you.

Zelazny, was from New Mexico.

England.

Just on principle. ^_^

I reckon Turgenev would be first on the list for Russian authors as far as I'm concerned, but I still have plenty of territory to cover there. Can't forget Gogol, while we're at it.
Sure. I just assembled some out of many, as general guidelines.
I mean, there's like a million of them!

I dont claim to be an expert, but my limited experience with Russian literature, has shown it to be over rated, and long winded.

One of the reasons I love Turgenev is that he cuts to the chase* pretty quickly and doesn't waste pages or chapters - most of his novels clock in at about 160 to 200 pages, and as such he is quite a gentle introduction to the Russians, aside from being worthwhile in himself. Notes From The Underground is also a good example of brevity from the Russians, as are Gogol's short stories... of course if we were to stand a random C19th Russian author against an overblown monstrosity like The Wheel Of Time, it would be the chap with the troika who comes out as looking concise.


* not literal chases, for the most part, but 'cutting to the depressed young man throwing himself down upon a narrow divan' isn't a commonly used phrase.

-snip-
Trust ME: the very best one is Chekov.
If you want brevity, you'll end up regreting that Chekov wrote too little.

While I'm partial to British writers I would say that the U.S. has the slight advantage. IMO, Shakespeare can't compete with A Confederacy of Dunces. ;)

Anyways, in the spirit of the best music thread post which nations produce your favorite books! Be prepared for me to tell you that you're wrong however. ;)


British and Irish some French are also very good.

Poland has the best literature!

I'm surprised no one has mentioned Mark Twain and his work in giving the American novel a seperate voice from its British parents.

For Japan, Natsume Soseki hands down.

Trust ME: the very best one is Chekov.

I still have plenty of territory to cover there

.

Sweden - Astrid Lindgren.

K.O. :D

The British.

Tough to say. The U.S. has Hemingway and Steinbeck. Britain has Orwell and Huxley. Sylvia Plath was an American living in Britain when she wrote "the Bell Jar". The U.S. has Willa Cather and Harper Lee. But Britain has Agatha Christie. So it's a tie between the U.S. and Britain.

if we allow ancient greece and rome and then why not ancient otherplaces. personal favorites:

Wales- The Mabinogi- The Welsh Mythological Tetralogy (unriuned King Arthur Stories, before the French got ahold of him)

Scandinavia- Beowulf- Saxon Epic Poem

Jews, Greeks, and a slew of others- The Bible- Yes, although its true its still literature.

British- Le Motre D'Arthur- The french ruined King Arthur (Chretien de Troyes), this is the British response.

But, i guess the brits win. the welsh are british, i guess. the brits are saxons, and the brits have niel Gaiman, Terry Pratchett, and i think michael Moore is british.

oh, and anthony burgess, who wrote a clockwork orange was british. brave new world, 1984, gosh the list goes on. america has put out some excellent literature, like say Brian Michael Bendis. If you don't know him, please run his name through googlel and see what you get. the man is a-mazing.

Sadly, I don't know enough about non-Western literature to be able to judge. But Britain has Shakespeare and Conrad (yes, I know, Conrad was born in Poland!), and those two are absolutely brilliant. The UK has some great literature in so many different fields.

But Britain has Agatha Christie.

Raymond Chandler > Agatha Christie.

Score one to the Americanos.

Raymond Chandler > Agatha Christie.

Score one to the Americanos.

I disagree.

Christie > Chandler, definitely.

Score another one for the Brits. :D

Both America and Britain have produced some great authors, so if you ask me they tie.

Well, it's really hard to say, literature is such a widespread thing these days.

But back a few hundred years, I'd say Germany and England. China gets credit for ROTK.

And not one of you have mentioned John Kennedy Toole! Yes he only wrote two books but they were both genius imo.

I say it's a tie between Great Britain and Russia

Germany, I'd say.

I disagree.

Christie > Chandler, definitely.

Score another one for the Brits. :D

Uh-huh? When did Christie ever produce a line as memorable as "But down these mean streets..."?

Is it just me, or have most of you hardly ever read a book that isn't either by a British or an American author???

:eek:

Honestly, there is not one nation on this planet without fascinating and intrigueing literature and a vibrant literary life. Check it out sometime...

The country with the best literature is the country that has the biggest and most complete international authors section in their library ;)

Honestly, there is not one nation on this planet without fascinating and intrigueing literature and a vibrant literary life. Check it out sometime...

Pitcairn islands?

Good choice. Anna Karenina is truly one of the greatest books ever written, but sadly outside of Tolstoy I find many Russian authors rather dull.
That's unfortunate. I would say one of my favorite books of all time is "One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich" by Alexandr Solzhenitsn.

Hadn't really given it much thought, but now that I think about it, British authors seem to dominate my choices in literature: C.N. Parkinson, P.G.Wodehouse, Douglas Adams, Terry Pratchett, J.K. Rowling are the ones that come to mind.