Not even an honorable mention for Tolkien. The man literally created an entire universe for god sake. His masterpiece was literally his life's work.

It would be interesting to see a list of non-english language authors. It could get kind of difficult though, trying to compare classic writers like Murasaki Shikibu (Tale of Genji) with Dostoyevsky (Crime and Punishment) and Homer (the Odyssey). It could just turn into a competition between different countries rather than authors, but I would still like to see it.

First off people, it says english LANGUAGE; meaning british, irish, and american. Secondly, i am missing Agatha Christie and Tolkien, they atleast deserve honorable mentions.

@Denis-89

8 жыл бұрын

+Øyvind Aanderaa Not classic though. Modern era, Christie in particular.

@SunnyGoodbye

8 жыл бұрын

The same could be said about Vonnegut, but he's on the list.

@WhatIsSanity

8 жыл бұрын

+Øyvind Aanderaa Wow! You butchered that that first line and got it so factually wrong it's actually insulting.

@SunnyGoodbye

8 жыл бұрын

Luke DS so you gonna say anything with substance or you just gonna moan about how " wrong i am" ?

@WhatIsSanity

8 жыл бұрын

Øyvind Aanderaa I wanted to get Your attention first, if English is not Your first language which seems likely then I absolutely understand, and there is nothing to forgive. Any way English is the main language in Britain (not British, which is possessive) the U.S. and hundreds of other countries have English as an official language. Also Tolkien (whom I love to read by the way) is a modern author.

For those of you who want the list but don't necessarily want to see the whole video, here's the list with thw honorable mentions: #10 James Joyce #9 Jane Austen #8 William Faulkner #7 Kurt Vonnegut #6 Virginia Woolf #5 Ernest Hemingway #4 Mark Twain #3 John Steinbeck #2 George Orwell #1 Charles Dickens Honorable Mentions: F. Scott Fitzgerald, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Conrad, Oscar Wilde, J. D. Salinger.

Ok, so where is Tolkien, also .... Conan-Doyle is offered a Honorable mentions

@grahm86

8 жыл бұрын

+Joseph Badham Was wondering this myself!

@renzotata7501

8 жыл бұрын

+Joseph Badham Kurt Vonnegut in number 7, Faulkner 8 and Doyle only Honorable mention...?? damn watch-mojo should stop being so americacentric xD

@grahm86

8 жыл бұрын

Aren't they Canadian?

@Denis-89

8 жыл бұрын

+Joseph Badham I don't think Tolkien is considered classic author. He's considered modern era author. Modern is everything after the 1950's, and his most famous books were released after that.

@grahm86

8 жыл бұрын

jajceboy​ Hemingway is listed, and they note 2 of his works released in the 50s. So not really sure your point stands. 

Top ten poems/poets of all time? ): ... Booklovers need more love in this channel

should be an offense put Arthur Conan Doyle as an Honarable Mention

@TheOfficialBlueWolf

8 жыл бұрын

I'm surprised you've ever read any of his bookis with that level of literary skill

@tiagob6696

8 жыл бұрын

But, really, it doesn´t make sense, he created Sherlock Holmes

@TheOfficialBlueWolf

8 жыл бұрын

+Tiago Britto im just messing with you

@tiagob6696

8 жыл бұрын

TheOfficialBlueWolf ik

@johnquincyadamsthetankengi3680

8 жыл бұрын

+Tiago Britto Dammit, I thought for a second you were actually Daithi de Nogla. But your just plain old Tiago Britto. Sigh.

What about Jack London, Evelyn Waugh, Charlotte and Emily Brontë, Mary Shelley, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville, Lewis Carroll, Robert Louis Stevenson, Stephen Crane, and Bram Stoker,

@johnford3997

7 жыл бұрын

Nathaniel Hawthorne and Herman Melville where gay together. I now understand Moby Dick.

@marhadeli

6 жыл бұрын

You just read my list!

Was the title different before? So many people are complaining about non-English people being on the list when it clearly states English *language* not nationality

@candicehoneycutt4318

8 жыл бұрын

They can't read apparently

@4getfulness16

8 жыл бұрын

Yay Jontron fan! (sorry just noting your dp!)

John Steinbeck's The Pearl is also such a great book

Tolkien spawned the resurgence of an entire genre not to mention the influence on society. Seriously who hasn't heard of elves and dwarves

Where is Tolkien?

@Ppanos423

8 жыл бұрын

+PerpetualStar 08 what lkr means?

@Ppanos423

8 жыл бұрын

+brickmaster555 oh, ok. thanks

@candicehoneycutt4318

8 жыл бұрын

The internet seems to think of him as the "father of modern fantasy" key word being Modern.

@KyleHarmieson

8 жыл бұрын

+Panos P In the list of modern authors.

@liamshope2838

6 жыл бұрын

Cuz he's trash

How can sir JRR Tolkien and sir terry Pratchett both not be mentioned? The lord of the rings is possibly the most iconic fantasy of all time.

Charles Dickens, Mark Twain, Ernest Hemingway, Sir Walter Scott, Robert Louis Stevenson, Arthur Conan Doyle, Thomas Hardy, Edgar Allan Poe, Herman Melville, Jane Austin.

Where are the Brontë sisters?

Firstly, it's Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Secondly, he didn't make it on the list? Bummer.

@unixone7558

8 жыл бұрын

+Maya Silvers I guess not.

H.G.Wells should without question be top 5. So many classic and influenced so many.

@joshwilkins9138

8 жыл бұрын

I absolutely LOVE H.G. Wells!!! I think Watchmojo excluded him because he primarily wrote novellas. Not saying if that's fair out unfair- I just think that's probably where they're coming from.

@user-ep3ns8cg8l

2 жыл бұрын

I’ve only read the red room by him, but I really enjoyed it and hope to read more by him 🥰

So much American Bias, where the Hell Is Aldous Huxley?!

In my opinion Sylvia Plath is one of the greatest authors of all time. Her book The Bell Jar was an amazing book and shows exactly what depression feels like. Also, her poetry was extraordinary.

@yonathanasefaw9001

Жыл бұрын

I concur!

daniel defoe and jonathan swift. were are these 2 men

You guys should do a list that involves literature other than just novels. Top 10 literary works of all time, something to that effect, since novels as we know them have really only taken off in the past 200 years.

as far as I know Jane Austen didn't lead the Romantics. There's difference between Romance as genre, and Romantics are movement and aesthetic movement which drew inspiration from nature.

@RayasNegroOvejas

8 жыл бұрын

Indeed, Emily Brontë is more romantic than Charlotte.

@johnquincyadamsthetankengi3680

8 жыл бұрын

+Lina H Sh Nah, nah, it was R.L. Stine that led the Romantics.

This is unacceptable...WHERE THE FUCK IS J.R.R. TOLKIEN? Only the greatest fantasy novelist of all fucking time, and he doesn't even get an honourable mention? Heresy!

@emeraldcrusade5016

8 жыл бұрын

+Aquisto - Professional Puddle Stroker he's fantasy, we're talkin' about classical writers who wrote about contemporary and past events and social issues, not a fairy land where elves, dwarfs, and orcs kill each other.

@xijames116

8 жыл бұрын

EmeraldCrusade Tolkien is, by definition, classical. He revolutionised the fantasy genre. How can anyone deny his right to a spot on this list, it's an insult to anyone who's read his books or even seen the films. Also not that this is relevant but in my opinion almost all of these "Classical" authors wrote the most boring of books.

@jamesallen1816

8 жыл бұрын

Completely agree. He care more about the proper use of the English language than any on this list (bar maybe Charles Dickens).

@plottwist3364

8 жыл бұрын

+EmeraldCrusade there's a lot to take in LOTR about the things you list and more. The value of trust and friendship, men's destructive behavior towards nature, how past can put a heavy burden on one's shoulders, the greed for power and the danger of falling to our inner dark part. It's not just elves, dwarves and orcs killing each other.

@jamesallen1816

8 жыл бұрын

Bender B. Rodriguez Poetically spoken. Nice.

Tolkien should really be in the honorable mentions and mabye a top 10 writers or authors of all time, not just english language or international.

JD Salinger is my favorite. Happy he got an honorable mention. Even if he did get on the list there would be no Holden clips. Or Glass family.

...Tolkien? Possibly the greatest fantasy author of all time? No? Okay, fine.

@joshuagraham8594

8 жыл бұрын

Not classic? Are you freakin' kidding me? The Hobbit was published in 1937, his works have gone on to inspire all fantasy writers after. The man is a legend.

@joshuagraham8594

8 жыл бұрын

***** Not in the slightest, sorry. Don't get me wrong, Dickens was a mastermind... But he didn't create an ENTIRE UNIVERSE almost as detailed as our own in the form of written word. Tolkien's mind was almost divine.

@Chambers1094

8 жыл бұрын

+mounir maged "When" isn't really relevant to whether or not something is a classic. I would consider Tolkien's works as English classics. The Hobbit is older than Nineteen Eighty-Four, and The Lord of the Rings was written only 5 years after Nineteen Eighty-Four. The Lord of the Rings is also the second best selling book of all time (not counting religious texts), behind only Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities. Tolkien is also very much responsible for the current state of the Fantasy genre and modern fantasy writers take a lot of inspiration from his works. Even though his works were fiction, he spoke a lot about real-life issues through them. So yes, I believe that Tolkien should have been on this list, as many others probably believe as well.

@ead630

4 жыл бұрын

He's on their modern authors list.

"LSD is the lazy man's 'Finnegan's Wake" - Marshall McLuhan

You should do a top 10 Latin American authors.

Cool list. Just wondering what's the basis of this ranking.. number of copies sold?

Why has no one brought up the fact that Aldous Huxley is absent from this list??

Waugh, Huxley - two literary geniuses that were left out Wilde, Fitzgerald and Salinger - can never be just 'honourable mentions'. Otherwise, a good list.

and where is thomas hardy

Oscar Wilde, Salman Rushdie, Conan Doyle, R.L. Stevenson. Also Jane Austen wasn't a Romantic writer, but a Victorian. Also the title says author, not novelist, therefore poetry and drama should be included.

#1 James Joyce. Even Faulkner (who worshiped at Joyce's altar) would've ranked himself behind him.

Hey guys I would really love to read some of these books. Can you all let me know which ones are absolutely good, I'd greatly appreciate it. Thanks.

please please do top 10 classical poets of the english language

You missed Geroge Eliot, the Bronte sisters, Thomas Hardy, Elizabeth Gaskell, Toni Morrison, John Updike, Sir Walter Scott, Anthony Trollope, Herman Melville, William Makepeace Thackeray, Henry James, EM Forster, and Kazuo Ishiguro. I still don't get why this is called a list of "English language authors" when it only includes novelists? Sad that figures like Shakespeare (who in many ways defined the English language), Chaucer, Milton, the Romantic, Victorian and Modernist poets didn't even get acknowledged. And since this list is called "classic," shouldn't the selection be more classic rather than popular? Many are just popular American high school reads- and there are just many other better works of Literature from Britain (as well as world Anglophone) and from before 20th century!

@vonj6173

6 жыл бұрын

Zhongyu Wang you sound like you know a lot on the subject. holy shit

The top 3 I know with and I completely agree. I'm not familiar with the others, so I can't say, but I wish Sir Conan Doyle made it to an actual spot than a honorable mention. There are many great writers, both popular or infamous, that deserve an honorable mention if given more time.

I love Dickens, but I think Jane Austen should be right next to him on this list!

This should be titled Top 10 Classic English Language Novelists. "Authors" is too broad of a category for the conditions.

Charles Dickens is one of my favourite writers too.

Wonder where they put H.P. Lovecraft?

If Charles Dickens wasn't number 1 , I would have unsubscribed immediately ..One of your best lists ever :)

Where is Stephanie Meyer? I joke. Be honest now, how many of you were ready to start typing an angry response?

@plottwist3364

8 жыл бұрын

+Mr K even in a top 10 worst... list, she wouldn't count as ENGLISH language :P

@unixone7558

8 жыл бұрын

+Mr K Me

@Amateur_Pianist_472

6 жыл бұрын

I don't understand the hate she gets? It's an interesting romance novel.

Thomas C. Stuhr has some interesting American work. Lesser known writer.

No Melville? Not even as an honorable mention? What the hell

Please make a video on the 'most unfortunate writers'

been doing animal farm for the last two terms at school, i'm so tired of writing essays about how power corrupts and the leadership differences between snowball and napoleon

What about Aldous Huxley and H.G. Wells? Are you kidding me WatchMojo?

What is the name of the background music? :o

Oh my oh my. Good job, old sport.

Dickens is unquestionably the greatest writer in the English language. The impact he has had on the culture of the English speaking world to this day is profound.

Where the heck is Kipling?

It's odd, I know this list would never satisfy me as a student of English literature, but the fact this list was so based in the US and the UK upset me a lot, there are too many authors like Rushdie and Conrad who aren't British or American but better than many on this list ... So it goes.

I think they should have included John Milton for his Paradise Lost, unless they don't count it for some odd reason.

It's very hard to draw up a list like this one. I think the only thing you mojo guys could've done to make it more fair is putting more honorable mentions. Kerouac, Tolkien, John Williams, Philip Roth, Swift, Mary Shelley...

please do video on agatha chrristie

Oscar Wilde and Conan Doyle only in the Honorable Mantionts?!?! Holy shit!

Faulkner called Twain the father of Anerican literature? He also said this about him: “A hack writer who would not have been considered fourth rate in Europe, who tricked out a few of the old proven sure fire literary skeletons with sufficient local color to intrigue the superficial and the lazy.”

@seventeencents

8 жыл бұрын

+PJ Well he's not wrong and neither of those statements are necessarily in conflict with each other. Twain rehashed tried and true literary methods with a southern US flair which allowed him to be the pioneering American novelist and one that set the stage for future American authors.

@unixone7558

8 жыл бұрын

+Sean O'Sullivan Not to mention how much he bashed organized religion in his works, he even has an unfinished work called "The Mysterious Stranger" where Satan's nephew (who is also named Satan) is the central protagonist.

@unixone7558

8 жыл бұрын

***** Because America has done stupid things in the past, is known for problems in education and obesity, and it may be some other factors I don't know (I am American by the way).

@RayasNegroOvejas

8 жыл бұрын

***** Because the majority of americans came from Europe and drew influences from its culture.

Top 10 Winston Churchill moments.

now get some genre lists out, like sci-fi and fantasy with such figures as tolkien and lovecraft

John Dos Passos who used very strange techniques to write historical novels is largely forgotten today since he turned very conservative. Johnathan SwiftDaniel Defoe who wrote both Robinson Caruso and Moll Flanders and others...Sinclair Lewis who isn't taught today either. He wrote great satires of society and a warning novel called "It Can't Happen Here"

People don't seem to realise the list isn't the problem it's the fact that they cannot tell between classic and modern writing eras and styles. Tolkien is not classical, His works may be 'a classic' but it's not classical.

Joseph Conrad did not write anything called "Apocalypse Now." If all he gets is an honorable mention, you could at least have attributed one of his books' titles to him!

@tonylove4800

3 жыл бұрын

We all know they were talking about Heart of Darkness.

It is kind of weird that F Scott Fitxgerald is not on the main list. Dickens however is my favorite.

Would've expected Ayn Rand on this list, but maybe this is not the right list for her work - lovely list though and impossible to meet everybody's taste :)

If you're going to forget about George Eliot, why bother making this video in the first place? Also: Nabokov, Bellow, Green, Waugh

@RayasNegroOvejas

8 жыл бұрын

Waugh as in Evelyn? Is he really top 10?

@CoolHandLuke7

8 жыл бұрын

Not necessarily top ten, just felt he needed a mention. The only omission I'm really flabbergasted by is Eliot.

@Denis-89

8 жыл бұрын

+NoRegretsForOurYouth I don't think he's that timeless or well-known.

@CryWolfFilms

8 жыл бұрын

+NoRegretsForOurYouth calm down.

@CoolHandLuke7

8 жыл бұрын

Jesse Compton Oh yeah, I really got all out of sorts there. Why did you post this?

Tolstoy said Dickens was the greatest writer of the century.Herman Melville was also as big admirer

Today's misses: H.G. Wells J.R.R. Tolkien Ray Bradbury Agatha Christie R.L. Stevenson Also i get why Shakespeare is out since it would do a separate list for theatrical authors but Poe?

@4getfulness16

8 жыл бұрын

Did you watch the beginning? they said why Poe isn't here.

@Denis-89

8 жыл бұрын

+Bender B. Rodriguez None of the are classic writers. They all belong to the modern era. Except for Stevenson.

@plottwist3364

8 жыл бұрын

***** Because short stories doesn't make him an author?

@plottwist3364

8 жыл бұрын

jajceboy HG Wells 1866-1946 JRR Tolkien 1892-1973 Ray Bradbury 1920-2012 Agatha Christie 1890-1976 RL Stevenson 1850-1894 =not in the list yet George Orwell 1903-1950 and Kurt Vonnegut 1922-2007 =in the list

@4getfulness16

8 жыл бұрын

+Bender B. Rodriguez Did you not recognise the theme? everyone here basically wrote novels. They even mentioned "novel writing authors" in the beginning.

Number 1... Fair play

how dare you guys! James Joyce was a great IRISH author!!!

@BazookaTooth707

8 жыл бұрын

They said "published in English".

@SARYM911

8 жыл бұрын

+Callum Lavery English LANGUAGE authors 0:32.,not authors from England..The fact that 7 people liked your comment shows that many people just skim through videos without exactly knowing what's it all about

Homer never wrote his stories, he told them and other wrote them dow hundreds of years later.

cormac mccarthy his prose is outstanding

So glad Charles Dickens made #1!!! Slightly disappointed, though not particularly surprised H.G. Wells didn't make the list. (Him not making even an honorable mention does slightly surprise me though)

James Joyce is a better writer than most of those on the list, especially Orwell, i've read both and it was quite clear to me who had more talent

Ayyy. Steinbeck and I come from the same place.

John Steinbeck #3. Come on, Watchmojo. I love your literary lists, but do you guys actually read?

Good

if you do a list of modern english language authors...i really really hope Hunter S. Thompson ends up on it

@number332

8 жыл бұрын

when the going get weird, the weird get pro

OMG! I have pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen!

Dickens has had a profound influence on our modern world

The list is really good. But it does HenryvJames such an injustice by not even mentioning him.

The beat generation? Kerouac? Ginsberg? Burroughs?

Of course Charles dickens what a legend TOTC

I think that Cormac McCarthy should've been mentioned somewhere in there.

John Steinbeck

But yo... Where's my boy Cormac McCarthy at? One of the greatest writers alive.

No Chaucer?... Alright. Nobody changed the english language and literature like him but sure....

No Agatha Christie? Not Even an honourable mention? The most iconic mystery writer ever with two books on almost all most read before you die lists. "And then there was none" and "The Murder of Roger Ackroyd "

William Golding ???

Where are HG Wells, Jonathan Swift, Jules Verne ?

I think WatchMojo completely forgot about the fantasy and sci-fi genres. JRR Tolkien and HG Wells should have been in this list.

Firstly A Author can write Plays and Poems, So technically Shakespeare does count!

@missyadams

6 ай бұрын

Techincally, he wrote his plays to be acted, not read in schools

Guye, this is youtube, remember.

E. M Foster

I'm just gonna suggest Stephen King for an honorable mention

Where is H.P.Lovecraft?!

Can someone explain to me why they loved Great Expectations? I hated it so much. Just want to understand...

@zaintariq44

6 жыл бұрын

Missy Buchanan I never considered it his best novel. But he wrote some other great novels.

C.S. Lewis apparently out sold many of these authors. Why didn't he get an honorable mention at least?

@joshwilkins9138

8 жыл бұрын

They might consider him too contemporary, idk. LOVE his work.

why wilde and not include marlow or shakespear.