The 7 most important writers in history

Making a classification of the most important writers in history is not an easy task. We can try to value the quality of their works, but ultimately there will always be a space, an influence, of the taste of the one who makes the selection.

In our case, the writers have been selected based on the quality of their works, their popularity, their seal in the history of literature and their influence.

The 7 most important writers in history

If you are curious to know who they were, what they wrote and when, we invite you to continue reading.

1. Dante Alighieri/ Italy (1265- 1321)

Appreciated for his great spirituality, Dante is nicknamed “the Supreme Poet” either “il Sommo Poet“. Although the truth is that he was also a prose writer, literary theorist, philosopher and political thinker. His iconic work is The Divine Comedy (1304-1321), fundamental for the transition from medieval to Renaissance thought and, of course, one of the classics of universal literature.

The book revolves around the search for Beatriz, the woman who captivated him until he took him to paradise. To do this, he will have to get away from the jungle and follow Virgilio, who will be his guide to enter the circles of hell.

2. William Shakespeare/England (1564-1616)

As Ben Jonson (a writer contemporary to Shakespeare) announced: “William Shakespeare does not belong to a single era, but to eternity.” And how right he was because, as corroborated by research carried out in 2014 by the University of Jaén, his influence has reached China through the playwright Cao Yu.

Without a doubt, the recognition is not for less. Apart from poems, He wrote fourteen comedies, ten tragedies and ten other historical dramas.. His work is the subject of analysis in many universities, where students can have an entire subject that addresses his literary production.

3. Miguel de Cervantes, one of the most important writers in Spanish history (1547-1616)

Also recognized as “the one-armed man of Lepanto”, gave life to The Quijote, the most edited book and translated into different languages ​​after the Bible. Although he also wrote a large number of novels, his figure will be forever linked to his character.

The ingenious gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha narrates the adventures of Alonso Quijano, a poor gentleman who, from reading chivalric novels so much, ends up going crazy and believing he is a knight-errant.

His story was the key that opened the door to metaliterature through parody. Furthermore, thanks to her, today the history of Spain is still alive; because its pages describe with accuracy and detail many of the customs of the time.

4. Charles Dickens / England (1812 – 1870)

Considered one of the best English novelists of all time thanks to:

Oliver Twist (1838).a christmas story (1843). Little Dorrit (1857).

These are some of the most emblematic works of Charles Dickens that demonstrated his fight for the most disadvantaged social classes of the Victorian era, his tireless criticism of poverty and social classes, and his enormous empathy for man.

On the other hand, for many he has been the author who has been able to put words, in the form of a story, to Christmas with the most success and emotion.

6. Franz Kafka / Czech Republic (1883 – 1924)

His work is a fusion of fantastic and realistic elements that awakened consciousness in a period in which alienation from work was the order of the day. In this way, Kafka made people identify themselves in Metamorphosis (1915) with Gregorio Samsa, who transformed into a creepy insect overnight.

As a good expressionist and existentialist, the themes of his literary creations focus on the condition of contemporary man, anguish, guilt, bureaucracy, frustration or loneliness, among others.

5. William Faulkner / United States (1897-1962)

Winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature, Faulkner was one of the best creators of experimental novels. In addition, he served as the father of many contemporary authors, such as Mario Vargas Llosa, Juan Rulfo, Ana María Matute or the great Hispanic American existentialist, Juan Carlos Onetti.

His final recognition came thanks to his fourth novel, The noise and the fury (1929), which presents a polyphony of voices with different narrators that demonstrate Faulkner’s astonishing ability to literary recreate the features of the human mind, even the most abnormal ones.

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7. Jorge Luis Borges/ Argentina (1899 -1986)

One of the key figures, both for Spanish-speaking and universal literature, is Borges. His respect for the confluence of opposites with the Argentine presence in tango or knives was only the beginning in the writing of a child who was born almost with a book in his hand.

This is how it was born The Library of Babel (1941) and more than 50 stories, essays, poems, which allow readers (whether they are mathematicians, philosophers, chemists or philologists) to enter the labyrinth of Borges to admire life from other eyes and each develop their own theory about it.

And, in this sense, his blindness caused by a genetic disease gave him the secret keys to write about different topics. All of them related to philosophy, existentialism, the universe, etc., and expressed through rationalism.

The most important writers in history must be known by their works

Sadly, the list of the most important writers in history had to be restricted, but there are many more. The truth is that authors who marked a before and after in world literature have been left out of the way. Thus, they are not forgotten either:

The cupcake by Proust.The stories by Camus. Poe’s stories.Ulysses by James Joyce.

And, of course, the writers who were returned by time to the place in history where they deserved to be remain alive: Emily Dickinson and her intimate poems, Virginia Woolf with her own room and Mary Shelley with the help of Frankenstein are just a few. of the most influential within the world literary panorama.

Without going so far in time, We also find established pens, such as Philip Roth, Paul Auster, Murakami, Saramago, Zafón or JKRowlingthat writer who has marked the hearts of thousands of young people – and not so young – with her particular universe.

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