3. INTRODUCTION :
A poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be
literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event,
or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many
meanings and forms.
A dramatist, also known as a playwright, is a person who
writes dramatic literature or drama. These works may be
written specifically to be performed by actors, or they may be
closet dramas - simple literary works - written using dramatic
forms, but not meant for performance.
A novelist is an author or writer of novels, though often
novelists also write in other genres of both fiction and non-
4. William Shakespeare was an English poet,
playwright and actor, widely regarded as the
greatest writer in the English language and the
world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called
England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon".
William Shakespeare
“There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it
so”
- WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
5. Leo Tolstoy
Leo Tolstoy, was a Russian writer, philosopher and political thinker who
primarily wrote novels and short stories. Tolstoy was a master of realistic
fiction and is widely considered one of the world's greatest novelists. He is best
known for two long novels, War and Peace (1869) and Anna Karenina (1877).
Tolstoy first achieved literary acclaim in his 20s with his semi-autobiographical
trilogy of novels, Childhood, Boyhood, and Youth (1852-1856) and Sevastopol
Sketches (1855), based on his experiences in the Crimean War, His fiction
output also includes two additional novels, dozens of short stories, and several
famous novellas, including The Death of Ivan Lynch, Family Happiness,
and Hadji Murad. Later in life, he also wrote plays and essays. Tolstoy is
equally known for his complicated and paradoxical persona and for his extreme
moralistic and ascetic views, which he adopted after a moral crisis and spiritual
awakening in the 1870s, after which he also became noted as a moral
thinker and social reformer.
6. Charles Dickens
Charles John Huffam Dickens (7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870)
was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the world's most
memorable fictional characters and is generally regarded as the
greatest novelist of the Victorian period. During his life, his works enjoyed
unprecedented fame, and by the twentieth century his literary genius was
broadly acknowledged by critics and scholars. His novels and short stories
continue to be widely popular.
Born in Portsmouth, England, Dickens was forced to leave school to work in a
factory when his father was thrown into debtors' prison. Although he had little
formal education, his early impoverishment drove him to succeed. Over his
career he edited a weekly journal for 20 years, wrote 15 novels, five novellas
and hundreds of short stories and non-fiction articles, lectured and performed
extensively, was an indefatigable letter writer, and campaigned vigorously for
children's rights, education, and other social reforms.
7. Mark Twain
Samuel Langhorne Clemens
(November 30, 1835 – April 21, 1910),better known by his pen name Mark
Twain, was an American author and humorist. He wrote The Adventures of
Tom Sawyer (1876) and its sequel, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1885), the
latter often called "the Great American Novel.“
Twain began his career writing light, humorous verse, but evolved into a
chronicler of the vanities, hypocrisies and murderous acts of mankind. At mid-
career, with Huckleberry Finn, he combined rich humor, sturdy narrative and
social criticism. Twain was a master at rendering colloquial speech and helped
to create and popularize a distinctive American literature built on American
themes and language
.
8. George Orwell
Eric Arthur Blair (25 June 1903 – 21 January 1950),
known by his pen name George Orwell, was an English novelist, essayist,
journalist and critic. His work is marked by lucid prose, awareness of social
injustice, opposition to totalitarianism, and commitment to democratic socialism.
Commonly ranked as one of the most influential English writers of the 20th
century, and as one of the most important chroniclers of English culture of his
generation, Orwell wrote literary criticism, poetry, fiction,
and polemical journalism. He is best known for the dystopian novel Nineteen
Eighty-Four(1949) and the allegorical novella Animal Farm (1945). His
book Homage to Catalonia (1938), an account of his experiences in
the Spanish Civil War, is widely acclaimed, as are his numerous essays on
politics, literature, language, and culture. Orwell's work continues to
influence popular and political culture, and the term Orwellian— descriptive of
totalitarian or authoritarian social practices — has entered the language
together with several of his neologisms, including cold war, Big Brother, thought
9. Oscar Wilde
Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde
(16 October 1854 – 30 November 1900) was an Irish writer and poet. After writing in
different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of London's most popular
playwrights in the early 1890s. Today he is remembered for his epigrams, his novel The
Picture of Dorian Gray, his plays, and the circumstances of his imprisonment and early
death.
Wilde's parents were successful Anglo-Irish Dublin intellectuals. Their son became fluent
in French and German early in life. At university, Wilde read Greats; he proved himself to
be an outstanding classicist, first at Dublin, then at Oxford. He became known for his
involvement in the rising philosophy of aestheticism, led by two of his tutors, Walter
Pater and John Ruskin. After university, Wilde moved to London into fashionable cultural
and social circles. As a spokesman for aestheticism, he tried his hand at various literary
activities: he published a book of poems, lectured in the United States and Canada on
the new "English Renaissance in Art", and then returned to London where he worked
prolifically as a journalist. Known for his biting wit, flamboyant dress and glittering
conversation, Wilde became one of the best-known personalities of his day.
10. Virginia Woolf
Adeline Virginia Woolf
(25 January 1882 – 28 March 1941) was an English writer, and one of the
foremost modernists of the twentieth century.
During the interwar period, Woolf was a significant figure in London literary
society and a central figure in the influential Bloomsbury Group of intellectuals.
Her most famous works include the novels Mrs. Dalloway (1925), To the
Lighthouse (1927) and Orlando(1928), and the book-length essay A Room of
One's Own (1929), with its famous dictum, "A woman must have money and a
room of her own if she is to write fiction." Woolf suffered from severe bouts of
mental illness throughout her life, thought to have been the result of what is
now termed bipolar disorder, and committed suicide by drowning in 1941 at the
age of 59.
11. Ferenc Molnár
Ferenc Molnár (12 January 1878 – 1 April 1952)
was a Hungarian-born dramatist and novelist who adopted American citizenship. Molnar
was born in Budapest. He emigrated to the United States to escape persecution of
Hungarian Jews during World War II. As a novelist, Molar may best be remembered
for The Paul Street Boys, the story of two rival gangs of youths in Budapest. It was
ranked second in a poll of favorite books as part of the Hungarian version of Big Read in
2005 and has been made into feature films on several different occasions. His most
popular plays are Lilia (1909, tr. 1921), later adapted into a musical (Carousel
(1945)); The Guardsman (1910, tr. 1924), which served as the basis of the film of the
same name, which starred Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne (1931); and The Swan (1920,
tr. 1922). His 1918 film, The Devil, was adapted three years later for American
audiences, starring George Arils in his first nationally released film. The 1956 film
version of The Swan (which had been filmed twice before) was Grace Kelly's
penultimate film, and was released on the day of her wedding to Prince Rainier. Two of
Molar's plays have been adapted for other media: The Good Fairy, was adapted
by Preston Sturgis and filmed in 1935 with Margaret Sullivan, and subsequently turned
12. F. C. Burnand
Sir Francis Cowley Burnand
(29 November 1836 – 21 April 1917), often credited as F. C. Burnand, was an
English comic writer and dramatist.
Burnand was a contributor to Punch for 45 years and its editor from 1880 until
1906. He was also a prolific humorist and writer, creating almost 200 Victorian
burlesques, farces, pantomimes and other works. He was knighted in 1902 for
his work on Punch. Burnand began to write farces while a teenager at Eton,
acting in his plays under the name Tom Pierce. His first professional production
was called Dido, a burlesque played at the St. James's Theatre in 1860. This
was followed by The Iles of St. Tropez (1860); Fair Rosamond(1862); and The
Deal Boatman (1863) among many others. His most memorable early success
was Ixion, or the Man at the Wheel (1863), a musical spoof that found
audiences on both sides of the Atlantic.
13. Herman Melville
Herman Melville
(August 1, 1819 – September 28, 1891) was an American novelist, poet, and
writer of short stories. One of the first authors to have his works published in
the Library of America, Herman Melville was an acclaimed American novelist,
poet and a short story writer. An enigma of American literature, Melville's first
few books brought him fame and literary recognition. He first gained critical
acclaim with his book 'Typee: A Peep at Polynesian Life', after which his most
popular novel, 'Moby-Dick' elevated his status as a prolific writer. Some of his
other books include, 'Omoo: A Narrative of Adventures in the South Seas',
'Mardi and a Voyage Thither', White-Jacket', 'Clarel: A Poem and Pilgrimage in
the Holy Land' and the posthumously published novel 'Billy Budd'.
Unfortunately, the books published before the success of 'Moby-Dick' did not do
very well. In the 20th century, he was catapulted to great fame as a writer for his
book 'Moby-Dick', a book that is regarded as one of the most acclaimed pieces
of literature in the world. Although he was not a financially successful writer, yet
