W.B. Yeats
Irish poet, dramatist, and prose writer, William Butler (W.B.) Yeats (1865–1939), is considered to this day as one of the greatest English-language poets of the 20th century. He received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1923.
Literature
Anton Chekhov
Russian physician and writer, Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (1860–1904) is considered to be one the greatest short story writers, as well as a masterful dramatist and satirist. His works focus more on the character and mood rather than action, and tell the story of ordinary events and relationships in small towns and...
Oscar Wilde
Before James Joyce, there was another Irish writer who took the world by storm: Oscar Wilde (1854–1900), the famously eccentric poet and novelist of the later 19th century. One of the most pre-eminent voices of the Victorian era, Wilde was a London celebrity whose works...
Mark Twain
Mark Twain (1835–1910), whose real name was Samuel Langhorne Clemens, was a sometimes-controversial but prolific writer and humorist who authored 14 novels, including two major classics of American literature—The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn—as well as multiple short stories, essays,...
Emily Dickinson
The “Belle of Amherst,” as Emily Dickinson (1830—1886) was known, was the reclusive, eccentric daughter of an academic New England family. Though known as a poet and prolific letter-writer in life, she published fewer than a dozen of her poems—and not even her family suspected that...
Leo Tolstoy
One of the most acclaimed Russian writers of the 19th century, Leo Tolstoy (1828–1910) was the author of novels—including War and Peace and Anna Karenina—as well as short stories and essays. He was also a renowned reformer and humanitarian.
Fyodor Dostoevsky
A quintessential Russian writer of the 19th century, Fyodor Dostoevsky’s (1821–1881) works explored the relation of the human psyche with social, spiritual and political forces of his time.
Charles Dickens
Charles Dickens (1812–1870) has been widely regarded as one of the greatest British writers of the 19th century. His novels, including A Christmas Carol, Great Expectations, and A Tale of Two Cities, portray the often-grim existence of ordinary people in the Victorian era—the depiction he based on his...
Jane Austen
Though relatively unknown during her lifetime, Jane Austen (1775–1817) is among the most widely read novelists in English literature. Her literary classics, such as Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility, bridge the gap between romance and realism.
William Shakespeare
Considered by many to be the greatest writer in the English language, William Shakespeare (1564–1616) was an English playwright and poet. His plays, Macbeth, Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, King Lear, and Midsummer Night’s Dream among others, have been performed in many languages around the world.
