Quote:
Originally Posted by ChalkOutlineMan
Fantastic choices. I agree on Dickens and Wodehouse. I remember R.L. Stine, the writer of the Goosebumps books, said he loved Wodehouse because of the sheer volume of them, and also the fact that they were all almost completely the same.  |
Makes me think of the preface to Summer Lightning:
A certain critic—for such men, I regret to say, do exist—made the nasty remark about my last novel that it contained 'all the old Wodehouse characters under different names'. He has probably now been eaten by bears, like the children who made mock of the prophet Elisha: but if he still survives he will not be able to make a similar charge against Summer Lightning. With my superior intelligence, I have outgeneralled this man by putting in all the old Wodehouse characters under the same names. Pretty silly it will make him feel, I rather fancy.
Quote:
|
Also would list Agatha Christie, Lewis Carroll, Jorge Luis Borges, Joan Didion, Thomas Hardy, J.R.R. Tolkien, M.R. James, Brett Easton Ellis, H.P. Lovecraft, Flannery O'Connor, Shirley Jackson, and G.K. Chesterton as particular favourites.
|
I've read some but not all of these; I liked them well enough but probably wouldn't re-read, while not ruling anything out.
Though I would add the Bronte Sisters to my my secondary list, possibly Daphne du Maurier.