Dec
30
2009
Who Is the Greatest Novelist of All Time?
From J. I. Packer, written over 20 years ago, for the book The Gospel in Dostoyevsky: Selections from His Works (Orbis, 2004) vii.
“Dostoyevsky is to me both the greatest novelist, as such, and the greatest Christian storyteller, in particular, of all time. His plots and characters pinpoint the sublimity, perversity, meanness, and misery of fallen human adulthood in an archetypal way matched only by Aeschylus and Shakespeare, while his dramatic vision of God’s amazing grace and of the agonies, Christ’s and ours, that accompany salvation, has a range and depth that only Dante and Bunyan come anywhere near. . . . [H]is constant theme is the nightmare quality of unredeemed existence and the heartbreaking glory of the incarnation, whereby all human hurts came to find their place in the living and dying of Christ the risen Redeemer. ”
HT: Tony Reinke
Who gets your vote?
44 Comments
I agree with Packer. Dostoyevsky gets my vote for many of the reasons listed above. “The Brothers Karamazov” is one of my favorite books that explore these themes.
Was Dostoyevsky an Eastern Orthodox Christian?
Dostoyevsky without a doubt. His characterization is unparalleled. The censored chapter from The Demons in which Stavrogin confesses his sins gives amazing insight into the mind of a masochist. His description of what drives a person to murder in The House of the Dead is also fantastic. Prince Myshkin in The Idiot is a model of chistlikeness. Raskolniv in Crime and Punishment is a picture of guilt and redemption. But his greatest, as Trevin said, is the dialogue between Ivan and Alyosha in “The Grand Inquisitor” from The Brothers Karamazov.
The murder of “pure beauty” in The Idiot should not go unnoticed either.
Grudgingly agree…could he have been a little more concise, well, actually a LOT more? I confess to wading through “The Brothers Karamazov,” because I was supposed to, and it IS the book everyone says it is, but by the time I got to the Grand Inquisitor’s statement, I…ahem…scanned through it.
Greatest living novelists? Cormac McCarthy and Marilynne Robinson.
Couldn’t agree more with Packer’s assessment. The Grand Inquistor gets all the attention in discussion of The Brothers K, but I think Rebellion is more compellingly written (and of course there is more to the book than those two chapters!). I lament that Dostoevsky died before Atheism could be completed.
I second Murf on Robinson, but after reading The Road will not likely pick up McCarthy again…overrated.
J.R.R. Tolkien hands down.Dostoevsky is a solid second choice.
Dostoevsky, yes! Reading a bio on him, a huge thing, written by Joseph Frank–highly recommended! I second Andy’s comments on Robinson–and on McCarthy, just read “No Country for Old Men,” will not run out to read more. Robinson hands down! Mike Horton has a great interview with her at the WHI.
Novels I don’t read any longer. Though I think Tolkein will always be my favorite that I have read, and perhaps will read again. Robert Ludlum’s books were novels I found hard to put down.
Hmmm…I’ve never read anything by Dostoyevsky. I suppose I should, but the sheer size and density of The Brothers Karamazov scares me. My dad, a much more patient reader than I, said he had a hard time getting through it. Out of the novelists I’ve read, I’d have to say J.R.R. Tolkien is my favourite.
How many novelists do you have to read before you know who is the “greatest of all time”?
Victor Hugo is up there for me — Les Miserables. But, I like Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn very much too. For the non-Christian bunch, I’ll take William Gibson and Salman Rushdie (if for no other reason than he p’offed the tyrants).
William Faulkner
I’m almost ashamed to admit it but I have never read Dostoevsky. For sheer fun I love Alexander Dumas and Tolkien. As Chris replied above, Victor Hugo’s Les Miserables is fantastic. For contemporary authors love Crichton and Steven Lawhead. But, seriously, for Christians does anything get better than Pilgrim’s Progress?
Yes, Faulker is great. Flannery O’Connor too.
O’Connor is outstanding, but not as a novelist.
Faulkner’s The Sound and the Fury is remarkable (Lay Down Moses and As I Lay Dying are both decent), although his nihilism in S&F seeps through everywhere.
Tim Lahaye and the Left Behind Series is a must for all
Like many others I do love Brothers K, but Crime and Punishment was definitely my favorite.
Toni Morrison.
I would have thought the 5-pointers would prefer War and Peace.
Who Is the Greatest Novelist of All Time?
A lot of votes and mentions for Dostoevsky and Tolkien.
Dostoevsky was an Eastern Orthodox Christian. And Tolkien was a Catholic Christian.
Per Tim Bayly: “Explaining to a friend the other day that I’ve found Roman Catholics writing about almost anything other than the five solas of the Reformation infinitely more interesting and helpful than Protestants …
But now, the only ones doing good critical (and often Biblical) thinking about ethics and war, sex, medicine, politics, art, demographics, culture, fertility, and the list goes on are almost exclusively Roman Catholic.”
Interesting, yes?
Best Regards,
A Joyful Signer of the Manhattan Declaration
TUAD,
Why do you jump around the internet mentioning the Manhattan Declaration? Are you looking to stir up controversy everywhere you go?
You used to be a cheer leader over at Triablogue, now you’re a defender of RCC/EOC and the Manhattan Declaration.
Weird.
@ Thabiti,
Which Morrison book is best? I didn’t care much for Beloved, but I was a restless college student at the time.
@ Wilderness,
Tolstoy was a mad genius, and too much of a loony toon at the end for my liking. And the romances he crafts drive me bonkers as well. I liked W&P, but the Sebastopol stories were better.
@TUAD,
While driving to dinner tonight your point crossed my mind as well. Perhaps guys like ND Wilson will eventually deliver on the Protestant side.
To all,
Anyone read much of Walker Percy? Peter Leithart describes him as the “American Doestoevsky.”
Andy,
For my money, Song of Solomon is Morrison at her best. I didn’t care much for Beloved; perhaps I just didn’t get or like the story. But Song of Solomon was perfect for this restless college student!
T-
Dickens’ Bleak House is the best novel I’ve ever read, though the great parts of Karamazov are at least as good. Have read Notes From Underground 3 or 4 times – insightful and incredibly funny.
Flannery O’Connor is my favorite American author. Love her stories AND novels. Also Nathanael West.
For stylistic brilliance: Nabokov’s Lolita, in which every sentence is a little masterpiece. Those who have read it will probably not be shocked by my choice.
Elizabeth Goudge is amazing. The Scent of Water is pure gold.
Bunyon. Why, because he is far easier to get to grips with than Dostoyevsky. Many more people will start and finish Pilgrims Progress and will get more out of it precisely because it is easier to get to grips with.
That is not a put down to Dostoyevsky, but as the saying goes “horses for courses”
I am an avid reader and I have read widely, but I have never felt the need or the inclination to read Dostoyevsky. Maybe one day, but not likely.
My favorite novel remains Harper Lee’s “To Kill a Mockingbird.”
Dostoyevsky is up there. For The Brothers K alone, with Rebellion being the greatest chapter.
Tolkien has to be up there for sheer impact. Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time series blows Lord of the Rings out of the water, but its hard to put him above Tolkien because he is writing in a genre Tolkien created.
I hope “hardcore Southern Baptist” is using satire.
I’ve said this before on here but the greatest English novel that is honest, real, deals with sin and the redemptive work of Jesus is “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” and that would have to put Harriet Beecher Stowe at the top.
I would have to throw C.S. Lewis in the mix (at least in terms of English novelist). His “Till We Have Faces” and “The Great Divorce” are superb. BTW he was Anglican. And then, I would like to throw in John Steinbeck “Of Mice and Men” and “East of Eden” (does about as good a job describing the disposition of sin as any author but especially in East of Eden).
Honorable Mention: Annie Dillard, Tolstoy
But let’s be serious though William P. Young (The Shack) is on top followed closely by Jack Chick.
I think we can shut this whole thread down, my friends. There is only one novelist: Stephenie Meyers. Twilight. Boom goes the dynamite.
Boom goes the dynamite -LOL
Wild card: Orson Scott Card. And he’s Mormon.
I think I have almost been ruined by Hollywood on reading. I tried to read “The Three Musketeers” and “The Count of Monte Cristo” and some other classics, but I got bored. It’s like trying to talk about biblical eschatology with someone who has read the Left Behind series and watched the movies. Woe is me.
Ok, maybe I’m not that bad, but I’m probably close.
Tough question to answer; tough judgment to make. Dosteyevsky is a favorite, but so are lewis, O’Connor, Tolkien, Chesterton, Tolstoy, Austen , and Dickens for me. Also, one Christian author that I think fits the description Packer gives, but has not been mentioned is Graham Greene. The Power and the Glory is one of my favorite novels.
Brad, Alexandre Dumas isn’t exactly in the same class as a Dosteyevsky; perhaps you’re bored because he’s boring! My advice would be to start with someone more contemporary, but still of literary quality. Most of us didn’t grow up having our imaginations nourished properly, so we’re like babies that need to be fed milk for awhile.
I’ve learned so much about Christianity and literature from Rene Girard in the last decade, so influenced by him the greatest novelists that I’ve read include Dostoyevsky, Cervantes, Flaubert (Madame Bovary specifically) and Shakespeare (though not a novelist). I love Faulkner too (Sound & the Fury, Light in August and Absalom, Absalom). Flannery O’Connor and Kafka should be on the list too.
Lewis gets a nod from me, despite being entirely overrated in the States (which is hilarious, given that he’s all but forgotten in the UK). I’d have to put Tolkien in roughly the same boat. Points for cultural impact and creation of a genre, but there are plenty of other fantasy authors out there who are much more interesting, at least for me.
As far as the Greatest goes, I may have to say Dickens. I do greatly enjoy Poe, though I’m not really sure he can be considered a “novelist.” It’s a tough choice. I need to go back and read some more Dostoevsky.
I’d like to hear your fantasy recommendations. Tolkien is complex but very readable. For me Jordan (Wheel of Time) was complex but overly so; a hard slog to get through. Who would you advise?
Dan, no one is better than Tolkien (although I did enjoy Jordan almost as much), but Steven Erikson is good (he’s rough, though); Raymond Feist is enjoyable, as well. Patrick Rothfuss (The Name of the Wind) is incredible.
Victor Hugo, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Charles Dickens, Flannery O’Connor, Ray Bradbury, Kurt Vonnegut, Jonathan Swift, Jane Austen, William Shakespeare, John Steinbeck, G. K. Chesterton, C.S. Lewis, Cormac McCarthy, …okay, this is beginning to look like my facebook profile
Shakespeare’s novelization of “Hamlet” is his best, I think.
Speaking of which, I found “A twice-told tale” by Steve Hays to be an insightful series on Christianity and literature.
no puritan lit, eh?
What’s going to happen to all these arminians?
I’m dismayed that no one mentions George Eliot. To me she is the master of depicting psychological character.
Has no one here read anything by George MacDonald? He gets my vote!