501 Great Writers: A Comprehensive Guide to the Giants of Literature

501 Great Writers is a one-stop guide to the men and women who have written the greatest books of all time, from classic fiction to science ficton, and from cutting edge plays to thought-provoking essays. It provides an informal history of the written word, as seen through its leading practitioners, and a critical assessment of their standing in the canon of world literature. Serious students of literature will find a wealth of fascinating information about the authors who have shaped the course of fiction, poetry and philosophical thought over the centuries. Equally, non-specialist readers will find this book an accessible introduction to the greatest writers of all time and are bound to discover more about their favourite writers and their works. Each entry features a comprehensive biography, an assessment of the writer's literary innovations and cultural impact, a bibliography with recommended books highlighted, and fascinating images of the author and their books. About the General Editor Educated at Toronto and Yale, Julian Patrick, professor of English and Comperative Literature at the University of Toronto, has edited books on Ben Jonson and on literary theory, and has published articles on literature from Shakespeare to Auden and psychoanalysis.

(back cover)
Includes: Chinua Achebe · Kingsley Amis · Margaret Atwood · Donald Barthelme · William Blake · Vera Brittain · Mikhail Bulgakov · Albert Camus · Truman Capote · Giacomo Casanova · Geoffrey Chaucer · Noël Coward · Roald Dahl · Dante · Charles Dickens · Fyodor Dostoevsky · Marguerite Duras · Umberto Eco · T.S. Eliot · Bret Easton Ellis · Erasmus · Sebastian Faulks · Ian Fleming · Dario Fo · Max Frisch · Elizabeth Gaskell · Andre Gide · Robert Graves · Graham Greene · Dashiell Hammett · Thomas Hardy · Seamus Heaney · Patricia Highsmith · Homer · Victor Hugo · Kazua Ishiguro · Erica Jong · James Joyce · Ismail Kadare · Franz Kafka · Rudyard Kipling · Hanif Kureishi · Philip Larkin · Harper Lee · Primo Levi · Doris Lessing · Mario Vargas Llosa · Guy de Maupassant · Arthur Miller · Toni Morrison · Iris Murdoch · Vladimir Nabakov · George Orwell · Marcel Pagnol · Samuel Pepys · Harold Pinter · Sylvia Plath · Edgar Allan Poe · Arthur Ransome · Christina Rosetti · J.K. Rowling · Salman Rushdie · Jean-Paul Sartre · Siegfried Sassoon · William Shakespeare · Carol Shields · Sophocles · Bram Stoker · Dylan Thomas · Ivan Turgenev · John Updike · Jules Verne · Voltaire · Sarah Waters · Irvine Welsh · Oscar Wilde · Tennessee Williams · Virginia Woolf · William Wordsworth · Marguerite Yourcenar · Émile Zola

(front flap)
This enthralling, in-depth guide to 501 outstanding novelists, poets, playwrights, philosophers, and essayists spans the centuries as it describes writers from around the world. 501 Great Writers presents an informal illustrated history of the written word as it has been practiced by leading figures from different eras and cultures. Each biographical entry includes a critical appraisal of the artistÂ’s standing in the canon of world literature and an assessment of his or her literary innovations and cultural impact. An illustration accompanying each entry presents a portrait of the writer, and a supplementary list directs readers to recommended books by the author. Enhanced with enlightening quotes and intriguing asides, each and every entry is an entertaining and informative summary of the writer and his or her achievement.

Compiled by Professor Julian Patrick and written by an international team of literary critics, authors, teachers, and journalists, 501 Great Writers provides a truly comprehensive guide to the giants of world literature. Eclectic in its approach, this book describes a wide range of authors who have shaped the course of fiction, poetry, and philosophical thought, covering established figureheads as well as the latest firebrands. A comprehensive reference to the literary world, 501 Great Writers encourages you to gain a deeper understanding of the men and women behind many of the worldÂ’s best-loved and most influential literary works.

(back flap)
For the past 25 years Julian Patrick, professor of English and Comparative Literature at the University of Toronto, has directed the Literary Studies program at Victoria College—a historically innovative program of world literature, translation, philosophy, and literary theory. Educated at Toronto and Yale, he has edited books on Ben Jonson and on literary theory, and has published articles on literature from Shakespeare to Auden, as well as on psychoanalysis. His current research involves the overlap between traditional mimesis and new-style representation in early modern literature from Montaigne to La Princesse de Clèves.