English speaking authors

[Kyriakos]

Posting from a mobile phone sucks, so some elaboration will be avoided.
It is interesting how some of the authors who wrote in english are sensitive, while other famous ones are just bland. In a literature with so many famous names, in a language spoken by so many people, i did somewhat expect a bigger conformity to a supposed (discovered) ideal or standard.
I like sensitive writers, and was happy reading poe and stevenson, and even some work by dunsany. Lovecraft is -as borges noted- indeed sonewhat "unconciously parodying poe", while i could never like dickens and his newspaper article-writer prose style.
And although a large number of early-mid 20th century english speaking writers are to degrees tied to romanticism (which i like) most of them aren't very good at it, imo.
Lovecraft has his truck-driver moments of crudeness, and so does his welsh cousin, Machen. Henry james is an interesting case, yet much is lost in his convoluted and bloated narrative.
I guess that the victorian era was enough to forge a phantasm, but not a nobler imprint in the world of letters. Or just that the individual talent is the only aspect of paramount importance?

 

[Patine]

It is interesting how some of the authors who wrote in english are sensitive, while other famous ones are just bland. In a literature with so many famous names, in a language spoken by so many people, i did somewhat expect a bigger conformity to a supposed (discovered) ideal or standard.

I myself would expect the complete of a trend. English (and other widespread languages with a long literary tradition, including also French, German, Russian, Arabic, Spanish, and Chinese) have such a variance in authors' styles and literary schools because of the vast number of speakers and the long and robust history of their literary tradition. Languages with much fewer speakers whose strong, most well-known literary schools begin with "reawakenings" or "revivals" as recently as the 18th, 19th, or even 20th Centuries can logically be expected to command far greater conformity in their style.

 

[Kyriakos]

I myself would expect the complete of a trend. English (and other widespread languages with a long literary tradition, including also French, German, Russian, Arabic, Spanish, and Chinese) have such a variance in authors' styles and literary schools because of the vast number of speakers and the long and robust history of their literary tradition. Languages with much fewer speakers whose strong, most well-known literary schools begin with "reawakenings" or "revivals" as recently as the 18th, 19th, or even 20th Centuries can logically be expected to command far greater conformity in their style.

You would not think so if you were aware of such languages, so i take it you just post out of your ...mouth; besides, i thought you meant to ignore me, so do keep your word on that pls.
Literatures with less speakers are more chaotic, that much is known in comparative literature. One can also compare ancient greek to modern greek; the former has far more stable forms and themes, spanning aeons and numbering hundreds of celebrated works.

 

[Patine]

i thought you meant to ignore me, so do keep your word on that pls.

What, did I make a solemn oath and vow in front of a judge and three witnesses of sober mind I can legally be held to, without fail, till my dying day?

 

[Cutlass]

There are 10s of 1000s of English language fiction authors over the years, and 1000+ novels published every year. You haven't read them all, so maybe it's out there, and you aren't looking in the right place.