Do you think any current author is of the same caliber as Dickens, Austen, Bronte, or any of the classic authors? If so, who, and why do you think so? If not, why not? What books from this era might be read 100 years from now?I definitely think there are some modern authors who not only measure up to the classics, but also will be read years from now (here's hoping Twilight is NOT one of those). Authors I'd say who have the staying power of classics would be:
Ian McEwan
Barbara Kingsolver
Jeffrey Eugenides
Gabriel Garcia Marquez
John Irving
These authors certainly embody the story-telling genius that Dickens is known for. There are others, but these are the first that come to my mind.
Interesting. Acutally I haven't read books by any of these authors. Here is mine
ReplyDeleteI agree with your list. I went in a different direction. My answer is here.
ReplyDeleteMcEwan and Irving made my list too!
ReplyDeleteThis was my high school english class project! We wrote letters to contemporary scholars, authors, critics, and just people respected in the literary world, asking what their definition of a classic was, and what contemporary books they believed had what it took to be considered classics in 50 or 100 years. It was such a neat project. Some of the people we got responses from included Oprah and Elie Weisel, along with some Harvard and Brown professors. I don't remember all of the books that were suggested, but I read Milan Kundera's The Book of Laughter and Forgetting as part of that project. It was fabulous.
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