swap_horiz Lu Xun Alternatives

1

James Joyce

Irish modernist novelist (1882–1941) whose 'Ulysses' (1922) is widely considered the defining work of literary modernism...

20TH Century Experimental Modernism Irish

9.2 Excellent

2

Marcel Proust

French novelist (1871–1922) whose seven-volume 'In Search of Lost Time' (1913–1927) is among the longest and most celebr...

Classic French 20TH Century Memory

9.2 Excellent

3

Franz Kafka

Czech-German novelist (1883–1924) whose surreal, alienating works 'The Trial' and 'The Metamorphosis' gave rise to the a...

20TH Century Absurdism Czech Existential

9.1 Excellent

4

Cormac McCarthy

American novelist celebrated for his bleak, violent themes and his Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Road.

American 20TH Century Dark Literary

9.1 Excellent

5

Thomas Mann

German novelist who won the 1929 Nobel Prize in Literature for his epic, symbol-laden masterpiece The Magic Mountain.

German Psychological 20TH Century Literary

9.0 Excellent

6

William Butler Yeats

Irish poet and dramatist awarded the 1923 Nobel Prize in Literature, remembered as a foundational figure of the Irish Li...

20TH Century Modernism Irish Nobel

9.0 Excellent

7

Ralph Ellison

American writer whose sole published novel during his lifetime, *Invisible Man* (1952), won the National Book Award and...

African American American 20TH Century Literary

9.0 Excellent

8

James Baldwin

American novelist and essayist whose works, including *Go Tell It on the Mountain* (1953), profoundly explored racial, c...

African American American 20TH Century Literary

9.0 Excellent

9

William Faulkner

American novelist (1897–1962) and Nobel laureate (1949) whose stream-of-consciousness works set in fictional Yoknapatawp...

American 20TH Century Modernism Southern

8.9 Great

10

Chinua Achebe

Nigerian novelist whose 1958 debut novel Things Fall Apart is a foundational text of modern African literature.

20TH Century Literary African Nigerian

8.9 Great

11

Virginia Woolf

English modernist novelist (1882–1941) who pioneered stream-of-consciousness narrative in works such as 'Mrs Dalloway' (...

20TH Century British Feminist Modernism

8.8 Great

12

F. Scott Fitzgerald

American novelist (1896–1940) whose 'The Great Gatsby' (1925) is a defining portrayal of the Jazz Age and the American D...

American 20TH Century Tragedy Jazz Age

8.8 Great

13

Ernest Hemingway

American Nobel laureate (1954) whose spare, declarative prose style, developed in novels like 'The Sun Also Rises' (1926...

American 20TH Century Minimalism War

8.7 Great

14

Joseph Conrad

Polish-born British novelist (1857–1924) whose 'Heart of Darkness' (1899) and 'Lord Jim' (1900) examine imperialism and...

Adventure 20TH Century Colonial Modernism

8.7 Great

15

Fernando Pessoa

Portuguese poet and writer celebrated for his profound modernist explorations of multiple literary personas (heteronyms)...

Philosophical 20TH Century Experimental Modernism

8.7 Great

16

Zora Neale Hurston

American author and anthropologist who was a central figure of the Harlem Renaissance, best known for her 1937 novel *Th...

African American American 20TH Century Literary

8.5 Great

17

Maya Angelou

American memoirist, poet, and civil rights activist best known for her 1969 autobiography *I Know Why the Caged Bird Sin...

African American American 20TH Century Literary

8.5 Great

18

Richard Wright

American author whose landmark 1940 novel *Native Son* and memoir *Black Boy* profoundly impacted discussions of race an...

African American American 20TH Century Literary

8.4 Great

19

Lao She

Prominent 20th-century Chinese novelist and playwright, celebrated for his vivid depiction of working-class Beijing life...

20TH Century Tragedy Literary Chinese

7.6 Good

20

Ba Jin

Prolific Chinese author of the 20th century renowned for his politically charged novels, most notably the influential 19...

20TH Century Family Saga Literary Chinese

7.3 Good