swap_horiz Virginia Woolf Alternatives

1

George Orwell

British novelist and essayist (1903–1950) best known for the dystopian 'Nineteen Eighty-Four' (1949) and the allegorical...

Satire 20TH Century Dystopian British

9.2 Excellent

2

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

3

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

4

J.R.R. Tolkien

English writer and academic who authored the seminal high fantasy novels *The Hobbit* and *The Lord of the Rings*, effec...

Fantasy Epic World Building 20TH Century

9.2 Excellent

5

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

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

Ursula K. Le Guin

American author of speculative fiction famous for her influential sci-fi and fantasy works, including the 1969 novel *Th...

Fantasy Sci Fi American 20TH Century

9.0 Excellent

8

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

9

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

10

Terry Pratchett

English humorist and fantasy author famous for his prolific and beloved Discworld series, which spans 41 comedic novels.

Fantasy Comic 20TH Century British

8.8 Great

11

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

12

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

13

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

14

Octavia Butler

American science fiction author who broke genre barriers as a multiple Hugo and Nebula winner, famed for the 1979 novel...

Sci Fi American 20TH Century Feminist

8.6 Great

15

Lu Xun

Chinese writer of the early 20th century, celebrated as the founder of modern Chinese literature for his biting social c...

20TH Century Literary Chinese Modernism

8.6 Great

16

Graham Greene

English novelist renowned for exploring moral and religious themes in acclaimed works such as *The Power and the Glory*...

20TH Century British Thriller Literary

8.5 Great

17

Simone de Beauvoir

French novelist and feminist theorist whose seminal 1949 treatise 'The Second Sex' became a foundational text of modern...

French Philosophical 20TH Century Existential

8.5 Great

18

Clarice Lispector

Brazilian novelist celebrated for her modernist, introspective works and her dense, existential 1964 masterpiece *The Pa...

20TH Century Experimental Literary Feminist

8.5 Great

19

William Golding

British novelist (1911–1993) and Nobel laureate (1983) whose debut novel 'Lord of the Flies' (1954) allegorically examin...

20TH Century Dark British Nobel

8.4 Great

20

D.H. Lawrence

English novelist (1885–1930) whose psychologically intense and often sexually frank works, including 'Sons and Lovers' (...

Psychological 20TH Century British Modernism

7.9 Good