Know how I know you all are idiots? Greatest writer of the English language seldom ever mentioned. I know it's not because you think literature shouldn't make you feel, because I see six Infinite Jest posts a day.
Could it be you haven't read it?
>>8129623
It's assigned reading in high school and college. That's why
>>8129623
there is literally a great expectations "thread" next to this one but of course most people on /lit/ haven't read dickens. the average age of this board is about 13 and they would rather have a thread called "my favourite philosopher is better than yours" than actually talk about great writers
>>8129623
i read David Copperfield. it just kept going and going and going. I like dickens, but i like other authors more.
>>8129652
I bet you read women and non-whites
>>8129665
nah, i like white male authors. Just had to move on from Dickens after reading a couple of his novels. He has his place in literature, but sometimes it can drag just a smidge. Don't aim your grumpy at me.
>>8129623
Hmm an author that published exclusively in monthly serial magazines read by stay at home women is the greatest writer of the English language? And what's that, he was payed by the word?! Please tell me more OP.
>>8129623
Calling him the greatest writer of the English language is hyperbolic, but he certainly ranks among the authors who don't get enough credit around here. In order to be popular on /lit/, you have to appeal to angsty young men.
>>8129718
Do you realize that Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, and Flaubert also published serially, you fucking faggot?
>>8129718
Repeating nonsense you heard from your sophomore classmate who just didn't want to read Tale of Two Cities?! Please tell me more.
There's a reason Joyce put Dickens at the apex of English literature in the hospital chapter. Dickens also beat Joyce to the idea of punctuationless female speech - see Flora in Little Dorrit.
I'll even help you out:
Bleak House ≥ Great Expectations > Little Dorrit > Tale of Two Cities ≥ Martin Chuzzlewit ≥ David Copperfield
>>8129797
is bleak house that much better than david copperfield? also, what about nickleby?
>>8129623
He's a bit vanilla m8. I've read Copperfield and Great Expectations. Maybe you have to be from London to fully appreciate.
>>8129808
Never read Nickleby so I couldn't say. Bleak House really was a masterpiece. Tight, thought-provoking, less openly preachy than Dickens' other works (this despite being half narrated by the classic Dickens Mary Sue!) And admittedly, I haven't read Copperfield in a long time, so I might have placed it incorrectly.
>>8129823
tolstoy thought david copperfield was the best novel