this is, in quite a bit more detail, precisely the point i was trying to get at with my earlier tongue-in-cheek post. thank you, nathan. if you don't mind me "filling in" a bit... as for the two "exceptions": not that my tastes should necessarily constitute a QB standard, but i never read novels any more except for american and russian ones (or both--nabokov comes to mind), but let's not dismiss the fine drama of both cultures. admittedly, o'neill was the first good american playwright (and still is the greatest), but now there are all kinds of really good, really well-known american playwrights, including but not limited to miller, williams, albee, shepard, mamet, wilson, durang, and even simon (if your tastes run to that sort of thing). and in russia, several of the "incredible cropping of talented novelists" did more than just dabble in drama; witness _boris gudonov_, _the inspector general_, _a month in the country_ and _the power of darkness_. and folks like griboyedov and gorky, whose fame and merit lie mostly in their plays, are also major contributors. so please--more drama questions! more american and russian lit! less dickens, austen, and hardy! joon Nathan wrote: I tend to agree with Joon on drama's dominance. A quick survey of literary cultures exemplifies that: the greatest pre-20th century Indian writers were either poets or dramatists--Kalidasa, Valmiki etc.; Chatterjee was known for his dramas as well as his plays; in Japan: alongside of Murasaki Shikibu et al you have to recognize Chikamatsu Montzaemon; in Germany Goethe, Kleist etc. come to mind; in Italy: Machiavelli was a dramatist; Manzoni was mainly a poet and dramatist except for his novel The Betrothed (admittedly is best known work); Alfieri was a poet and dramatist; Goldoni and Gozzi were dramatists; in England I don't think any comment is necessary; in America: our best early writers were poets--ok we didn't have any decent drama until Eugene O'Neill but that's one little country; China: poetry was pre-eminent at first until Journey to the West, The Water Margin etc. were written; France: might I remind you of Moliere, Corneille, Racine and many more? The first major Dutch writer I can think of was Jacob Cats--a poet; Spain had quite the dramatic golden age; Portugal perhaps less so; Russia has had an incredible cropping of talented novelists but Chekhov, Karamzin and Gogol still come to mind as authors not to be sneezed at.
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