NP:Greatest Dead Novelist

[mikebailey at speakeasy.net]

Chaucer, anyone?  Sentens and solas, frame tale, variety

Dostoevsky's great but not a personal favorite (but as William Gass wrote in Temple of Texts, "If you don't like a classic, the problem is with you, not with the classic." - he also wrote that studying classics will build you up more than lifting weights!)

I agree with everybody else's choices, and of course have mad props for them.

Some indispensable, rewarding, shouldn't-be-neglected dear departed novelists for me: JB Priestley, Evelyn Waugh, PG Wodehouse, Anthony Burgess (especially the Enderby books)  

Do I become a lightweight if I see them as a sweet spot of 20th century lit, humanistic but not nihilistic, not fanatic, usually not terribly depressing, and full of humour, imaginative but not intrusively experimental?  Smooth like a good scotch.

Somebody said Ford Madox Ford is better than these guys but I haven't yet checked to see if that's correct.