Chrétien de Troyes (c. 1160-1191)
"Chrétien's chivalric romances, including Erec and Enide, Lancelot, Perceval, and Yvain represent some of the best-regarded works of medieval literature." (Wikipedia: Chrétine de Troyes, 11.27.25 UTC 04:48)
Dante Alighieri (c. 1265-1321)
"His depictions of Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven provided inspiration for the larger body of Western art and literature." (Wikipedia: Dante Alighieri, 1.26.26 UTC 03:47)
Petrarch (1304-1374)
"Petrarch's rediscovery of Cicero's letters is often credited with initiating the 14th century Italian Renaissance and the founding of Renaissance humanism." (Wikipedia: Petrarch, 1.17.26 UTC 17:26)
Giovanni Boccaccio (1313-1375)
"His most notable works are The Decameron, a collection of short stories, and On Famous Women... Boccaccio is considered one the the 'Three Crowns' of Italian literature along with Dante Alighieri and Petrarch." (Wikipedia: Giovanni Boccaccio, 1.07.26 UTC 01:02)
Geoffrey Chaucer (c. 1343-1400)
"...best known for The Canterbury Tales. He has been called the 'father of English literature'..." (Wikipedia: Geoffrey Chaucer, 1.23.26 UTC 15:17)
Christine de Pizan (c. 1364-1430)
"Considered to be some of the earliest feminist writings, her work includes novels, poetry, and biography... Her best known works are The Book of the City of Ladies and The Treasure of the City of Ladies..." (Wikipedia: Christine de Pizan, 1.25.26 UTC 10:23)
François Villon (c. 1431-1463)
"Besides Le Lais and Le grand testament, Villon's surviving works include multiple poems... Villon was a great innovator in terms of the themes of poetry and, through these themes, a great renovator of the forms." (Wikipedia: François Villon, 1.20.26 UTC 17:00)
Thomas More (1478-1535)
"He wrote Utopia, published in 1516, which describes the political system of an imaginary island state." (Wikipedia: Thomas More, 1.24.26 UTC 03:01)
François Rabelais (c. 1483-1553)
"...known as a satirist for his depictions of the grotesque, and for his larger-than-life characters." (Wikipedia: François Rabelais, 1.22.26 UTC 16:23)
Nostradamus (1503-1566)
"...known for his book Les Prophéties (published 1555), a collection of 942 poetic quatrains allegedly predicting future events." (Wikipedia: Nostradamus, 1.9.25 UTC 21:18)
Luís de Camões (c. 1524-1580)
"He wrote a considerable amount of lyrical poetry and drama but is best remembered for his epic work Os Lusíadas... He demonstrated virtuosity especially in cantos and elegies..." (Wikipedia: Luís de Camões, 1.8.26 UTC 00:30)
Miguel de Cervantes (1547-1616)
"...known for his two-part novel Don Quixote, a work considered to be the first modern novel." (Wikipedia: Miguel de Cervantes, 12.27.25 UTC 23:25)
Edmund Spenser (c. 1552-1599)
"Spenser's masterpiece is the epic poem The Faerie Queene... In a completely allegorical context, the poem follows several knights in an examination of several virtues." (Wikipedia: Edmund Spenser, 1.13.26 UTC 09:46)
Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592)
"Montaigne's humanism is expressed in his Essais (published in 1580), a large collection of short, subjective essays on various topics..." (Wikipedia: Michel de Montaigne, 1.6.26 UTC 17:51)
Lope de Vega (1562-1635)
"The literary production of Lope de Vega includes 3,000 sonnets, three novels, four novellas, nine epic poems, and approximately 500 stageplays." (Wikipedia: Lope de Vega, 12.29.25 UTC 08:48)
Christopher Marlowe (c. 1564 - 1593)
"Marlowe was the first to achieve critical reputation for his use of blank verse, which became the standard for the era... Marlowe's literary works have been noted as humanistic with realistic emotions..." (Wikipedia: Christopher Marlowe, 1.21.26 UTC 18:16)
William Shakespeare (c. 1564-1616)
"His extant works, including collaborations, consist of some 39 plays, 154 sonnets, three long narrative poems and a few other verses, some of uncertain authorship." (Wikipedia: William Shakespeare, 1.13.26 UTC 21:11)
John Donne (c. 1571-1572)
"He is considered the preeminent representative of the metaphysical poets... Donne's style is characterised by abrupt openings and various paradoxes, ironies and dislocations." (Wikipedia: John Donne, 1.22.26 UTC 17:39)
Ben Johnson (c. 1572-1637)
"...known for the satirical plays Every Man in His Humour (1598), Volpone, or The Fox (c. 1606), The Alchemist (1610), and Bartholomew Fair (1614), and for his lyric and epigrammatic poetry." (Wikipedia: Ben Johnson, 1.23.26 UTC 13:34)
Pedro Calderón de la Barca (1600-1681)
"Calderón's poetry and plays have since wielded an enormous global influence upon Romanticism, symbolism, literary modernism, expressionism, dystopian science fiction, and even postmodernism." (Wikipedia: Pedro Calderón de la Barca, 12.12.25 UTC 21:57)
Pierre Corneille (1606-1684)
"He is generally considered one of the three great 17th century French dramatists, along with Molière and Racine. " (Wikipedia: Pierre Corneille, 1.15.26 UTC 17:55)
John Milton (1608-1674)
"His 1667 epic poem Paradise Lost... addresses the fall of man, including the temptation of Adam and Eve by the fallen angel Satan, and God's expulsion of them from the Garden of Eden." (Wikipedia: John Milton, 1.26.26 UTC 14:43)
Molière (c. 1622 - 1673)
"His extant works include comedies, farces, tragicomedies, comédie-ballets... Molière is considered the creator of modern French comedy." (Wikpedia: Molière, 1.24.26 UTC 23:37)
Charles Perrault (1628-1703)
"He laid the foundations for a new literary genre, the fairy tale, with his works derived from earlier folk tales, published in his 1697 book Histories ou contes du temps passé." (Wikipedia: Charles Perrault, 10.24.25 UTC 00:30)
John Dryden (1631-1700)
"He established the heroic couplet as a standard form of English poetry by writing successful satires, religious pieces, fables, epigrams, compliments, prologues, and plays with it..." (Wikipedia: John Dryden, 12.28.25 UTC 02:34)
Jean Racine (1639-1699)
"Racine's plays displayed his mastery of the dodecasyllabic (12 syllable) French alexandrine." (Wikipedia: Jean Racine, 10.9.25 UTC 10:24)
Daniel Defoe (c. 1660-1731)
"He is most famous for his novel Robinson Crusoe... producing more than three hundred works - books, pamphlets, and journals - on diverse topics, including politics, crime, religion, marriage, psychology and the supernatural." (Wikipedia: Daniel Defoe, 1.29.26 UTC 21:30)
Jonathan Swift (1667-1745)
"He was the author of the satirical prose novel Gulliver's Travels (1726)... A Tale of a Tub (1704) and An Argument Against Abolishing Christianity (1708)... He was a master of two styles of satire, the Horatian and Juvenalian." (Wikipedia: Jonathan Swift, 1.27.26 UTC 22:04)
Alexander Pope (1688-1744)
"...Pope is best known for his satirical and discursive poetry including An Essay on Criticism (1711), The Dunciad (1728-1743) and for his translations of Homer." (Wikipedia: Alexander Pope, 1.7.26 UTC 16:13)
Voltaire (1694-1778)
"He wrote more than 20,000 letters and 2,000 books and pamphlets... He was an outspoken advocate of civil liberties..." (Wikipedia: Voltaire, 1.18.26 UTC 13:52)
Henry Fielding (1707-1754)
"Along with Samuel Richardson, Fielding is seen as the founder of the traditional English novel." (Wikipedia: Henry Fielding, 1.3.26 UTC 06:15)
Samuel Johnson (1709-1784)
"After nine years' effort, Johnson's A Dictionary of the English Language appeared in 1755... Near the end of his life, he authored the voluminous and highly influential Lives of the Most Eminent English Poets..." (Wikipedia: Samuel Johnson, 1.22.26 UTC 17:19)
Giacomo Casanova (1725-1798)
"He is chiefly remembered for his autobiography, written in French and published posthumously as Histoire de ma vie ('The Story of My Life')." (Wikipedia: Giacomo Casanova, 1.13.26 UTC 00:13)
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832)
"A poet, playwright, novelist, scientist, statesman, theatre director and critic, Goethe wrote a wide range of works." (Wikipedia: Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, 10.6.25 UTC 18:58)
William Blake (1757-1827)
"...produced a diverse and symbolically rich collection of works... His paintings and poetry have been characterised as part of the Romantic movement..." (Wikipedia: William Blake, 1.22.26 UTC 00:29)
Robert Burns (1759-1796)
"He is widely regarded as the national poet of Scotland... He is regarded as a pioneer of the Romantic movement..." (Wikipedia: Robert Burns, 1.21.26 UTC 16:59)
Friedrich Schiller (1759-1805)
"Schiller is considered to be one of Germany's most important classical playwrights... The language of The Robbers is highly emotional..." (Wikipedia: Friedrich Schiller, 1.7.26 UTC 14:58)
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