2WL is right...

Tolkien is king of fantasy, but this is DICKENS...

DWL clearly forgot about good old Mr. Shakespeare, because we ALL know that he's the greatest English writer of all-time, he was just too cool to even bother advancing, that's how great he is. :p

(I'll leave "greatest of all-time period" vacant, lest we start the Vergil crowd chanting again...can we at least agree Vergil-ites that Shakespeare and Vergil both easily beat Tolkien, and that both beat Dickens, though that's a harder fight, at least?)

All that being said...it's still DICKENS.

After Shakespeare, the single greatest creator of characters in the English language.
Undisputed Heavyweight Champion of the Victorian Age (George Eliot is probably the only potential rival there, but her canon can't beat his...said Dr. Freud.) ;)
Arguably the greatest novelist in the English language.
Arguably the greatest novelist of the 19th century PERIOD (I'd opt for Dostoyevsky there, though the great man himself said he was inspired and influenced by Dickens.)

Charles Dickens is a Top 15 All-Time Writer...probably Top 10.

Tolkien would probably crack the Top 50, I DOUBT I would put him higher than that set, Top 40...I'm pretty sure between Greece, Rome, Dante, Chaucer, Shakespeare and Marlowe, Cervantes, Milton and then English, French, German, Russian, Irish, American and other writers from 1650 or so on...

Poets, playwrights, novelists--

Pretty sure I can name 49 that top Tolkien, easily.

Or at least 40, he'd rank 41-50.

good thing you threw in "novelist" because is2g if you said Dickens was the best writer of the 19th century...

http://img.pandawhale.com/post-12822-Playtimes-over-motherfucker-gi-sARB.gif

" the single greatest creator of characters in the English language.
Arguably the greatest novelist of the 19th century PERIOD
Arguably the greatest novelist in the English language."

Dickens wrote in caricatures. None of his characters had any depth. The English novelists from the naturalist period (1870s-1910s), beginning with Lewis Carrol (another serious omission) were much more interesting.

My count has

Tolkien 8
Dickens 6

Your count means fuck all, Lance Corporal Fagnaur U. S.M.C.

Neither of these two were great at Characterization, and The Hobbit remains one of my favorite books of all time (yes LotR is grander, and the more impressive, but just not as fun). But that said... Dickens...

Both have written enduring works... have been quoted... Who hasn't said, "Bah, humbug!" at some point in their life? or Mocked "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times."?

I think Dickens is the more impressive author to me, but if I'm being honest, I have enjoyed Tolkien more. So JRR gets my vote.

And some gratuitous attacking a contributer to the thread instead of, I don't know, contributing to the thread yourself, ML? Right back at cha.

If Tolkien's endless background detailing bothers you, you should try the Gormenghast trilogy. Tolkien's an amateur next to that.

I'm having trouble voting on this one. I have a dozen or so fantasy epics that are about as good as Tolkien's, even if they aren't as well known, they are a good repeat read. It's hard to beat Tolkien's momentum, though.

Dickens is good, very good, but not great. Other people here have pointed out his shortcomings.

I'm going to say Dickens, by a hair.

I guess I'll go with Dickens by a hair, as well. This is a very hard one, as I suppose it should be, in the final four. (Although there were better than either of them voted out earlier).

Currently

Tolkien 9
Dickens 8

No it's 9-9.

Lance Corporal Fagnaur U.S.M.C. miscounted.

Dickens sucks, people.

If you want to bore yourself to sleep, pick up A Tale of Two Cities. If you want a six-hour read when you should be sleeping, pick up one of the Lord of the Rings books. Simple as that.

Ulysses or Satanic Verses is a much better cure for insomnia. Modernist twaddle.

"If you want to bore yourself to sleep, pick up A Tale of Two Cities. If you want a six-hour read when you should be sleeping, pick up one of the Lord of the Rings books. Simple as that."

sorry about your pleb tastes

We need a tiebreeaker. Somebody come vote for Tolkien.

Dickens.

We're using Single Transferable Vote right?

I'm tempted to withdraw my vote for Dickens, which I assume (?) would cause Tolkien to win.

Doitdoitdoit.

TMOW, you already voted.

wtf putty is back?

OK I withdraw my vote, gosh.

Eh, actually, I feel bad doing that, given that it was a tie and a bunch of people voted for Dickens. If it's not too late, I think I'll reinstate and let whatever happens happen.

semck shot JR :(

Tolkien won't beat Poe anyway.

is this still on? tolkien, then.

For Tolkien, then, the road goes ever on and on.

STV allows more votes :-P

This is favorite author, not greatest, right? Tolkien definitely.

First post high school book I think was probably The Secret Agent by Joseph Conrad or The Idiot by Dostoyevsky. I was big into 19th century back then

Tolkien just won, Ogion, and will make the final.

But be sure to come back and vote for him in the final!