Cervantes or Shakespeare

What author do you like more? Cervantes or Shakespeare?

They are different but abosolutly brilliant, it's very difficult to chose one. I don't vote.

But Cervantes and Shakespeare are very different, one wrote novels and the other theatre mainly. To compare one Spanish and one English writer could be beter to compare Lope de Vega and Shakespeare.

SHAKESPEARE wins hands down.

I can't believe this, you cannot compare the two Shakespeare is in another league.

Edited by Bulldog - 05-Oct-2006 at 15:41

I agree its hard to compare the two as they're involved in different writting styles.

First of all, they are both the greatest writers in their own respective languages.

But with no disrepect to Cervantes, Shakespeare is only comparable to Homer in Western literature.

Now I have read both extensively, although I miss the certain appreciation for Cervantes because I did not read him is his original tongue.

However, depth and richness in literature can transcend barriers of language and time, which is why these will always be classics.

Why I consider Shakespeare the greater poet (in Aristotle's use of the word) is his range and depth. It's not a matter of Cervantes being more in the head than Shakespeare. Read Macbeth or Othello or Much Ado About Nothing.

Cervantes invented the novel, true.

Shakespeare wrote theatre. True, and sonnets. And theatre of the his times was the TV and movie media of our time - not the theatre of our time.

For writers in general, it depends on their native tongue perhaps. But outside of habla espanol, Cervantes doesn't get a quarter of the attention and study Shakespeare receives. For writers, for people in general, Shakespeare is a more common subject.

It's always a delicate subject, because people's nationalist sensitivies flare up, but honestly, if you think Cervantes is more in the mind or more a master of the word, then you really aren't very familiar with Shakespeare. And I will be the first to admit Homer is a superior poet to Shakespeare. Nationalism has no place in the humanities.

Don Quixote was considered the best book ever by professional writers.

Well, for English speaking writers, Shakespeare is not my favorite.

I love Edgard Allan Poe. For me, that guy should be in a greater stand for the English writers, but, anyways.

I also like the works of Dickens and Mark Twain.

There are many english speaking writers I do like, indeed, particularly in terror and science fiction, like Mary Shelley, H.G.Wells, Lovecraft, Robert Heinlein, Phllip K. Dick.

Edited by pinguin - 23-Feb-2007 at 13:07

Originally posted by The_Jackal_God ... It's always a delicate subject, because people's nationalist sensitivies flare up, but honestly, if you think Cervantes is more in the mind or more a master of the word, then you really aren't very familiar with Shakespeare. And I will be the first to admit Homer is a superior poet to Shakespeare. Nationalism has no place in the humanities.

Edited by pinguin - 23-Feb-2007 at 16:06