But, have you ever considered that Shakespeare, Dostoyevsky, Homer, Virgil, and other giants of literature were some of the best thriller writers of all time?
Of course they did. Let me explain, and address some common misconceptions along the way.
To begin, a thriller is not a cozy mystery or a whodunit. It’s a novel or play in which a threat to the life or well-being of the protagonist and/or other significant characters is paramount. Catastrophe will occur if the hero doesn’t act decisively, and if necessary, with violence. A sense of urgency pervades a thriller–the clock is always ticking. And the stakes are extremely high.
Many great novels and plays were immensely popular, and made their way to the big screen. Consider Dracula, Ivanhoe, Moby Dick, Apocalypse Now (based on Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness), and Slaughterhouse Five, among many others.
Yes, Shakespeare, Homer, and Virgil penned suspense-filled thrillers. The plays of Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides brimmed with danger, fear and blood-letting. Robert Louis Stevenson, Miguel de Cervantes, Earnest Hemingway, Charles Dickens (the most popular writer of his day, and derided in some intellectual circles), Defoe, Melville, Hawthorne, Conrad, Scott, and Tolstoy were thriller writers. Their works have been elevated to the status of literary classics because they were well-written, pulse-pounding forays into suspense, suspicion, fear, paranoia, murder, guilt and retribution.
Yes, these literary masters wrote thrillers.
So, the next time you check out the bestseller list, don’t knock the thrillers.
Mark Rubinstein
Author of Mad Dog House, Mad Dog Justice and Love Gone Mad and others.
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