The Big Four, Dickens, Maupassant, and Tolstoy. Their works had a profound influence on Western literature and thought. William shakespeare was the most famous poet and play of the renaissance period. His works included many classic plays and poems. His plays, such as Hamlet and King Lear, were regarded as classics of world literature. Dickens was the most famous British novelist in the 19th century. His works included many novels that criticized social reality. His works such as A Tale of Two Cities and Oliver Twist are widely regarded as the representative works of 19th-century English literature. In the late 18th and early 19th century, maupassant was an outstanding novelist and playboy in France. His works described social life and exposed social problems as the theme. His representative works such as Mayakovsky and Miserable World had a profound influence on French and world literature. Tolstoy was the most famous Russian novelist in the 19th century. His works were about war and the life of nobles. His representative works such as War and Peace and Anna Karenina were hailed as the representative works of Russian literature.