The greatest American novelist in the first half of the 19th century was probably James Joyce or William F Scott. James Joyce was one of the most outstanding American poets in the 19th century. His novel, The Sith, was regarded as the founding work of modern American novels. William Faulkner was another outstanding novelist. His novels, The Sound and the Fury and The Color Purple, were considered one of the most outstanding novels in 19th-century America. Faulkner's novels have profound social and moral topics and explore the complexity and contradiction of human beings.