women writers

[pretty molly]

hi all,
im interested in discussing with people writings particalarly from women, and all aspects of their process and physical existence. Recently i have been thinking about tragedy or rather tragic , female authors of recent times - say the last century or so. any input would be great.

thx xx

[blp]

think you probably want the literature section, pretty molly.

[B-Mental]

Well one of my favorites is in my signature. Edna St. Vincent-Millay. Try wikipedia to learn more about her. Interesting topic.

[SirRaustusBear]

One of my favorite female authors is Mary McCarthy. Her novel The Company She Keeps is a really interesting psychological insight into a complicated female character.

[moose gurl]

I'm very tentative when it comes to female authors. I don't like many of them, but I loved Sylvia Plath's The Bell Jar. Probably my favorite work by a female author of any literary merit.

[JBI]

Try Toni Morrison, Gabrielle Roy, Margret Atwood, Alice Munro, Anne Hebert. Those all all great names, all of which being Canadian but Morrison.

[Ryduce]

The Bell Jar is my favorite female novel as well.

I remember reading it as a junior in high school and my teacher sending me to the counselor because she thought I was depressed.lol

Other than that,I enjoyed To The Lighthouse by Woolf.

[moose gurl]

Ah, I forgot about Morrison. A big fan of hers as well. The others I haven't read much of, but I've heard of Atwood and am interested in reading...Orxy and Crake, I think it was called. But yeah, Morrison rules.

[Morten]

I don't like singling out writers for their gender, race, religion, etc, but here goes.

Virginia Woolf (the master)

Flannery O'Connor (read her! Her stories are astonishing)

Djuna Barnes (T.S. Eliot and James Joyce praised her novel, Nightwood)

Carson McCullers (Read her novel The Heart is a Lonely Hunter)

Isak Dinesen (the last great storyteller)

[metal134]

Gotta love Virginia Woolf. While I don't agree with her views, I find Ayn Rand quite fascinating.

[Mockingbird_z]

Virginia Woolf!!!!!!!!!!!!
Jane Austen her novels make you dream a lot (Mr.Darcy)

[moose gurl]

I have wanted to give Woolf a shot, but haven't gotten around to it yet. And Ayn Rand, actually. I love O'Connor too, but I've only read Wise Blood and thought it was excellent.

[B-Mental]

Oh, I do love Ayn Rand. I like her use of trains in the symbolism. I loved the trains in Europe.

[Eric Cioe]

Why has no one mentioned Willa Cather? You want to read about what it's like to be a woman, go read My Antonia.

[JBI]

Why has no one mentioned Willa Cather? You want to read about what it's like to be a woman, go read My Antonia.

I would argue that that novel talks more about being an adolescent boy.

[Sir Bartholomew]

I've only read her Death Comes for the Archbishop, what's strange is that she sounds a bit masculine. IMHO

[Luce]

How about Nadine Gordimer from South Africa? And Doris lessing?
How about Zadie Smith from London? And Annie Proulx, canadian I think...
They are all excellent!
And if you want to dwell in the past for a bit, I reccomend Simone De Beauvuoir.

[SirRaustusBear]

Has anyone read anything by Iris Murdoch? I read The Bell and liked it a lot. It's one of the few stories I've read where there is a large cast of characters and yet I was able to identify with something in almost all of them. They are all flawed and human and fleshed out, plus her writing style flows very nicely. If anyone has read The Bell or anything else by Murdoch did you like it?

I'll second everyone who said they like Plath and O'Connor as well. I haven't read Plath's poetry but I liked The Bell Jar and intend to buy Ariel sometime soon. With O'Connor I like both her stories and the one novel I've read, The Violent Bear It Away, though I prefer her stories to her long fiction.

[Inderjit Sanghe]

Elsa Morante and Isabelle Allende wrote beautiful, sensitive novels, which (in my opinion) only a woman could write, even if the latter's masterpiece was something of a rip-off of One Hundred Years of Solitude. History, by Morante far surpassed anything by her husand, Alberto Moravia, and Arturo's Island is also a very charming novel. She ranks alongside Italo Calvino and Umberto Eco as the greatest Italian writers of the 20th century.

Katherine Mansfield was problably the best short-story writer of the 20th century, better than Borges, matched only by Chekhov, whose short stories were an enormous influence on Mansfield. I also see something of Turgenev in Woolf, his short stories are light and beautiful, though Mansfield's short stories still remain altogether 'Chekovian'.

Jane Austen was a good author, though her novels are somewhat limited, I prefer the novels of the Bronte sisters' (which were of course written by their brother :p) and I also like the 'lighter' (though not artistically inferior) stories of Nancy Mitford and Stella Gibbons. George Elliot was another brillaint female writers. I have little time for the 'heavier' feminist female writers, such as de Beaviour, Doris Lessing etc. though I also have little time for the "heavier' male equivalents of de Beaviour, such as Sartre. I really don't like Virgina Woolf.

Unfortunately, due to social, economic and political constraits, there has not yet been a female writer who has matched the heights of Nabokov, Joyce, Proust, Tolstoy, Flaubert, Tolkien, Gogol, Queneau, Dickens, Hawthorne etc.

[Zybahn]

Katherine Mansfield takes my breath away. I would add Marie-Claire Blais to this list. Anyone interested can try the two short novels Mad Shadows and/or A Season in the Life of Emanuel.

[Kafka's Crow]

Iris Murdoch's The Word Child is excellent. I have a copy of The Black Prince waiting to be read.

George Eliot's Mill on the Floss is one of the best books by an English writer of either sex. I would take her over any of the so-called 19th century greats, i-e Dickens etc.

Among the modernists, Djuna Barnes's Nightwood is a wonderful little book, but should we call it women's writing or 'queer writing', I think the latter describes her better. Gertrude Stein is the third greatest Modernist along with Pound and Eliot. Her Three Lives is a wonderful book.

Some of the worst books that I was forced to read were written by women, Rebecca West's The Return of the Soldier and May Sinclair's The Life and Death of Harriet Frean. I found both books vile and the female teacher who taught them was not very bright either.

I have utmost respect for Jane Austen and would read one of her books any day. I despise feminism or any other such 'single-pony cart' theory.

[mortalterror]

My favorite female author is Virginia Woolf. Her Mrs. Dalloway took my breath away. Her To the Lighthouse was quite good as well. Flannery O'Connor's short stories are all very impressive, particularly Everything that Rises Must Converge. Sylvia Plath's The Bell Jar is excellent, although I thought the second half could have been better. Willa Cather's The Professor's House has great structure. When I was a kid I liked Louisa May Alcott's Little Women. When I was an adult I read Iris Murdoch's Under the Net in one sitting. The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman is quite a read. Then there are the poets. Dickinson is always great, as is Edna St. Vincent Millay, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, and some people think the world of Sappho.

[curlyqlink]

I read Iris Murdoch's The Sea, The Sea many years ago and enjoyed it immensely. And Francine Prose is a brilliant writer-- I particularly liked Blue Angel. Oh, and Fall On Your Knees, a truly wrenching novel by Ann-Marie Macdonald (why are so many of today's gifted women writers Canadian?)

[lakeside_girl]

flannery o'connor is my favorite favorite woman writer. she is deliciously wicked and funny. kate chopin is fantastic, too! i just saw the post about djuana barnes' nightwood...wasn't that wonderful?

[byquist]

Joyce Carol Oates and Muriel Sparks will keep you occupied.

[DCD1979]

As a young woman with multiple disabilities, I love reading and learning about others with disabilities. Through HCI Books which gives us the Chicken Soup for the Soul books, a few years ago I ordered Footnotes: A Life Without Limits, an autobiography by Lena Maria Johansson Klingvall. Born in Sweden, Lena Maria had no arms and only one fully formed leg and foot. The other was much shorter and misshapen. Despite all of this, she learned to play keyboards, drive a car, conduct a choir, develop a very successful singing career, and participate in Seoul, Korea's Paralympics. As of it's 2001 copyright, Footnotes has been published and translated into Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Finnish, German , French, Thai, Japanese, Estonian, and English! If interested, read and enjoy!

:wave: Deanna

[NickAdams]

I've purchased Gertrude Stein's The Making of Americans, which Hemingway said was one of the best novels he has ever read; is anyone familiar with it?

[valleyjune]

Virginia Woolf, Rosamunde Pilcher and Ursula K. Le Guin. Three women writers, each one with a different style of writing, in fat very few things in common...

[Remarkable]

Elif Shafak with her "The Bastard of Istanbul" is an exeptional writer,very powerful and with a lovely style.

[Pecksie]

Hi! If you're interested in learning more about women writers, I suggest you read the three Brontë sisters and Jane Austen. If you have already read them, why not go a few years further into the past and read Fanny Burney - don't be discouraged by the hefty tomes!

For more recent authors, I suggest Virginia Woolf, Vita Sackville-West, Iris Murdoch, Simone de Beauvoir, Natalia Ginzburg and Nadine Gordimer. Argentine novella-writer Sara Gallardo is a recent discovery for me.

If you like poetry, here are a few names to consider: Fleur Adcock, Carole Satyamurti, Maura Dooley, Marosa di Giorgio and Alejandra Pizarnik. The last two are Spanish-language poets (Uruguayan and Argentine, respectively) whose work has, I think, been translated into English - but of course if you could read them in the original Spanish it would be more enjoyable.

Hope this helps!

[jenmcd]

I don't know if these are available outside the UK, but I would recommend Virago Modern Classics - a series of novels by women writers, some very well known, some quite obscure. A lot of the original series are out of print now but I always pick them up if I see them secondhand - have never failed to enjoy any that I have read.

[valleyjune]

Hi! If you're interested in learning more about women writers, I suggest you read the three Brontë sisters and Jane Austen. I


I agree, the Brontes' and Jane Austen's works are exellent read, for sure. ;)

[JBI]

Katherine Mansfield for short stories, definately. Marianne Moore, Elizabeth Bishop, H.D (Hilda Doolittle), Rita Dove, Thylias Moss, among others for verse.

[Petalouda58]

May I make a suggestion...Toni Morrison. In my opinion,is a powerful, contemporary novelist of our time! I've spent many an hour mesmerized reading her novels...Beloved, Jazz, Song of Solomon, The Bluest Eye, Paradise, Tar Baby, Sula, Love. No disappointment here!!

Petalouda58
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[Willard]

Harper lee, To Kill A Mocking Bird !! Ayn Rand , Atlas Shrugged .

[Pecksie]

Has anyone read anything by Iris Murdoch? I read The Bell and liked it a lot. It's one of the few stories I've read where there is a large cast of characters and yet I was able to identify with something in almost all of them. They are all flawed and human and fleshed out, plus her writing style flows very nicely. If anyone has read The Bell or anything else by Murdoch did you like it?

I'll second everyone who said they like Plath and O'Connor as well. I haven't read Plath's poetry but I liked The Bell Jar and intend to buy Ariel sometime soon. With O'Connor I like both her stories and the one novel I've read, The Violent Bear It Away, though I prefer her stories to her long fiction.

I read The Bell and loved it, for the same reasons you did.

[Pyrrho]

I also like Alice Munro...