What are some books that have a strong female character as the protagonist?

[Oread]

Thank you!

[LeavesOfGrass]

Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand. Characters name is Dagny Taggert. I don't believe an author has ever created a character that exuberated both sex appeal and brilliance as Rand did on this one. And the novel is mind-blowing as well.

[dfloyd]

Sister Carrie by Theodor Dreiser
Pride and Preejudice by Jane Austen
Camille by Aleandre Dumas fils
Medea in various Greek plays
Clytemnestra in the Oresteia
Antigone by Sophocles
Scarlet O'Hara in Gone with the Wind

[BienvenuJDC]

The Wizard of Oz ~Frank L Baum
Dorothy Gale...of course

[hellsapoppin]

The Well of Loneliness by Radclyffe Hall. Highly controversial in its time. Largely forgotten today, unfortunately.

[hellsapoppin]

Moll Flanders by DeFoe

Hester Prynne in The Scarlet Letter by Hawthorne

[Vautrin]

The Woman Warrior by Maxine Hong Kingston

[Pryderi Agni]

George Bernard Shaw's play Saint Joan is a must-read for you if you like strong women in literature.

[kelby_lake]

I'd second Hester Prynne. Also, pretty much any Greek drama with women in (Electra, Medea, Antigone, Clytemnestra...the list of strong women is endless).
Elizabeth Bennet in Pride and Prejudice
Lolita

[Kinbote]

Middlemarch by George Eliot

Not sure if Madame Bovary (Flaubert) or Anna Karenina (Tolstoy) count as 'strong' female protagonists, but they are central to the books. Ditto Mrs Dalloway (Woolf).

[kelby_lake]

Middlemarch by George Eliot

Not sure if Madame Bovary (Flaubert) or Anna Karenina (Tolstoy) count as 'strong' female protagonists, but they are central to the books. Ditto Mrs Dalloway (Woolf).

Kinbote, your name's from Pale Fire, isn't it?

[Kinbote]

Yes, the eminent Charles Kinbote, the nosy neighbour, esteemed poetry commentator and King of Zembla (or possibly one of none of those things). One of my favourite books.

[kiki1982]

Can Jane Eyre be missed out here?

Hardy's Tess of the d'Urervilles has a strong character too. As does Far from the Madding Crowd.

[JuniperWoolf]

Anne of Green Gables
Vilette
Promethea (comic)
Clan of the Cave Bear
A Doll's House (play)
League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (comic)

[kelby_lake]

Or you could read Top Girls- it's an all-female cast and the first scene starts with famous women from the ages having dinner together!

[jadrianne]

by Alexandre Dumas ,Denise Baudu in The Ladies Paradise by Emile Zola,Eugenie Grandet from the novel with the same name by Balzac , Bathsheba in Far from the Madding Crowd, Becky Sharp in Vanity Fair and Moll Flanders by Defoe ; Medea in the play written by Euripides and so on ...............

[qimissung]

Jane Eyre in the book of the same name.

[blp]

Blood and Guts in Highschool by Kathy Acker.

[Lulim]

Mary Barton, by Elizabeth Gaskell

[jadrianne]

to say Lady Chatterley and Fanny Hill?

[jadrianne]

wrote : Pamela or virtue Rewarded .

[Katy North]

I am reading a book called The Decameron by Giovanni Boccaccio... it is a book about 10 young people, 7 women, and 3 men, who go to the country to escape the plague. while in the country, each person tells a story each day to help pass the time. I was pleasently surprised to find that the female protagonists in these stories are actually very strong and resourceful, given the time period, and the stories themselves, while maybe not on as good literature as, say Shakespeare, are very witty.

[jadrianne]

Chaucer too the same thing right? Canterbury Tales?

[myrna22]

What are some books that have a strong female character as the protagonist?

The protagonist (unnamed) in Margaret Atwood's SURFACING is a strong character. The novel is written in stream of consciousness.

Not novels, but Maya Angelou's I KNOW WHY THE CAGED BIRD SINGS and Isak Denison's OUT OF AFRICA.

Doris Lessong CHILDREN OF VIOLENCE ( a five novel series)
Also by Lessing: The Diaries of Jane Somers, The Diary of a Good Neighbor, The Golden Notebook, The Fifth Child, The Grandmothers, The Summer Before the Dark

Isabel Allende's THE HOUSE OF THE SPIRITS

Thomas Hardy's FAR FROM THE MADDING CROWD and TESS OF THE D'UBERVILLES

Gloria Naylor's THE WOMEN OF BREWSTER PLACE

Margaret Drabble's THE RADIANT WAY

Jamaica Kincaids's ANNIE JOHN

Amy Tan's THE JOY LUCK CLUB

Edith Wharton's THE AGE OF INNOCENCE and THE HOUSE OF MIRTH

Kate Chopin's THE AWAKENING

Margaret Atwood's THE HANDMAID'S TALE

Honoré de Balzac's EUGENIE GRANDET

Emile Zola's THERESE RAQUIN

Carson McCullers' THE HEART IS A LONELY HUNTER

Truman Copote's BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY'S

Boris Pasternak's DOCTOR ZHIVAGO

William Styron's SOPHIE'S CHOICE

Daniel DeFoe's MOLL FLANDERS

Andrée Chedid's FROM SLEEP UNBOUND

[keilj]

Ann Vickers by Sinclair Lewis - a thoroughly developed and sensitively done character

[Kevets]

Tess is a strong character, certainly, but she exhibits that strength in her endurance of suffering.

[Lulim]

(...) and THE HOUSE OF MIRTH (...)
I don't agree that Lily Bart is a strong female character -- quite the opposite. Or did you have some other female character of the novel in mind?

[aliengirl]

Oh, how can we forget Portia from Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice and Viola from Twelfth Night. Both are very strong characters concerning that Shakespeare belonged to a patriarchal age.:cool:
Here are some more:
Beatrice Okoh in Anthills of the Savannah - by Chinua Achebe
Ursula Iguaran in 100 Years of Solitude - by Marquez

[blp]

I don't agree that Lily Bart is a strong female character -- quite the opposite. Or did you have some other female character of the novel in mind?

Depends whether the thread starter meant strongly characterised or characterised as strong, doesn't it?

[blp]

Portrait of a Lady by Henry James

[Lulim]

Depends whether the thread starter meant strongly characterised or characterised as strong, doesn't it?
Yes -- it wasn't clear to me that it could have been meant this way. Thanks :)

[keilj]

Yes -- it wasn't clear to me that it could have been meant this way. Thanks :)

The thread starter meant a female protagonist who is also a bodybuilder :goof:

[jadrianne]

Haven't thought of it like this .:svengo:

[blp]

The thread starter meant a female protagonist who is also a bodybuilder :goof:

Mmm. Well there's a surprise.

Million Dollar Baby?

[Henry IX]

The first one I thought of is Helen Graham The Tenant of Wildfell Hall , by Anne Bronte.

[myrna22]

I don't agree that Lily Bart is a strong female character -- quite the opposite. Or did you have some other female character of the novel in mind? I believe she is a strong character, though she doesn't triumph. She does what she can to survive, to achieve what she believes is her place in society through the means she has learned are the appropiate means to do so; she makes mistakes. She's human, but not weak. Like all tragic heros, she realizes her mistakes at the end. She's a wonderful character.

[myrna22]

Depends whether the thread starter meant strongly characterised or characterised as strong, doesn't it?

Yes, it very much depends on this. A strong character, male or female, may not be one who triumphs. For example, both Hamlet and Macbeth do not triumph. Would anyone say these are not strong male characters? Is Willy Loman in DEATH OF A SALESMAN a weak character?

[friedhofsrose]

All female characters by Nicci French.
Also, Jane Eyre, Elizabeth Bennet in "Pride and Prejudice", and Anna Karenina

[Katy North]

Oh, how can we forget Portia from Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice and Viola from Twelfth Night. Both are very strong characters concerning that Shakespeare belonged to a patriarchal age.:cool:


Oooo, oooo! And Beatrice from Much Ado About Nothing!! :banana:

[Snowqueen]

Can Jane Eyre be missed out here?

Hardy's Tess of the d'Urervilles has a strong character too. As does Far from the Madding Crowd.


Bathsheba Everdene and Jane Eyre both have strong characters. Helen Graham in The Tenant of Wildfell Hall also has a great moral power like Tess to face the evils of the world.

[kiki1982]

Well! Let's throw in Catherine the younger and Nellie from Wuthering Heights too then.

[jadrianne]

Anna Karenina committed suicide .

[neilgee]

Maggie Tuliver from The Mill on the Floss was considered inspirational in her time.

If you want an early example of a strong lead woman how about the play The Roaring Girl by Thomas Middleton and Thomas Decker

[wessexgirl]

I believe she is a strong character, though she doesn't triumph. She does what she can to survive, to achieve what she believes is her place in society through the means she has learned are the appropiate means to do so; she makes mistakes. She's human, but not weak. Like all tragic heros, she realizes her mistakes at the end. She's a wonderful character.

Agreed. It would have been so easy for her to have behaved as everyone else in her society did, and carried through the half-hearted attempts to marry a rich husband. She also withheld the letters which could have helped her out of her desperate situation earlier. She tried to survive by working her way out of her troubles, albeit a futile attempt, but she did not resort to behaving like Bertha, or betraying her when it would have been so easy to do.

[Ashbe Maeur]

Can Jane Eyre be missed out here?

Hardy's Tess of the d'Urervilles has a strong character too. As does Far from the Madding Crowd.

This was my thought as I was reading through the first string of answers.

[Three Sparrows]

Hilda and Miriam in The Marble Faun, by Hawthorne.
Cleopatra in Antony and Cleopatra, by Shakespeare.
Does Lady Dedlock in Bleak House count?

[alansnq]

Alberto Moravia has made a masterpiece: La Romana is nothing less than a great novel. The development of its female protagonist throughout the book is an apology of life and love.

[kelby_lake]

Cecile in Bonjour Tristesse

[janesmith]

Nana- Emile Zola

[Jeremydav]

The Awakening by Kate Chopin.

[Pukki]

Dr. Maura Isles - any book by Tess Gerritsen

Mr. God, this is Anna - Fynn (does she count even though she's still a child? I added her because she is very philosophical and seems mature in a way adults can't be)

Matilda - Roald Dahl (same question as with Anna)

Jane Marple - books by Agatha Christie

Charlotte's Web - E. B. White

Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carrol

[Emil Miller]

Gervaise Lantier in L'assommoir by Emile Zola.

[hellsapoppin]

Katherine V Forrest has written a series of novels about fictional lesbian detective Kate Delafield who, indeed, is a strong leading female character. The writer portrays her and other lesbians both as victims and victimizers of social bigotry.

Beverly Malibu

Murder at the Nightwood Bar

and others ...