Great Books Written by Women

[TheFifthElement]

It seems, and this is probably going to be a bit of a sweeping generalisation but bear with me, that it is generally not a problem for a female writer to be successful (aka J K Rowling, Stephanie Meyer) but is seems much rarer for a female writer to be respected. When you read opinions about 'great' writers, there's a tendancy for this to be dominated by male writers and litle discussion of female writers.

I don't quite understand why this is, and I'm not sure whether it's really possible to get to the bottom of it given the multitude of possible reasons, but then that's not entirely what this thread is about. I took a long, hard look at my own reading and noticed that I'm not that widely read when it comes to female writers myself. I decided to try and redress the balance in my own reading and discover some female writers whose work I would consider to be 'great' and I'd like to tap into the vast reading well of knowledge that is Lit-net and ask if you could share with me any great female writers you've encountered, so I can add them to my (fairly extensive) reading list.

From my own reading around, I'd say the following women are 'great' writers, and I've listed some of their works which I think are worthwhile reads though not a comprehensive list as I've not read all of the books written by these women. Just my opinion, mind:

- Doris Lessing (The Golden Notebook, The Fifth Child)
- Simone de Beavoir (The Woman Destroyed, The Second Sex, All Men are Mortal)
- Iris Murdoch (The Bell, The Black Prince, The Sea the Sea, The Unicorn)
- Muriel Spark (The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie)
- A S Byatt (Possession)
- Margaret Atwood (Oryx and Crake)
- Tove Jansson (The True Deceiver, any of the Moomintroll books)
- Angela Carter (The Magic Toyshop, The Passion of New Eve, The Bloody Chamber)
- Daphne due Maurier (Rebecca)
- Jane Austen (Pride & Prejudice, Sense & Sensibility, Northanger Abbey)
- Virginia Woolf (Mrs Dalloway, A Room of One's Own)
- Elizabeth von Armin (The Enchanted April)
- Lionel Shriver (We Need to Talk About Kevin)
- Emma Donoghue (Room)
- Marguerite Duras (The Sailor from Gibraltar)

Any suggestions? Please share :D

[TheFifthElement]

Oops, missed one.

Salley Vickers (Instances of the Number 3, Mr Golightly's Holiday).

[OrphanPip]

In short fiction:

Alice Munro
Flannery O'Connor

Poetry:
Elizabeth Bishop
Marianne Moore
Emily Dickinson
Elizabeth Browning
Gertrude Stein
H.D.
Stevie Smith
Amy Lowell

Philosophy:
Mary Wollstonecraft
Elizabeth Anscombe
Martha Nussbaum

Novels:
The Bronte sisters
Mary Shelley

You got most of the novelist I can think of off the top of my head

Playwrights (this is tough):
Aphra Behn the only one I can think of off the top of my head.
Edson's Wit is a decent play, but I wouldn't consider her great.

[prendrelemick]

George Elliot is a very obvious absentee.
Katherine Mansfield is a favorite of mine if you are going to include short stories.
Edna O'brien
Olivia Manning

[KatnissEverdeen]

I would mention, Suzanne Collins. Writer of The Hunger Games, Catching Fire, and Mockingjay. She has inspired me to write, others books too, but her writting mostly. Stephanie Meyer is great, I ♥ Twilight and the whole series.

[Playtime]

Christina Rossetti

[Buh4Bee]

For shorts Flannery O'Connor is a thumbs up. Haven't read her in a very long time.

I also agree with the idea that female writers are not granted respect as easily as male writers.

[dfloyd]

are not great writers. Some few are: Jane Austen, Daphne Du Maurier to name two.. I found The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie to be an interesting novel, but not great. Most on your list are more modern writers who will not make the cut; that is, reader interest wll fade as their works get older.

The women who should be on your list are: the Bronte's (any one or all three of the sisters), George Eliot (Mary Ann Evans), Edith Wharton, and one modern, Sylvia Plath. For non-fiction, I would nominate Edith Hamilton.

Women can definitely write as well as men, if they have the same educational background. that is why the Bronte's and George Eliot fare so well when pitted against 19th century novelists like Dickens and Thackerey.

[ladderandbucket]

Marilynne Robinson. Housekeeping is one of the best books I have ever read. I would rate her as one of the great living writers.

[stlukesguild]

A few missing names:

Sappho
Anne Carson
Marguerite Yourcenar
Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz
Ingeborg Bachmann
Marina Tsvetaeva
Anna Akhmatova
Akiko Yosano
Lady Murasaki Shikibu
Ono no Komachi
Sei Shōnagon

[Blasarius '33]

Willa Cather. Easily my favorite female novelist.

I'll third the mind-blowing genius of Flannery O'Connor's short stories and add, to a lesser but still great extent, Annie Proulx.

Oh, and I can't forget Aimee Bender. I've only read her short stories, but some of them are really astonishing.

[mortalterror]

Edna St. Vincent Millay- What Lips My Lips Have Kissed
Marguerite de Navarre- Heptameron
Madame de La Fayette- The Princess of Cleves
Louisa May Alcott- Litte Women
Willa Cather- My Antonia
Aphra Behn- The Rover
Ann Radcliffe- The Mysteries of Udolpho
Marie de France- Lays of Marie de France
Christine de Pizan- Book of the City of Ladies
Isak Dinesen- Out of Africa
Carson McCullers- The Heart is a Lonely Hunter
Pearl S. Buck- The Good Earth
Lady Mary Wortley Montagu- Letters
Marie de Rabutin-Chantal, marquise de Sévigné- Letters
Kate Chopin- The Awakening
Edith Wharton- House of Mirth

[Dark Muse]

To name some whom I do not see already mentioned but I think deserive acknowlegement

Elizabeth Gaskell
Charlotte Perkins Gilman
Elizabeth Bowen
Zora Neale Hurston
Nella Larson
Alice Walker

[prendrelemick]

If we are going to the edges of mainstream.

Sarah Maitland
Annie Dillard (up and coming)

Rather than being less regarded I think the writers metioned on this thread are appreciated as much as their male counterparts are nowadays. In Austin, Wolf and Elliot you have three of the very greatest, ground breaking and influential authors of any sex.

[Gilliatt Gurgle]

A one hit wonder, but it was a big hit; Harper Lee

.

[MarkBastable]

Oh, and I can't forget Aimee Bender. I've only read her short stories, but some of them are really astonishing.


Her novel is the best I've read in a year or two. The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake (http://www.amazon.com/Particular-Sadness-Lemon-Cake-Novel/dp/0385501129)- I recommend it.

[Alexander III]

To be honest the only Truly Great (as in major work of literature which forms a core of the cannon) female writers are Murasaki Shikibu and Sappho.

[Drkshadow03]

To be honest the only Truly Great (as in major work of literature which forms a core of the cannon) female writers are Murasaki Shikibu and Sappho.

Really? Not Edith Wharton or Jane Austen or the Brontes? It seems to me Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights, Pride and Prejudice, Ethan Frome tend to be on most people's idea of works that form the core of the canon and truly great works.

[Alexander III]

Really? Not Edith Wharton or Jane Austen or the Brontes? It seems to me Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights, Pride and Prejudice, Ethan Frome tend to be on most people's idea of works that form the core of the canon and truly great works.

They are integral to the core of the last 200 years, but in terms of all literature, they are minor - they have had nowhere near the impact of Sappho or Murasaki. I'm not saying that they were not good writers but I think we are probably too close in time to them to form a proper judgement.

[mk123]

A huge one that is missing - Toni Morrison.

[G L Wilson]

Germaine Greer. Her work is contrary and clever.

[Kundan]

Emma Donoghue is one of my favorite. I really liked her book, Room.

[Bluebell]

Edith Wharton - The Age of Innocence
Brontë sisters - Wuthering Heights, Agnes Grey, Jane Eyre
Margaret Mitchell - Gone with the Wind

[Gregory Samsa]

Astrid Lindgren. She will be the new face on the 20 kronor note and replace another amazing women writer (and Nobel prize winner) Selma Lagerlöf. That's respect if you ask me :)

I will also recommend Wislawa Szymborska. What I like with Szymborska that she speaks with a tone both musical and mystical.

The Three Oddest Words

When I pronounce the word Future,
the first syllable already belongs to the past.

When I pronounce the word Silence,
I destroy it.

When I pronounce the word Nothing,
I make something no non-being can hold.

[JBI]

Li Qingzhao

[mortalterror]

Mahadeviyakka

[stlukesguild]

Onono Komachi and Izumi Shikibu

OK... now we've all named a non-Western author (or two) that almost no one else has heard of. What next...?

:smilewinkgrin::smash:

[G L Wilson]

I have been reading Shirley Jackson lately. The more time I spend with her, the more I like her.

[linsouciance]

Ayn Rand's works are great.

[Blasarius '33]

Onono Komachi and Izumi Shikibu

OK... now we've all named a non-Western author (or two) that almost no one else has heard of. What next...?

:smilewinkgrin::smash:

It'd be great if those quoting relatively unknown (in the West) authors could say something about them. Other than their name, I mean.

[Babyguile]

Ayn Rand.

The question of whether you endorse her ideas or not is irrelevant. Setting out a philosophy and communicating it effectively within a fictional narrative took this incredibly intelligent and dedicated woman twenty years to acheive. She hasn't received a tenth of the respect she deserves, not even from the people she championed in her work. She is a prime example of what the thread starter was talking about when presenting this subject to us.

[Seasider]

Don't want to get into the Who is great ? debate.

Just read Arundhati Roy The God of Small Things and it's one of the best books I've read in ages. Also Irene Nemirowsky's Suite Francaise which I read in English and still thought really special. Annie Proulx is worth a mention. As is Margaret Drabble, Elizabeth Taylor and for a good story teller Margaret Forster. Pat Barker and Beryl Bainbridge also make the grade in my view.

[JBI]

Onono Komachi and Izumi Shikibu

OK... now we've all named a non-Western author (or two) that almost no one else has heard of. What next...?

:smilewinkgrin::smash:

I could name a handful more, but most of the Chinese ones are available only in one book in translation, Red Brush ed. Wilt Idema, I think he did the translations to, cannot remember.

[stlukesguild]

Onono Komachi and Izumi Shikibu were both Japanese poets of the Heian Period. The Heian Period represented the peak of the Imperial court at Kyoto and the peak of the courtly/aristocratic arts. The arts of the Heian Period are marked with a definite feminine sensibility. Because the Chinese characters (which were used in writing Japanese) were seen as inappropriate to women, they developed a simplified and elegant style of writing/calligraphy that became known as Hiragana or "onna de"... "feminine hand".

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2554/5837924344_831ca8e396_z.jpg

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5066/5837924518_afe200decd.jpg

This style was greatly developed by the aristocratic women writers such as the Lady Murasaki Shikibu, author of The Tale of Genji (one of the first novels), her court rival, Sei Shōnagon, best known for The Pillow Book, as well as the poets Onono Komachi and Izumi Shikibu.

Just as the calligraphy exhibited a "feminine hand", so too was there a distinct "feminine hand" involved in the writing of the great Heian female authors. Sei Shonagon's Pillow Book was a collection of observations of every-day minutiae: fashion, the weather, servants, gossip about the court, and sexual intrigues. The Tale of Genji was a fictional narrative... a psychological drama that again followed the political/public and private/sexual intrigues of the court. The Tale of Genji became incredibly popular and served as a source for numerous art works which exhibit a similar sensitivity and elegance... as well as a focus upon the experience of the women behind the scenes:

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3116/5837924382_25ebe4da15.jpg

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5102/5837924492_e9c5aa0a66_z.jpg

Onono Komachi and Izumi Shikibu were both known for their libertine behavior, having taken part in numerous love affairs. Their poetry largely deals with the experiences of love, passion, and intrigue... and later, the regrets of having spent their lives upon such. Yet both poets became renowned for their poetry, and both are among the so-called "36 Immortals" of classical Japanese poetry.

It is intriguing that perhaps the greatest (or at least the most influential) two periods in Japanese art, the Heian and the Edo, exhibit a distinct "feminine hand" and a focus upon the fleeting pleasures of the simple realities of every day life. While it may be but coincidental, it is telling that Izumi Shikibu became know as the "floating woman" as a result of her floating through life engaged in one love affair after the next, while the great Edo Period innovation of Ukiyo-e woodblock prints focused equally upon the fleeting beauty of nature, fashion, women, and the theater which became known as "the floating world".

Utamara:

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5110/5837467631_267bb69871_z.jpg

Hokusai:

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3474/5838019034_c5c722dfc6_b.jpg

[Arrowni]

To be honest the only Truly Great (as in major work of literature which forms a core of the cannon) female writers are Murasaki Shikibu and Sappho.

Which is kind of sad. It raises the question of why women are under represented in "high literature".

[Seasider]

Read A Room of One's Own by Virginia Woolf. She tells it like it is.

[JBI]

Which is kind of sad. It raises the question of why women are under represented in "high literature".

meh，both of you are ignorant.

[Etain]

Great list(s)!

I would like to add Harriet Beecher Stowe. Not only is Uncle Tom's Cabin an enduring work of fiction, but it's also historically significant.

Also Frances Burney (also known as Fanny Burney). Not only are her own works great, but she was a literary precursor to authors like Jane Austen.


To be honest the only Truly Great (as in major work of literature which forms a core of the cannon) female writers are Murasaki Shikibu and Sappho.

Perhaps I'm mistaken, but from the sources I've read, authors like Jane Austen are a part of the Western Canon.

Or do you only consider the canon to only include works that are before the 11th century?

[stlukesguild]

I'll assume that Alexander is using a very narrow definition of "great"... limiting it to those writers who are so central to the history of literature that to remove them would result in a major change in literature as we know it. By this standard, Emily Dickinson or Jane Austen may be brilliant writers... but their absence would not create a huge gap in the whole of literature as the absence of Homer, Virgil, Dante, Shakespeare, Sappho, Lady Murasaki, etc... would.

[JBI]

I'll assume that Alexander is using a very narrow definition of "great"... limiting it to those writers who are so central to the history of literature that to remove them would result in a major change in literature as we know it. By this standard, Emily Dickinson or Jane Austen may be brilliant writers... but their absence would not create a huge gap in the whole of literature as the absence of Homer, Virgil, Dante, Shakespeare, Sappho, Lady Murasaki, etc... would.

That is true, except that one needs to question who would fit on the top tier, that is, who is running the show. As it is, I would put Jane Austen as a titan of English novels - English novels after the epistolary stage seem dominated by female authors.

Likewise, Although none of the Tang Great Poets were female (that is, none of the major players who are popularly anthologized), the aesthetic of Tang Poetry was developed by a court woman during the reign of Empress Wu Zetian, who also had a profound influence on Buddhism and Buddhist scripture in China.

If you head to the west, there is a presence of females all along in the tradition, and I would think oral traditions do not discriminate by gender per say. Written traditions naturally do, as literacy was restricted to men for a great period of time, except among choice aristocracy.

Still I think there are some major figures who go unmentioned - English letters, as well as Greek and Roman letters are quite patriarchal, but certain texts feature female voices, for instance, I would wager a strong female presence in the creation of the texts of the Chinese Book of Songs, likewise, I would wager the 20th century which brings in many genres is highly dominated by female voices.

As for first tier, that's a load of rubbish - Homer was composing blind, and no doubt borrowed things from women, as he did from everywhere. There is always too much emphasis on the individual author in contexts like these.

[country doctor]

if you want to get a flavor of the civil war from a southern 'society' point of view you should pick up mary chesnut's diary...real insight on attudes and perceptions from those near the power structure of the confederate gov't...

the name of the book is 'a diary from dixie'...

[Seasider]

meh，both of you are ignorant.

To whom is this comment directed?