Thank you!
Thank you!
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.
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
The Wizard of Oz ~Frank L Baum
Dorothy Gale...of course
The Well of Loneliness by Radclyffe Hall. Highly controversial in its time. Largely forgotten today, unfortunately.
Moll Flanders by DeFoe
Hester Prynne in The Scarlet Letter by Hawthorne
The Woman Warrior by Maxine Hong Kingston
George Bernard Shaw's play Saint Joan is a must-read for you if you like strong women in literature.
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
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?Quote:
Originally Posted by 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.
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.
Anne of Green Gables
Vilette
Promethea (comic)
Clan of the Cave Bear
A Doll's House (play)
League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (comic)
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!