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 ...............
Jane Eyre in the book of the same name.
Blood and Guts in Highschool by Kathy Acker.
Mary Barton, by Elizabeth Gaskell
to say Lady Chatterley and Fanny Hill?
wrote : Pamela or virtue Rewarded .
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.
Chaucer too the same thing right? Canterbury Tales?
The protagonist (unnamed) in Margaret Atwood's SURFACING is a strong character. The novel is written in stream of consciousness.Quote:
What are some books that have a strong female character as the protagonist?
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
Ann Vickers by Sinclair Lewis - a thoroughly developed and sensitively done character
Tess is a strong character, certainly, but she exhibits that strength in her endurance of suffering.
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?Quote:
Originally Posted by myrna22
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
Depends whether the thread starter meant strongly characterised or characterised as strong, doesn't it?Quote:
Originally Posted by Lulim
Portrait of a Lady by Henry James