I've been thinking a lot about the books that "everyone" used to read, that is the works we all knew, and perhaps loved, as the literary canon. That's been a shifting target lately, as different cultural perspectives have rightfully claimed their position. But there are still so many wonderful, and underrated female authors who have been cast aside that I feel the need to offer a corrected, revised canon of my Top 100 Book by Women -- with the caveats that I shy away from reading or evaluating books in translation (and even when I admire a novelist like Elena Ferrante, I have no idea of what her actual style is like in Italian), and secondly, that I am eager to correct past historical errors, even at the expense of ignoring a few contemporary works. Some of the authors on my list are the obvious ones, like Austen, but others, like Helen Hull and Dorothy Whipple and Sarah Orne Jewett, have fallen out of critical favor or -- in the case of Hull -- even distribution. Persephone Books is fortunately correcting the distribution problem for forgotten female authors-- but that's just a first, and small, step.
To be clear, I wouldn't give up any of my favorite male authors -- and why should I? Reading Mrs. Gaskell doesn't mean that I won't read Bosworth, and reading Nella Larsen does nothing to diminish my enthusiasm for the great Jean Toomer. But just as, say, Jack London capures a masculine sense of survival and courage, so Sarah Orne Jewett captures an equally brave sensibility of women limited in ways men cannot imagine. I need both to make sense of the world. We all do.
Another note: this is a work in progress, and I may submit revisions during the year as I think, and re-think, on what the New Canon should be. But enough of introduction. Here's my Top 100 Must Reads by Women.
Another note: this is a work in progress, and I may submit revisions during the year as I think, and re-think, on what the New Canon should be. But enough of introduction. Here's my Top 100 Must Reads by Women.
1.
Jane
Austen EMMA
2.
Jane
Austen PERSUASION
3.
George
Elliott MIDDLEMARCH
4.
Emily
Bronte WUTHERING HEIGHTS
5.
Charlotte
Bronte JANE EYRE
6.
Elizabeth
Gaskell, THE LIFE OF CHARLOTTE BRONTE
7.
Isabelle
Eberhardt, THE NOMAD (diaries)
8.
Louisa
May Alcott LITTLE WOMEN
9.
Louisa
May Alcott LITTLE MEN
10.
Charlotte
Perkins Gilman THE YELLOW WALLPAPER
11.
Helen
Keller, THE STORY OF MY LIFE
12.
Virginia
Woolf MRS DALLOWAY
13.
Virginia
Woolf TO THE LIGHTHOUSE
14.
Helen
Hull ISLANDERS
15.
E.H.
Young, MISS MOLE
16.
Dorothy
Whipple THE PRIORY
17.
Sarah
Orne Jewett THE COUNTRY OF THE POINTED FIRS
18.
Edith
Wharton THE HOUSE OF MIRTH
19.
Willa
Cather THE PROFESSOR’S HOUSE
20.
Willa
Cather OLD MRS. HARRIS (novella)
21.
Pearl
Buck THE GOOD EARTH
22.
Dawn
Powell THE GOLDEN SPUR
23.
Nella
Larsen QUICKSAND
24.
Muriel
Spark THE GIRLS OF SLENDER MEANS
25.
Muriel
Spark THE PRIME OF MISS JEAN BRODIE
26.
Rebecca
West, BLACK LAMB AND GREY FALCON
27.
Daphne du
Maurier MY COUSIN RACHEL
28.
Grace
Paley ENORMOUS CHANGES AT THE LAST MINUTE
29.
Deborah
Eisenberg Collected Stories
30.
Katherine
Mansfield Collected Stories
31.
Eudora
Welty Collected Stories
32.
A.S.
Byatt, THE MATISSE STORIES
33.
Dorothy Parker,
Complete Stories
34.
Jean
Stafford, The Collected Stories
35.
Lydia
Davis Collected Stories
36.
Alice
Munro. Collected Stories
37.
Katherine
Anne Porter THE OLD ORDER: Stories of the South
38.
Kadya
Molodowsky, A HOUSE OF SEVEN WINDOWS
39.
Mavis
Gallant, HOME TRUTHS
40.
Lorrie
Moore BIRDS OF AMERICA
41.
Joan
Didion THE WHITE ALBUM
42.
Joan
Didion SLOUCHING TOWARD BETHLEHEM
43.
Edna
O’Brien THE COUNTRY GIRLS
44.
Enid
Bagnold, THE SQUIRE
45.
Jane
Bowles TWO SERIOUS LADIES
46.
Rumer
Godden IN THE HOUSE OF BREDE
47.
E.M.
Delafield, DIARY OF A PROVINCIAL LADY
48.
Beryl
Markham WEST WITH THE NIGHT
49.
Elizabeth
Hardwick, SLEEPLESS NIGHTS
50.
Harper
Lee TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD
51.
Flannery
O’Connor A GOOD MAN IS HARD TO FIND
52.
Flannery
O’Connor THE VIOLENT BEAR IT AWAY
53.
Carson
McCullers BALLAD OF THE SAD CAFÉ
54.
Carson
McCullers THE MEMBER OF THE WEDDING
55.
Shirley
Jackson, WE HAVE ALWAYS LIVED IN THE CASTLE
56.
Dorothy
Hughes, IN A LONELY PLACE
57.
Laurie
Colwin A BIG STORM KNOCKED IT OVER
58.
Jan
Morris, CONUNDRUM
59.
Adrienne
Rich, ON SECRETS, LIES AND SILENCE
60.
Cynthia
Ozick THE SHAWL
61.
Stella
Gibbons COLD COMFORT FARM
62.
Isabel
Colegate THE BLACKMAILER
63.
Lionel
Shriver WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN
64.
Jane
Gardam CRUSOE’S DAUGHTER
65.
Barbara
Comyns THE VET’S DAUGHTER
66.
Isak
Dinesen, OUT OF AFRICA
67.
Joyce
Carol Oates THEM
68.
Doris Lessing,
THE GOLDEN NOTEBOOK
69.
Nadine
Gordimer, BURGER'S DAUGHTER
70.
Sigrid
Undset KIRSTIN LAVRANSDATTER
71.
Margaret
Atwood, THE HANDMAID'S TALE
72.
Penelope
Fitzgerald, THE BLUE FLOWER
73.
Pat
Barker THE REGENERATION TRILOGY
74.
Penelope
Lively MOON TIGER
75.
May
Sarton, PLANT DREAMING DEEP
76.
Jean
Rhys, WIDE SARGASSO SEA
77.
Anne
Frank DIARY OF A YOUNG GIRL
78.
Simone de
Beauvoir THE SECOND SEX
79.
Maya
Angelou I KNOW WHY THE CAGED BIRD SINGS
80.
MFK
Fisher AS THEY WERE
81.
Iris
Murdoch A SEVERED HEAD
82.
Djuana
Barnes NIGHTWOOD
83.
Gertrude
Stein THE MAKING OF AMERICANS
84.
Marilynne
Robinson HOUSEKEEPING
85.
Faye
Weldon THE LIVES AND LOVES OF A SHE DEVIL
86.
Sylvia
Plath, THE BELL JAR
87.
Alice
Walker THE COLOR PURPLE
88.
Toni
Morrison BELOVED
89.
Zora
Neale Hurston THEIR EYES WERE WATCHING GOD
90.
Freya
Stark THE VALLEY OF THE ASSASSINS
91.
Margaret
Millar THE BEAST IN VIEW
92.
Barbara
Pym, A GLASS OF BLESSINGS
93.
Ivy
Compton Burnett, THE PRESENT AND THE PAST
94.
Laura
Ingalls Wilder LITTLE HOUSE ON THE PRAIRIE
95.
Madeleine
L'Engle A WRINKLE IN TIME
96.
Helen
Hunt Jackson RAMONA
97.
Frances
Hodgson Burnett A LITTLE PRINCESS
98.
Lucy Maud
Montgomery ANNE OF GREEN GABLES
99.
Gene
Stratton-Porter GIRL OF THE LIMBERLOST
100. Noel Streatfeld, THEATRE SHOES
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