40 life-changing novels every woman should read

[altariel]

'The Independent' published a list of 40 life-changing novels every woman should read, based on a survey of 400 literati and the usual media suspects.

Jeanette Winterson is the most represented author; it's pleasing to see Hitchhikers and LotR make the list, although a shame there's not more feminist SF (The Handmaid's Tale is there, though). I'm glad to see A Little Princess rather than The Secret Garden. I have no idea why The Catcher in the Rye and The Corrections are there. Also I'm not sure why these are books every woman should read rather than just, you know, books.



The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams
Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen
Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad
The Corrections, Jonathan Franzen
The Rainbow, DH Lawrence
One Hundred Years of Solitude, Gabriel Garcia Márquez
The Catcher in the Rye, JD Salinger
The House of Mirth, Edith Wharton
Little Women, Louisa May Alcott
Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë
Middlemarch, George Eliot
Catch 22, Joseph Heller
To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee
Rebecca, Daphne du Maurier
Frankenstein, Mary Shelley
Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit, Jeanette Winterson
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Maya Angelou
Villette, Charlotte Brontë
The Mill on the Floss, George Eliot
The Little Princess, Frances Hodgson Burnett
The Golden Notebook, Doris Lessing
Gone with the Wind, Margaret Mitchell
The Secret History, Donna Tartt
The Passion, Jeanette Winterson
The Handmaid's Tale, Margaret Atwood
Wuthering Heights, Emily Brontë
The Great Gatsby, F Scott Fitzgerald
Ulysses, James Joyce
The Grass is Singing, Doris Lessing
Beloved, Toni Morrison
The Lord of the Rings, JRR Tolkien
The PowerBook, Jeanette Winterson
Persuasion, Jane Austen
The Stranger, Albert Camus
Madame Bovary, Gustave Flaubert
Trumpet, Jackie Kay
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, CS Lewis
Remembrance of Things Past, Marcel Proust
Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy
Mrs Dalloway, Virginia Woolf

Comments

[ithilwen.livejournal.com]

Also I'm not sure why these are books every woman should read rather than just, you know, books.

Because if you just call them books, no one will read them?

There are some decidedly odd choices on that list. Gone with the Wind is a life-changing book?

[tyellas.livejournal.com]

And The Little Princess? I'd put my Helene Cixous anthology above maudlin Burnett any day. Thanks for posting the list, though.

[kerravonsen]

Actually, I'd disagree with you about "The Little Princess". Agreed that Burnett tends to be maudlin, and I think "Little Lord Fauntleroy" is sickeningly saccharine, but I love "The Little Princess" because it shows the power of imagination to make hard times bearable, and of acting with honour no matter what one's circumstances; both themes which appeal to me. Mind you, I read it as an adult, so I can't say how it would have struck me if I'd read it as a child.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

I have a massive soft spot for A Little Princess. Power of the imagination, as kerravonsen says below; also, it's about bereavement, and how Introverted Weird Kids Can Be Heroines Too.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

I forgot to mention the other thing about it, which is: "Don't give up on your rich fantasy just because life is feckin' miserable, it can bring you great comfort."

[ithilwen.livejournal.com]

LOL! No, I don't think that's quite the life-changing experience the list creator was thinking of!

[altariel.livejournal.com]

Because if you just call them books, no one will read them?

Heh, fair point.

[kalypso-v.livejournal.com]

Listened to the feature about them on Women's Hour, and think I've seen references in at least one other paper - my impression was that they were books nominated by the interview sample because they had changed their lives in some way, rather than ones which they were saying every woman should read.

They were concentrating on the shortlist of six (which I think they said effectively meant 20-plus votes from the 400) - from memory, I think Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights, Pride and Prejudice, Middlemarch, The Handmaid's Tale and Beloved.

I'm struggling to think of a book that's actually changed my life (unless you count Wisden). The closest I could think of was Mary Renault's The Last of the Wine, but I don't think that changed my life, just opened things out a bit. Probably this just reflects how little I have read since I was a teenager - an unfortunate side-effect of doing a literature-based degree, the last thing I wanted to do for relaxation was read more literature. I had another brief burst in the late 1980s, but now reading's just one of those things I'll get around to again when I retire. I get through a couple of books during the slack time at work in the spring, and that's about it.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

I find it hard to read non-fiction now, especially history, for much the same reason. I think I must be doing all the fiction reading now that everyone else was doing as a teenager (The Last of the Wine is there on the pile). It does mean I'm about twenty years behind on my reading though.

[archbishopm.livejournal.com]

My life's been changed by looking at the bottom shelf of my bookshelf in case anything enlightening might be lurking there and seeing at least two borrowed hardcovers I swore I'd returned.

I am not to be trusted.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

*peeks through fingers at own bookcases*

Not to be trusted at this end either.

[snowgrouse.livejournal.com]

I'd do much better if I was allowed to mention nonfiction books. Riane Eisler's "The Chalice and the Blade" really opened my eyes to what's been covered up by patriarchal history...

[altariel.livejournal.com]

That's an interesting point; yes, it's much more straightforward to think of non-fiction books which have been significant for me.

[nadai.livejournal.com]

Such an appropriate icon for this post. :) A pity The Left Hand of Darkness didn't make the list.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

:-) I was surprised that one wasn't there.

[manna]

Huh. I think the only book I've read which has on its own actually changed my life in a really significant way was the D&D Basic rulebook. Without D&D I never would've met my husband.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

LotR, I would have to say, as a book which has been in my life throughout, and in various guises. Shared interest in Tolkien was important for me and Mr A. getting to know each other. Oh, and it's big enough that if I stand on a couple of copies, I can reach the top shelf in the kitchen.

[dolamrothdame.livejournal.com]

Something similar for me, except we were playing Runequest. He dared me to wear my SCA dress to the game. Promised me steak and theater. Which were duly produced. I was living on popcorn at the time. The rest is history.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

That's a great story. It's amazing what can be achieved with the promise of steak.

[kerravonsen]

Also I'm not sure why these are books every woman should read rather than just, you know, books.

Because they were only asking women; while a number of those books would only appeal to women, there are also others which basically touch common humanity.

I was rather annoyed that the article dismissed the presence of "The Lord of the Rings" due to the films -- gah! Why must they be so predjudiced? For me, personally, LOTR wasn't just great because it was huge vivid epic fantasy, but because it gave me pictures of perseverence against impossible odds, of loyal friendships, of noble kingship, and the corruption of evil.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

LotR has played so many different roles in my life - it's been genuinely life-changing.

[layangabi.livejournal.com]

*raises hand* May I ask: what feminist science fiction would you recommend? :D

[altariel.livejournal.com]

Sorry to be slow answering, the end of last week went a bit weird... Looking at the list, I realize there's probably more on than I was giving credit for, considering there are only 40 books, and Frankenstein and The Handmaid's Tale are there.

I wish there had been some Le Guin there somewhere. nadai mentioned The Left Hand of Darkness up-thread.

Do you know this community, for feminist SF: whileaway?

[layangabi.livejournal.com]

It's cool. :) Thanks pointing the way to this community ! *rubs hands in glee*

[altariel.livejournal.com]

The back threads on that community are well worth reading :-)

[hafren.livejournal.com]

The trouble with lists like that is that whenever I see the words "should read" it gives me an instant impulse not to. That one isn't so much eclectic as random.

And if by adulthood you haven't read the Alcott, the Lewis and the Burnett, there ain't much point in doing it; they weren't really meant to be first encountered by adults.

[kerravonsen]

And if by adulthood you haven't read the Alcott, the Lewis and the Burnett, there ain't much point in doing it; they weren't really meant to be first encountered by adults.

I'd agree that it decreases one's chances of liking them, but it isn't impossible: I first encountered the Burnett as an adult. But one does have to make allowances for the intended audience.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

I remember when the Big Read TV debate was on, all the panel picked as their indispensable books ones that they had come to in their early teens, and gone on loving since.

I can still read children's books and enjoy them as much (more often, usually) than many 'grown-up' books. Skellig is one of my books of the year so far. It's hard to imagine not having read the Burnett. I could imagine finding the Alcott irritating as an adult (like the later 'What Katy Did...' books that I've been reading for the first time recently).

[communicator.livejournal.com]

What an odd list. They don't on the whole seem life changing books. A book that changed my life was 'Our Bodies Ourselves' which is a medical fact book for women, you get a lot of those nowadays but in the 1970s it was a very new thing.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

snowgrouse commented up-thread that it would be easier to list non-fiction books.

[cruisedirector]

The two novels that had the biggest impact on my young life...Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged and Richard Bach's Illusions. Does it get any more un-PC or un-literary? As for Ulysses, please -- I wrote my undergraduate thesis on its publication and I still would not recommend it to a majority of women.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

I can't think of anything I read as an undergraduate that I would call specifically life-changing; being exposed to that environment was the real experience. I have to be terribly dull and call LotR the life-changing book in my life, if only for how long I've been reading and re-reading it, and the pleasure I still draw from it, twenty-five years on.