Friday, June 19, 2009

100 Influential Modern Novels Written By Women

Erica Jong did a survey in 1996 asking thirty prominent male authors to put together a list of 100 influential female writers, in contrast to the male-majority Modern Library list. This is just a duplication of it. The title was originally: "100 Influential Modern Novels Written by Women." Why they asked male authors, I haven't a clue, but it was an embarrassing list to go through as not only have I read very few, there are some titles I think I might have read, but I can't recall and I never actually finished To Kill A Mockingbird because I have an instictive rejection of any book I've ever been told I had to read.

Books I've read are highlighted.

Margaret Mitchell, Gone With the Wind
Anne Rice, Interview With the Vampire
Virginia Woolf, To the Lighthouse
Virginia Woolf, Mrs. Dalloway
Virginia Woolf, The Waves
Virginia Woolf, Orlando
Djuna Barnes, Nightwood
Edith Wharton, The House of Mirth
Edith Wharton, The Age of Innocence
Edith Wharton, Ethan Frome
Radclyffe Hall, The Well of Loneliness
Nadine Gordimer, Burger's Daughter
Harriette Simpson Arnow, The Dollmaker
Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid's Tale
Willa Cather, My Ántonia
Erica Jong, Fear of Flying
Erica Jong, Fanny
Joy Kogawa, Obasan
Doris Lessing, The Golden Notebook
Doris Lessing, The Fifth Child
Doris Lessing, The Grass Is Singing

Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird
Marge Piercy, Woman on the Edge of Time
Jane Smiley, A Thousand Acres
Lore Segal, Her First American
Alice Walker, The Color Purple
Alice Walker, The Third Life of Grange Copeland
Marion Zimmer Bradley, The Mists of Avalon
Muriel Spark, Memento Mori
Muriel Spark, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
Dorothy Allison, Bastard Out of Carolina
Jean Rhys, Wide Sargasso Sea
Susan Fromberg Shaeffer, Anya
Cynthia Ozick, Trust
Amy Tan, The Joy Luck Club
Amy Tan, The Kitchen God's Wife
Ann Beattie, Chilly Scenes of Winter
Zora Neale Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching God
Joan Didion, A Book of Common Prayer
Joan Didion, Play It as It Lays
Mary McCarthy, The Group
Mary McCarthy, The Company She Keeps
Grace Paley, The Little Disturbances of Man
Sylvia Plath, The Bell Jar
Carson McCullers, The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter
Elizabeth Bowen, The Death of the Heart
Flannery O'Connor, Wise Blood
Mona Simpson, Anywhere But Here
Toni Morrison, Song of Solomon
Toni Morrison, Beloved
Stella Gibbons, Cold Comfort Farm
Sylvia Townsend Warner, Mr. Fortune's Maggot
Katherine Anne Porter, Ship of Fools
Laura Riding, Progress of Stories
Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, Heat and Dust
Penelope Fitzgerald, The Blue Flower
Isabel Allende, The House of the Spirits
A.S. Byatt, Possession
Pat Barker, The Ghost Road
Rita Mae Brown, Rubyfruit Jungle
Anita Brookner, Hotel du Lac
Angela Carter, Nights at the Circus
Daphne Du Maurier, Rebecca
Katherine Dunn, Geek Love
Shirley Jackson, We Have Always Lived in the Castle
Barbara Pym, Excellent Women
Leslie Marmon Silko, Ceremony
Anne Tyler, Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant
Anne Tyler, The Accidental Tourist
Nancy Willard, Things Invisible to See
Jeanette Winterson, Sexing the Cherry
Lynne Sharon Schwartz, Disturbances in the Field
Rosellen Brown, Civil Wars
Harriet Doerr, Stones for Ibarra
Harriet Doerr, The Mountain Lion
Stevie Smith. Novel on Yellow Paper
E. Annie Proulx, The Shipping News
Rebecca Goldstein, The Mind-Body Problem
P.D. James, The Children of Men

Ursula Hegi, Stones From the River
Fay Weldon, The Life and Loves of a She-Devil
Katherine Mansfield, Collected Stories
Rebecca Harding Davis, Life in the Iron Mills
Louise Erdrich, The Beet Queen
Ursula K. Le Guin, The Left Hand of Darkness
Edna O'Brien, The Country Girls Trilogy
Margaret Drabble, Realms of Gold
Margaret Drabble, The Waterfall
Dawn Powell, The Locusts Have No King
Marilyn French, The Women's Room
Eudora Welty, The Optimist's Daughter
Carol Shields, The Stone Diaries
Jamaica Kincaid, Annie John
Tillie Olsen, Tell Me a Riddle
Gertrude Stein, The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas
Iris Murdoch, A Severed Head
Anita Desai, Clear Light of Day
Alice Hoffman, The Drowning Season
Sue Townsend, The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole
Penelope Mortimer, The Pumpkin Eater

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