Some books for International Women’s Day

It’s International Women’s Day, and a good opportunity to celebrate women’s achievements around the world, as well as highlighting the areas where women still face disproportionate risk, disadvantage, or discrimination. If I were a better reader, I’d be able to suggest lots of books on those themes [EDITED TO ADD: Claire has basically made that list] – but, to be honest, my reading is so Anglocentric and from-the-past that I can’t pull together that list. Nor is there really any significant point in me highlighting women authors, since most of the books I read are by women and I wouldn’t know where to start.

So – instead, I’ve put together a list of great books by women that have a woman’s name as the title. No other words – just the name. It’s a way of commemorating the day, I suppose, though I also encourage everyone to sign petitions, go on marches, donate to charities, challenge discrimination, and so forth! This list are mostly the ones that came to me first, so I’ll certainly have missed many great ones – which would you suggest, with these criteria?

I’ve tried to avoid the most obvious ones – so, yes, I love EmmaRebecca, and Mrs Dalloway – but here are some you might not be as familiar with.

Cluny Brown by Margery Sharp

Cluny is a wonderful character – a girl who is plain but has Presence, and disconcerts her Uncle Arn to the extent that he bundles her away from London, off to Devon to be a maid. She then gets embroiled in the household there. Sharp is quite unlike any other writer I’ve read, and Cluny is a frenetic joy. (I wrote about it here.)

Miss Mole by E.H. Young

Another joy of a character – a talkative, inquisitive woman who is a burden to her snobbish relatives. She heads off to be a housekeeper (if memory serves) and, yes, also gets embroiled in various other people’s lives. Also surprising pathos in the novel.

Lila by Marilynne Robinson

I often talk about how much I love Gilead, but the whole trilogy is brilliant. The third book (though they can be read in any order) shows us Lila’s life – giving greater depth to the woman we have previously seen as wife and mother, seeing her as an disadvantaged child and as the young, desperate, quiet, confused woman she first was.

Mrs Harter by E.M. Delafield

Being honest, I remember very little about the novel – which I read about 15 years ago. But I always think of it as being rather like seeing heaps of crispy leaves on the ground in autumn. Make of that what you will.

Lolly Willowes by Sylvia Townsend Warner

Technically the character is called Laura, but some people call her Lolly, so I’m counting it. She is a neglected and burdened aunt, living in her brother’s house – but decides to escape and move to village isolation. It’s a truly excellent domestic novel – and then turns into something much stranger.

Angel by Elizabeth Taylor

Quite unlike any of Taylor’s other novels, this shows the ruthlessly selfish and egotistical Angel from girlhood to her huge success as a Marie-Corelli-esque novelist: terrible, but unaware of it, and selling in her thousands. It’s a very brave portrait for a novelist to create, and flawlessly carried out.

Agnes Grey by Anne Bronte

OK, this one is pretty well known – but I have to mention it, as it’s often neglected in comparison to the other Bronte sisters’ works. Agnes is a quiet, moral woman who gets a job as a governess with some terrible children – and then falls in love. It’s a simple but perfectly structured masterpiece.

Mary Poppins by P.L. Travers

If you’ve not read the book, please do. Travers’ character doesn’t have a lot in common with rosy-cheeked Julie Andrews. In the books, she is snippy, lies quite a lot, and stands no nonsense. And it’s all the better for it.

Mrs Miniver by Jan Struther

Speaking of characters who aren’t like the film – this Mrs Miniver is the quintessential British housewife of the 1930s, but the war hasn’t begun by the time the book ends. Light, observant, and a delight.

10 thoughts on “Some books for International Women’s Day

  • March 9, 2018 at 6:04 pm
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    From my shelves & audiobooks:
    Miss Buncle’s Book by D E Stevenson
    Miss Bunting by Angela Thirkell
    At Mrs Lippincotes by Elizabeth Taylor
    Nurse Matilda by Christianna Brand
    My Antonia by Willa Cather
    Patience and Sarah by Isabel Miller
    Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout (she also wrote Lucy Barton and Amy & Isabelle)

    would you count The Penelopiad by Margaret Atwood?

    Reply
    • March 9, 2018 at 6:33 pm
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      Oops – some of them had extra words – my bad

      Reply
  • March 9, 2018 at 9:14 pm
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    These are a few I’ve found on my shelves that match the strict criteria. Having only the name makes it so tricky!

    Mariana by Monica Dickens
    Mary Barton by Elizabeth Gaskell
    Harriet Hume by Rebecca West
    Cousin Rosamund by Rebecca West

    Reply
  • March 10, 2018 at 6:13 pm
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    I know it breaks your rule but I could resist the self-referential “The other woman” (in English translation) by Colette. How about (following your rules this time) “Anna Karenin”?

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  • March 10, 2018 at 9:04 pm
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    A few more from my shelves:
    Doreen by Barbara Noble
    Fanny Hill by John Cleland
    Mrs. Bridge by Evan S. Connell
    Madam Clare by Susan Ertz
    Mildred Pierce by Jame M. Cain

    Reply
  • March 11, 2018 at 10:45 pm
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    this is fun!
    Romola by George Eliot
    Dora Thorne by Charlotte Brame (now THAT’S obscure)
    Addie Pray by Joe David Brown (though later renamed after the film…)
    Auntie Mame by Patrick Dennis (is that an extraneous word?)
    Simonetta Perkins by LP Hartley
    Lucy Carmichael by Margaret Kennedy
    Therese Desqueyroux by Francois Mauriac
    Lise Lillywhite by Margery Sharp (always room for another Sharp…)
    Helena by Evelyn Waugh

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  • March 12, 2018 at 7:56 am
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    From my shelves:

    Lucy Gayheart by Willa Cather
    Fenny by Lettice Cooper
    Madame de Treyems by Edith Wharton
    Miss Bunting by Angela Thirkell
    Madame Solario by Gladys Huntington
    The Misses Mallett by E. H. Young
    Jenny Wren by E. H. Young

    I know there are lots more that I’ve read, I could go on all day!

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