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Top Classic Novels by women, written in the last 50 years

97 replies

gingerclementine · 19/01/2018 10:30

Hi

I want to read more novels this year, and a lot more by women. What would you sya are the absolute classics. Especially keen on modern classics, as I've read most of the 19C ones except Middlemarch and am hoping to find some that I've missed.

Who's been writing really outstanding stuff in the last 50 years? What are your favourites?

OP posts:
gingerclementine · 19/01/2018 10:30

Sorry for typos.

OP posts:
NotWithABang · 19/01/2018 10:31

The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood

NotWithABang · 19/01/2018 10:32

Honestly I really like The Hunger Games trilogy and think it will be regarded as a classic (Suzanne Collins)

GailTheFish · 19/01/2018 10:35

White Teeth - Zadie Smith
Unless - Carol Shields
Wolf Hall - Hillary Mantel

ScribblyGum · 19/01/2018 10:48

I'm trying to think of works that are of high quality, are likely to stand the test of time and are (or are likely to become) influential works in their own right.

Certainly Wolf Hall and The Handmaid's Tale as other posters have said.

Will be very interesting to see in the Ali Smith's seasonal quartet books will stand the test of time, as they are very contemporary. They certainly tick the boxes for high quality and her writing style is, I would imagine, influential.

ScribblyGum · 19/01/2018 10:49

Harry Potter series.

musicmaiden · 19/01/2018 14:00

In terms of C20th and C21st books already considered classics, as opposed to the ones that might become so (eg Ali Smith, Hilary Mantel etc) – off the top of my head:

I Know How the Caged Bird Sings – Maya Angelou
The Handmaid's Tale – Margaret Atwood
To the Lighthouse/Mrs Dalloway/Orlando – Virginia Woolf
The Bell Jar – Sylvia Plath
The Colour Purple – Alice Walker
To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee
Oranges are not the Only Fruit – Jeanette Winterson
Their Eyes Were Watching God – Zora Neale Hurston
Beloved – Toni Morrison
The Poisonwood Bible – Barbara Kingsolver
The House of the Spirits – Isabelle Allende
Any, but perhaps Murder on the Orient Express – Agatha Christie
Wide Sargasso Sea – Jean Rhys
We Have Always Lived in the Castle – Shirley Jackson
The Diary of a Young Girl - Anne Frank

HarrietSmith · 19/01/2018 14:02

Anything by Alice Munro

ChristmasTablecloth · 19/01/2018 14:05

Fay Weldon - The Life And Loves Of A She Devil, Puffball, The Fat Woman's Joke, The Cloning of Joanna May.

Any of them really.

Rockandrollwithit · 19/01/2018 14:07

Half of a Yellow Sun - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.
Seconding House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende, such a fabulous book.

strugglingtodomybest · 19/01/2018 14:14

I'm reading Nelly Dean by Alice Case. It has got to become classic else there is no justice in the world.

Toomuchsplother · 19/01/2018 14:16

Authors I like :
Anne Tyler
Sarah Waters
Jane Harris
Margaret Atwood
Margaret Forster
Sarah Hall
Marilynne Robinson

Laska5772 · 19/01/2018 14:18

The Cazalet Chronicles (or anything by Elizabeth Jane Howard..)

Wonderful books ( although personally I wish I hadn't read the last one, the fifth was written much later and just seemed to be a bit of a response to people wanting 'closure' ( and she was a bit broke at the time also sadly..)

Laska5772 · 19/01/2018 14:20

Bring up the Bodies by Hilary Mantell.. I think you can also read that without reading Wolf hall first

TheTurnOfTheScrew · 19/01/2018 14:24

Posession - AS Byatt
Regeneration trilogy - Pat Barker
The Fifth Child - Doris Lessing
Restoration - Rose Tremain

BestIsWest · 19/01/2018 14:28

I second Unless -Carole Shields.
Margaret Forster
Kate Atkinson

TheVanguardSix · 19/01/2018 14:33

A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian by Marina Lewycka

loveka · 19/01/2018 14:33

Pat Barker, especially The Regeneration Trilogy.

crumpet · 19/01/2018 14:34

Diary of a Provincial Lady is a little outside your time frame, as are Mitford books, but they are classics.

Have a look at Virago press titles

RustyBear · 19/01/2018 14:40

Mary Wesley especially The Camomile Lawn, A Sensisble Life & A Dubious Legacy

Toomuchsplother · 19/01/2018 14:43

Echo Pat Barker and the Cazalet Chronicles

BellBookandCandle · 19/01/2018 14:50

The Secret History - Donna Tart
Absolutely any book by Margaret Atwood
Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
Earthsea trilogy - Ursula leGuin

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BellBookandCandle · 19/01/2018 14:51

I forgot Prozac Nation - Elizabeth Wurtzel

holyshitballs · 19/01/2018 14:53

Just finished valley of the dolls by Jaqueline Susann, really enjoyed it

HarrietSmith · 19/01/2018 15:01

Some of these books are not novels, but works of non-fiction.
Some were written well over fifty years ago.
Some are popular best-sellers, but it is unlikely that they will achieve classic status.

I am particularly fond of Margaret Atwood's 'Surfacing.'

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