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

[gingerclementine]

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?

[gingerclementine]

Sorry for typos.

[NotWithABang]

The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood

[NotWithABang]

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

[GailTheFish]

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

[ScribblyGum]

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]

Harry Potter series.

[musicmaiden]

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]

Anything by Alice Munro

[ChristmasTablecloth]

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]

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

[strugglingtodomybest]

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

[Toomuchsplother]

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

[Laska5772]

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]

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

[TheTurnOfTheScrew]

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

[BestIsWest]

I second Unless -Carole Shields.
Margaret Forster
Kate Atkinson

[TheVanguardSix]

A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian by Marina Lewycka

[loveka]

Pat Barker, especially The Regeneration Trilogy.

[crumpet]

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]

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

[Toomuchsplother]

Echo Pat Barker and the Cazalet Chronicles

[BellBookandCandle]

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

[BellBookandCandle]

I forgot Prozac Nation - Elizabeth Wurtzel

[holyshitballs]

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

[HarrietSmith]

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.'