My DH has expressed an interest in reading a book by a woman

[ringle]

He is an academic and very well and widely read. Save that he has never read a book by a woman.

He likes classic texts basically. Stuff that would make him better read.

Where to start? Could you help me make a shortlist?

seriously? This is a wind up.

How is he with fiction in general Ringle? Would non-fiction be more his cup of tea?

A lot of drip feeding.

The fact that JK Rowling was advised by her publishers to publish under initials in the 1990s is pretty conclusive evidence that there was indeed a stigma attached to boys reading books written by women. Some adult men grow out of it, some don’t. Many men don’t read fiction at all once they’ve passed their GCSE English so the question doesn’t arise.

I suspect that my DF hasn’t read any book written by a woman since he skim read the first quarter of Middlemarch for A Level English sixty years ago. - if it’s not basically military history with a thin veneer of plot over the top then he’s not interested. (I love him dearly - I think it’s just that almost no women write the sort of book that he likes to read: he doesn’t fancy the idea of the dragons in Temeraire and I think he’d bounce off the first three chapters of Georgette Heyer’s An Infamous Army, which is otherwise perfect).

Quick courtesy post:a guest has just arrived, back this pm

And he has, it turns out, started but got stuck on Wuthering Heights and Frankenstein

Come on now...stop it!

Which bits confuddled his little/superb brain?

How can you get stuck on Frankenstein?

Frankenstein, though undoubtedly a work of genius and the best book ever written by a teenager, is a godawful trudge in places. Screeds of romantic philosophy of a type that doesn’t translate well into the 21st century (or over the age of 19) and page after page of self-pitying sub-Byronic whingeing from both Victor and the monster.

The problem isn’t that he hasn’t read female authors, he has. He absolutely has. The problem is that he believes himself to have deliberately chosen not to and even worse, he wants you to know it. As it stands you are very comfortable defending that, for whatever reason. The sex must be amazing or something. Anyway, the books aren’t the problem.

I hated Frankenstein. Don’t think I would have bothered if it hadn’t been an A Level text. The only thing that made it rewarding was analysing it and studying different perspectives (Marxist, feminist etc).

In my late teens or early twenties I had a sudden realisation that I couldn’t remember having read anything by a man for years. It wasn’t a conscious choice, I think I was just trying to work some stuff out about life using books and unconsciously I didn’t think a man would have anything useful to offer at that point.

DH has tended to read male authors and when I recently pointed this out he came back from his next library trip with Sarah Waters and Margaret Atwood. No drama, no big deal.

As it happens DH also got stuck on Wuthering Heights on about page 200 when he realised that the entire book was being narrated by Nellie Dean over a cup of tea - dialogue, scenery and all. It played havoc with his suspension of disbelief and he gave up in disgust.

There is a very narrow window for Wuthering Heights. If you haven't read it by the time you're 18 you're never going to enjoy it.

But a person claiming to be well read who hadn't read Middlemarch is a contradiction in terms.

I have tried Bert! And got so far, so often. Just. Not. Quite. All The Way. And I have worshipped GE for decades.

Anyway, I can't claim to be well read anymore. Put down MN, pick up Twitter ...

Have you watched the TV adaptation with Rufus Sewell in a big coat and tight breeches Gruach? It does make the book easier to read if you’ve got visuals of all the characters nailed on in your head.

I don't think it's a problem with visualisation though; every other George Eliot slips down as easy as pie. There's just a snag somewhere and it probably isn't the book's fault.

Perhaps, like the OP's husband, I've just got it into my head that this one thing simply won't work for me, so I might as well not try. (Though in my case it's after many attempts.)

Beatrix Potter?

If you've really tried, I'll let you off.

It took me about 4 goes to conquer Middlemarch and I am no intellectual lightweight

I think you just have to plough on through the first 100 pages or so fighting down the urge to beat Dorothea about the body with the remaining 500 pages...

It is worth it.

I once played a drunked game of Botticelli as a student, when I was Enid Blyton. Except I though she was a he (never having come across an Enid before). I was banned for playing the game for life.

But you have to try a spoonful before you read anything else.......No Jilly Cooper until you've at least tried Middlemarch.......

There is a very narrow window for Wuthering Heights. If you haven't read it by the time you're 18 you're never going to enjoy it.

I disagree. I found it much more enjoyable to read as an adult than I did as a teen. I don't think you can really appreciate its portrayal of dysfunctional relationships until you've had some experience of it happening in real life (to people around you). And the writing is brilliant, totally wasted on me when I was a teenager.

As it happens DH also got stuck on Wuthering Heights on about page 200 when he realised that the entire book was being narrated by Nellie Dean over a cup of tea - dialogue, scenery and all.

Nellie Dean is the most scary character of all of them. Unreliable narrator who could have prevented a lot of the harm but didn't.

You say he is in the arts. Does he dismiss other creative works by women aswell?
This must restrict his academic research somewhat.

For all the shock horror at his limited reading choice not much has been suggested- same old same old over and over, JA etc.
The wild swans is excellent.
Much of what I have read lately is quite ‘gentle’ eg the republished Persephone books. He might find something written when he was a child which I like to read, bring back things you won’t read about anywhere else. They are all female authors btw.