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?

Slightly too old but Alba de Cespedes "The Secret" is amazing and made me cry. Also Elena Ferrante possibly? (Couldn't really get into them myself but am going to try again).

Anything by Janice Galloway, but especially "Clara".

Doris Lessing "The Diary of Jane Somers"
Sue Monk Kidd "The Invention of Wings"
Daphne Du Maurier especially the short stories.

Slightly outside your time frame, but anything by Doris Lessing.

She only died 5 years ago! She published lots in the last 50 years.

Yes, allegretto I am aware of that, in fact I knew her.

"The Grass is Singing" was published in 1950, which, as I said, is slightly outside the fifty year time frame.

But thank you so much for correcting me.

Woman on the Edge of Time (Marge Piercy) published in the 1970s.

PîckingOakum
Great choices with Shirley Jackson and Ursula Le Guin.

A S Byatt - the quartet, Still Life is one of my all time favourites but all 4 were good. Excellent thread. Love possession too.

And I love ‘I capture the castle’, particularly good for young girls about love and growing up. I read it first when I was 12 or 13 and re read many times since.

AdaColeman - I wasn't correcting you - just perplexed that someone who was publishing so recently was down as having published more than 50 years ago. Of course, if you were referring to The Grass is Singing that is different -but you did say "anything by Lessing". No need to be peevish, no offence meant.

This is actually four novels but it follows the (autobiographical) growth of a woman from adolescence to maturity in the 50-70s. The same characters return, wax and wane throughout the series and the main character resonates with me at each stage of her life. Lots of themes close to my heart.
I've read each of them apart but never in sequence. Something to look forward to!
The Frederica Potter Quartet by A.S. Byatt

Oops!
PP drunkfeb said the same thing at 14:34!

"Lilliths' Brood" by Octavia Butler.
"Land of Green Plums" by Herta Muller
"Bodies of Water" by Michelle Cliff
"Small island" by Jamaica Kincaid

sgtmajor glad you think so too - her descriptive writing is in a league of its own. Time to dust them off...!

I can’t get excited about the handmaid’s tale - too coldly terrifying for me - but then 1984 isn’t my favourite orwell either.

margaret atwood - cat's eye, oryx and crake
Oranges are not the only fruit and the follow up

Nearly all the books I read are by women I have realised. I have just finished Middlemarch OP : it was actually really good!

I would say in terms of modern classics : Beloved, White Teeth, God Of Small Things. All groundbreaking, award winning , amazing and by women!

And I do agree Hilary Mantel will be future classics : but she does tend to focus on a masculine world, unlike most of the others!

Handmaid's Tale is obviously a classic but I don't like it

Ann Tyler,.

Also I don’t think anyone has mentioned Marilyn Robinson, Gilead is one, can’t remember the other.

I too adore AS Byatt’s Fredericka quartet. They did a brilliant adaptation on Radio 4 recently.

did they Ton, thanks I hadn't heard that I shall look it out. It'd make a fantastic TV series - I hope the Beeb are listening!

I agree about Mantel piggy, i love Wolf Hall but Cromwell's characterisation is the big draw for me.

This thread has made me realise I don’t read a lot by women from the “classic but within 50 years period”

Those that I thought of as modern classics mostly fall a little outside that:

The Heart is a Lonely Hunter
The Bell Jar
Rebecca
Flannery O’Connor and Doris Lessing - particularly good short stories.

I have never read any Iris Murdoch or Penelope Fitzgerald and feel I should probably amend that.

You know I was wondering whether I would really consider some of these classics - I love Behind the Scenes for example but wouldn’t have thought to suggest it. Then I realise it’s over 20 years old already!

You know I was wondering whether I would really consider some of these classics - I love Behind the Scenes for example but wouldn’t have thought to suggest it. Then I realise it’s over 20 years old already!

So shocked I posted twice

I think the test is how many of these have made their way onto A Level English Lit specs. I don't think Kate Atkinson has yet but many of the others have : Handmaid's Tale most notably, but also God Of Small Things, White Teeth , Proulx occasionally, Anne Tyler.

No Hilary Mantel , yet. I think the length might preclude her from teaching, more than anything!