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Women in Literature Poll for Men

Poll Results: Men, Which of these books by Women have you Read?

This is a multiple choice poll
  • 13% (12)
    Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
  • 15% (14)
    Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
  • 13% (12)
    Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
  • 7% (7)
    Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
  • 3% (3)
    The Ripening Seed by Colette
  • 3% (3)
    My Mortal Enemy by Willa Cather
  • 6% (6)
    Anais Nin's Diaries
  • 10% (10)
    Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
  • 5% (5)
    Silas Marner by George Eliot
  • 6% (6)
    Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
  • 4% (4)
    Little Lord Fauntleroy by Frances Hodgsen Burnett
  • 9% (9)
    The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgsen Burnett
91 Total Votes  
post #1 of 23
1/22/09 at 3:52pm
Thread Starter 
I'm curious as to how many MEN have read these works by female authors. I realized that for myself and maybe many other women, reading some of these classics both as a child and as a young woman have informed my "sense and sensibilities" on life. I just wondered how many of the men on this forum may have partaken of these books. And does it make a significant difference in the male or female point of view?

Feel free to add books by women you have read and loved. Thank you!
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post #2 of 23
1/22/09 at 5:39pm
I've read nearly all of them. Aside from being an English minor at an Ivy league school, my mother's an English professor so it's not like I ever had a choice. I like Emily Bronte work and find it searing yet well orchestrated. I am a huge fan of Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette. Jane Austen needed to be beaten and hanged. I've hated all of her works and wrote a dissertation on her insecurity and dementia. My mom loves Jane Austen and her and I have had many long grueling debates which end with her saying I'm a chauvinist pig and me saying "at least I'm honest." I'm surprised Virginia Woolfe wasn't in the above list. I admire her work as well.

- Al
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post #3 of 23
1/22/09 at 6:18pm
Thread Starter 
oops, sorry Virginia!
anak, please add more suggestions, though I don't want to add to the poll at this late date, it would skew the results, I suppose.

Interesting opinion of Jane Austen. She's not my favorite either. I would say that out of the ones I listed, the one that surprised me most was My Mortal Enemy by Willa Cather. I loved the spare poetic language and profound emotion it stirred in me. I was given a similar experience when I read The Shadowline by Joseph Conrad. A man, of course.

I loved The Ripening Seed by Colette because of the sensual language. It read a bit more like a poem to me. The story itself was a rather cynical one, I thought.

Silas Marner, now there's a gem. Brilliant little tale of redemption of a lost soul through love.
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post #4 of 23
1/22/09 at 7:05pm
Have read selections of Colette and Anais Nin.
Middlemarch and Mill on the Floss by George Eliot.
Enjoyed all of those, a lot.
For quirky reasons read Anne Bronte _The Tenant of Wildfell Hall_, found that quite purple.
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post #5 of 23
1/22/09 at 7:15pm
Thread Starter 
what does "purple" mean?
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post #6 of 23
1/22/09 at 7:25pm
checkin' the old Websters to make sure I'm right, whew I am...
"purple prose" -- an ornate or elaborate passage in a literary composition.
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post #7 of 23
1/22/09 at 7:33pm
Thread Starter 
Hubby is reading Wuthering Heights as we speak and having a tough time of it. I think he would consider it purple, then. It's been a while since I read it myself!
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post #8 of 23
1/22/09 at 8:03pm
I've read most of them.
The ones I haven't read are Colette, Cather and Eliot.
Anais Nin is a bit of a heroine of mine. I have a picture of her on my desk at work to remind me to always keep my mind open and free.
Her quote "Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage" is a personal credo.
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post #9 of 23
1/22/09 at 9:08pm
I'm surprised Harper Lee's To Kill A Mockingbird and Mary Shelley's Frankenstein didn't make it in there. They're two of my favorite novels from women authors.

I haven't read most of those on the list - only Jane Eyre, which I I liked, and Pride And Prejudice, which I didn't. Anais Nin I'm only familiar with from musical settings of her poetry.

A little-known America authoress I like is Shirley Jackson. Her works are a mixture of the claustrophobic and the domestic, and can often come across as the work of a demented house wife in the absolute best possible sense. There is never a sense of ease in her work, and nearly always a hidden or overt streak of malevolence. Sometimes it can be inane or baffling, as I found in The Road Through the Wall, but I love how it works in The Haunting Of Hill House and We Have Always Lived In The Castle.

Probably my favorite poet is Anna Akhmatova, a somewhat austere Russian writer.
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post #10 of 23
1/22/09 at 9:25pm
I am not a big fan of fiction in english, but I do believe there is a feminine factor that makes some women write diferently. The curious thing is that the writers who do not believe there is such factor, are the best examples of awesome feminine literature.
I left the list of great authors in another computer.
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post #11 of 23
1/23/09 at 4:12am
Thread Starter 
I think that you men have read more women authors than I have
How could I forget Harper Lee?
I was going to include Mary Shelley, but didn't.
Is Shirley Jackson the one who wrote The Lottery? (searching high school English memories)
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post #12 of 23
1/23/09 at 4:41am
She did. I could be wrong but I think one reason she may have flown under your radar is that I THINK she's better known for her short works than novels. I don't even know if she has written any novels. But I love her short work.

I think short story writers are under valued. One of my favorite writers (Andre Dubus) worked in this medium. I think He was one of the top twenty writers of the last century, but no one knows who he is.

I guess I'm derailing here. He was wonderful, but not a woman.
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post #13 of 23
1/23/09 at 4:54am
Pride & Prejudice
Little Women
The Secret Garden

I've read three from your list - two of which were recommended reading in upper school. I think for that reason alone I baulked at the whole experience and didn't really award them the time and respect that they probably deserve. In fact I would be interested to re-read them now, some 20 years later!
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post #14 of 23
1/23/09 at 5:37am
Quote:
Originally Posted by rtamara41 View Post

oops, sorry Virginia!
anak, please add more suggestions, though I don't want to add to the poll at this late date, it would skew the results, I suppose.

Interesting opinion of Jane Austen. She's not my favorite either. I would say that out of the ones I listed, the one that surprised me most was My Mortal Enemy by Willa Cather. I loved the spare poetic language and profound emotion it stirred in me. I was given a similar experience when I read The Shadowline by Joseph Conrad. A man, of course.

I loved The Ripening Seed by Colette because of the sensual language. It read a bit more like a poem to me. The story itself was a rather cynical one, I thought.

Silas Marner, now there's a gem. Brilliant little tale of redemption of a lost soul through love.

There are a lot of women authors worth noting. Kate Chopin for instance. The Awakening" was a brutal piece of feminism as lyrical as it was harsh. Death is better than serving a man. Wow this was one pissed off girl! Shelley (as suggested before) is of particular interest since its a woman writing one of the most memorable "horror" stories, a genre not associated with the more "fragile" literary touch of a women. Though I challenge this false stereotype by telling people to read ANYTHING by Woolfe. Fragile she was not. What's more interesting to me about female authors (and interestingly enough female painters and directors) is the evolution of their work through time.
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post #15 of 23
1/23/09 at 8:44am
Quote:
Originally Posted by anak View Post

Shelley (as suggested before) is of particular interest since its a woman writing one of the most memorable "horror" stories, a genre not associated with the more "fragile" literary touch of a women. Though I challenge this false stereotype by telling people to read ANYTHING by Woolfe. Fragile she was not.

I understand what you are saying. I can't stand those books where women are all fragile and dreamy (or those romantic comedies where the woman is a mess, she tries to find love and the man is just there loving her no matter what: BORING!). Shelley started a new genre, and she did it quite well. Unfortunately, the movies of stripped out all the "beauty" of Frankenstein.

I could not find my original list, but here are some of my favorite authors.
Virginia W. A Haunted House and Other Short Stories
JK Rowlin the 7 hp books.
Harper Lee. tKaM (OK she is not one of my favorites, I was not that impressed by the novel )
Mirada July. No one belongs here more than you.
Mary Shelley Frankenstein or the modern Prometheus.

In spanish:
Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz. Several collections, sonnets mostly.
Rosario Castellanos. De la vigilia estéril, the eternal feminine.
Laura Hernandez. Between us.
Isabel Allende. House of the spirits.
Elena Poniatowska. Lilus Kikus and other stories, Hasta no verte Jesus mÃ*o (here's to you, Jesus), Nothing, nobody.
Laura Ezquivel. Like Water for chocolate.
Elena Garro. Recuerdos del porvenir (Memories of the future?)
DaÃ*na Chaviano. El hombre, la hembra y el hambre. (The Man, the woman and hunger)
Ixta Maya Murray The conquest
There is one author I also liked, but I cannot remember her name right now.
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post #16 of 23
1/25/09 at 2:51am
Thread Starter 
debborra, I agree with you regarding the short story as an overlooked genre. though you would think in today's world of time crunch, it would be more popular. (One Story magazine is something to check out...each issue is one short story, highlighted as a solitary gem)

I must say I like Elizabeth Berg's short stories, Ordinary Lives, though she is not a "great" literary master, her voice has an authenticity and humanity that I resonate with.

Dmitri, hubby is reading Wuthering Heights now and has been on a kick this year to read some of the books I listed. He read Gone with the Wind not long ago.

irish....MIRANDA JULY! YES!

anak, I still need to read the Awakening. I've approached it several times but have not quite jumped in.
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post #17 of 23
1/25/09 at 3:00am
Not counting textbooks of course.

Have read 3 Austens. All 7 Harry Potters. Otherwise the book written by women on my bookshelf tend to be the artsy/interior design/perfumery ones. I do confess to liking a book compilation of Australian short stories called "Girls Night In" vols 1 & 2 and I remember reading one of my sister's modern romance novels and laughing out loud at some of the funny bits.

On my bookshelf, I bet without even looking that the authors who wrote "German Tanks of WWII" or "Enemy At the Gates: The siege of Stalingrad" - aren't women!
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post #18 of 23
1/25/09 at 3:10am
Thread Starter 
oh, that makes me think of Anne Rice's Sleeping Beauty trilogy of erotica.
Loved that - nothing quite like it, though some may find the love slave scenario offensive, I thought it had some profound things to say about power and control, submission and surrender.
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post #19 of 23
1/25/09 at 6:08am
Quote:
Originally Posted by rtamara41 View Post

oh, that makes me think of Anne Rice's Sleeping Beauty trilogy of erotica.
Loved that - nothing quite like it, though some may find the love slave scenario offensive, I thought it had some profound things to say about power and control, submission and surrender.

Big fan of the Anne Rice Sleeping Beauty books for all of the reasons you listed.
Another writer of erotica in the same vein is Cecilia Tan. She is from around here and I met her at one of the local Sci-fi/Fantasy conventions Arisia many years ago. I think she is a really talented writer of erotica.
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post #20 of 23
1/26/09 at 10:51pm
I see Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice is leading the voting. I thought fans might like to read the new sequel that will be released later this year, but is currently available for pre-order.
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post #21 of 23
1/26/09 at 11:15pm
rtamara41 : You forgot Pearl S. Buck.

I think ' Pavillion of Women ' is my favorite, recently butchered (2001) by an asinine screenplay adaptation starring one of my favorite actors, William Dafoe--even he couldn't save it, It would be as if " Atlas Shrugged ' had been turned into a musical with the theme that Socialism rocks. Oh yes, there's Ayn Rand, isn't there? ----Anyway back to Pearl; it''s 50/50 between Pavillion and The Good Earth, but I quibble.

I'm surprised my fellow men shy away from her, as if only sailors could enjoy Moby Dick!. Dumb, really.

Now I blush to say I've never read a single novel by Flannery O' Connor, though in the short story realm, "A Good Man Is Hard to Find." Ranks up there with Sartre's "The Wall" and anything Hemingway wrote, including "The Short Happy Life of Francis McComber. "

Did you say Wuthering Heights? I've read and re-read it at least 4 times. NO ONE has brought Heathcliff faithfully to the screen. Pure romantic frills (Olivier) or cynical darkness that just comes off as cranky(Everyone else)

They seem to have a hell of a mess of trouble playing the contradictions which make up this magnificent character.

' May She Wake Up in Torment ! '

*sigh*

I cannot live without my soul,

Mario
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post #22 of 23
1/27/09 at 4:08am
Thread Starter 
SMM and an aoud girl, thanks for the tips.

Mario.....Pearl......how could I forget Pearl?

I have read Pavillion of Women too, and Letter from Peking. I found a copy of Letter from Peking in the American bookstore in Pusan South Korea. I had never heard of it before or since. I was so taken by it because it is the story of an American woman in love and married to a Chinese man and the devastation of their marriage through the communist revolution.
amazing book.
Thanks for mentioning her.
The Good Earth is one of my mom's faves. (an american woman married to a chinese man, btw) but I could never get into it the way she did.
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post #23 of 23
1/27/09 at 10:26am
I feel like a bad female now, lol, I have not read most of those. I did read Gone with the Wind in high school, The Secret Garden a few years ago, I vaguely remember reading Little Women, maybe that was a dream, and I have read a lot of Anais Nin, but not her diaries. I remember loving Twain and Dickens when I was younger. Glad to see Irish's list in spanish, I have read some of those and will add Gertrudis Gomez de Avellaneda.
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