Some books for International Women’s Day

It’s International Women’s Day, and a good opportunity to celebrate women’s achievements around the world, as well as highlighting the areas where women still face disproportionate risk, disadvantage, or discrimination. If I were a better reader, I’d be able to suggest lots of books on those themes [EDITED TO ADD: Claire has basically made that list] – but, to be honest, my reading is so Anglocentric and from-the-past that I can’t pull together that list. Nor is there really any significant point in me highlighting women authors, since most of the books I read are by women and I wouldn’t know where to start.

So – instead, I’ve put together a list of great books by women that have a woman’s name as the title. No other words – just the name. It’s a way of commemorating the day, I suppose, though I also encourage everyone to sign petitions, go on marches, donate to charities, challenge discrimination, and so forth! This list are mostly the ones that came to me first, so I’ll certainly have missed many great ones – which would you suggest, with these criteria?

I’ve tried to avoid the most obvious ones – so, yes, I love Emma, Rebecca, and Mrs Dalloway – but here are some you might not be as familiar with.

Cluny Brown by Margery Sharp

Cluny is a wonderful character – a girl who is plain but has Presence, and disconcerts her Uncle Arn to the extent that he bundles her away from London, off to Devon to be a maid. She then gets embroiled in the household there. Sharp is quite unlike any other writer I’ve read, and Cluny is a frenetic joy. (I wrote about it here.)

Miss Mole by E.H. Young

Another joy of a character – a talkative, inquisitive woman who is a burden to her snobbish relatives. She heads off to be a housekeeper (if memory serves) and, yes, also gets embroiled in various other people’s lives. Also surprising pathos in the novel.

Lila by Marilynne Robinson

I often talk about how much I love Gilead, but the whole trilogy is brilliant. The third book (though they can be read in any order) shows us Lila’s life – giving greater depth to the woman we have previously seen as wife and mother, seeing her as an disadvantaged child and as the young, desperate, quiet, confused woman she first was.

Mrs Harter by E.M. Delafield

Being honest, I remember very little about the novel – which I read about 15 years ago. But I always think of it as being rather like seeing heaps of crispy leaves on the ground in autumn. Make of that what you will.

Lolly Willowes by Sylvia Townsend Warner

Technically the character is called Laura, but some people call her Lolly, so I’m counting it. She is a neglected and burdened aunt, living in her brother’s house – but decides to escape and move to village isolation. It’s a truly excellent domestic novel – and then turns into something much stranger.

Angel by Elizabeth Taylor

Quite unlike any of Taylor’s other novels, this shows the ruthlessly selfish and egotistical Angel from girlhood to her huge success as a Marie-Corelli-esque novelist: terrible, but unaware of it, and selling in her thousands. It’s a very brave portrait for a novelist to create, and flawlessly carried out.

Agnes Grey by Anne Bronte

OK, this one is pretty well known – but I have to mention it, as it’s often neglected in comparison to the other Bronte sisters’ works. Agnes is a quiet, moral woman who gets a job as a governess with some terrible children – and then falls in love. It’s a simple but perfectly structured masterpiece.

Mary Poppins by P.L. Travers

If you’ve not read the book, please do. Travers’ character doesn’t have a lot in common with rosy-cheeked Julie Andrews. In the books, she is snippy, lies quite a lot, and stands no nonsense. And it’s all the better for it.

Mrs Miniver by Jan Struther

Speaking of characters who aren’t like the film – this Mrs Miniver is the quintessential British housewife of the 1930s, but the war hasn’t begun by the time the book ends. Light, observant, and a delight.