100 Best Works by Women Writers Based on the 1998 list by Feminista!

Author. Title, Publication Date

  • Allison, Dorothy. Bastard Out of Carolina, 1992
  • Angelou, Maya. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, 1969
  • Atwood, Margaret. Cat's Eye, 1988

 

  • Bainbridge, Beryl. The Bottle Factory Outing, 1974
  • Bambara, Toni Cade. Gorilla, My Love, 1992
  • Barnes, Djuna. Nightwood, 1937
  • Barker, Pat. Regeneration, 1992
  • Brookner, Anita. Hotel du Lac, 1984
  • Brown, Rita Mae. Rubyfruit Jungle, 1973
  • Buck, Pearl S. The Good Earth, 1931
  • Byatt, A.S. Possession: A Romance, 1990

 

  • Carter, Angela. Nights at the Circus, 1984
  • Castillo, Ana. So Far From God, 1993
  • Cather, Willa. My Antonia, 1918
  • Chopin, Kate. The Awakening, 1900
  • Cisneros, Sandra. The House on Mango Street, 1984
  • Compton-Burnett, Ivy. Elders and Betters, 1944

 

  • Desai, Anita. Clear Light of Day, 1980
  • Dinesen, Isak. Out of Africa, 1938
  • Doerr, Harriet. Stones for Ibarra, 1984
  • Drabble, Margaret. The Radiant Way, 1987
  • DuMaurier, Daphne. Rebecca, 1938

 

  • Emecheta, Buchi. Second Class Citizen, 1974
  • Erdrich, Louise. Tracks: A Novel, 1988

 

  • Fitzgerald, Penelope. At Freddie's, 1985
  • Flagg, Fannie. Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe, 1987
  • Frame, Janet. Yellow Flowers in the Antipodean Room, 1969
  • French, Marilyn. The Women's Room, 1977

 

  • Goldstein, Rebecca. The Mind-Body Problem: A Novel, 1983
  • Gordimer, Nadine. July's People, 1981
  • Gordon, Mary. The Rest of Life, 1993

 

  • Hall, Radclyffe. The Well of Loneliness, 1928
  • Head, Bessie. When Rain Clouds Gather, 1968
  • Highsmith, Patricia. The Talented Mr. Ripley, 1955
  • Hobhouse, Janet. The Furies, 1993
  • Hulme, Keri. The Bone People, 1983
  • Hurston, Zora Neale. Their Eyes Were Watching God, 1937

 

  • Jackson, Shirley. The Haunting of Hill House, 1959
  • Jhabvala, Ruth Prawer. Heat and Dust, 1975
  • Jong, Erica. Fear of Flying, 1973

 

  • Kincaid, Jamaica. Lucy, 1990
  • Kingsolver, Barbara. The Bean Trees, 1988
  • Kingston, Maxine Hong. Tripmaster Monkey, 1989
  • Kogawa, Joy. Obasan, 1981

 

  • Laurence, Margaret. The Fire-Dwellers, 1969
  • Lee, Harper. To Kill a Mockingbird, 1960
  • Lessing, Doris. The Golden Notebook, 1962
  • Lively, Penelope. Moon Tiger, 1987
  • Loos, Anita. Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, 1925

 

  • McCarthy, Mary. The Group, 1963
  • McCullers, Carson. Ballad of the Sad Cafe, 1951
  • McMillan, Terry. Mama, 1987
  • Manning, Olivia. The Balkan Trilogy, 1981
  • Miller, Isabel. Patience and Sarah, 1969
  • Mitchell, Margaret. Gone with the Wind, 1936
  • Moore, Lorrie. Anagrams: A Novel, 1986
  • Morrison, Toni. Beloved: A Novel, 1987
  • Mukherjee, Bharati. Wife, 1975
  • Munro, Alice. Lives of Girls and Women, 1971
  • Murdoch, Iris. A Severed Head, 1961

 

  • Oates, Joyce Carol. You Must Remember This, 1987
  • O'Brien, Edna. House of Splendid Isolation, 1994
  • O'Connor, Flannery. A Good Man is Hard to Find, 1955
  • Olsen, Tillie. Tell Me a Riddle, 1979

 

  • Paley, Grace. Enormous Changes at the Last Minute, 1974
  • Parker, Dorothy. The Collected Dorothy Parker, 1973
  • Phillips, Jayne Anne. Black Tickets, 1979
  • Piercy, Marge. Braided Lives, 1982
  • Plath, Sylvia. The Bell Jar, 1963
  • Porter, Katharine Anne. Ship of Fools, 1962
  • Powell, Dawn. The Golden Spur, 1962
  • Proulx, E. Annie. The Shipping News, 1993

 

  • Rand, Ayn. The Fountainhead, 1943
  • Renault, Mary. The King Must Die, 1958
  • Rhys, Jean. Wide Sargasso Sea, 1966
  • Robinson, Marilynne. Housekeeping, 1980
  • Roy, Arundhati. The God of Small Things, 1997

 

  • Sarton, May. Mrs. Stevens Hears the Mermaids Singing, 1965
  • Shields, Carol. The Stone Diaries, 1994
  • Shreve, Anita. The Weight of Water, 1997
  • Silko, Leslie Marmon. Almanac of the Dead, 1991
  • Simpson, Mona. Anywhere But Here, 1986
  • Smart, Elizabeth. By Grand Central Station I Sat Down and Wept, 1966
  • Smiley, Jane. The Age of Grief, 1987
  • Sontag, Susan. The Volcano Lover, 1992
  • Spark, Muriel. The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, 1961
  • Stead, Christina. The Man Who Loved Children, 1965
  • Stein, Gertrude. Three Lives, 1909

 

  • Taylor, Elizabeth. Angel, 1957
  • Tan, Amy. The Joy Luck Club, 1989
  • Tyler, Anne. If Morning Ever Comes, 1964

 

  • Urquhart, Jane. Away, 1993

 

  • Walker, Alice. The Color Purple, 1982
  • Weldon, Fay. The Life and Loves of a She-Devil, 1983
  • Welty, Eudora. Selected Stories, 1943
  • West, Rebecca. The Return of the Soldier, 1918
  • Wharton, Edith. Ethan Frome, 1911
  • White, Antonia. Frost in May, 1933
  • Winterson, Jeannette. Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit, 1985
  • Woolf, Virginia. Mrs. Dalloway, 1925