Erica Jong's Top 100 20th Century Novels by Women
At the turn of the Millennium, there was a flurry of "Top 100" book lists. The Modern Library’s list of Top 100 Novels of the 20th Century, started the craze (and led to this blog). Erica Jong wrote an article for The Nation criticizing the Modern Library’s list for including relatively few books by women.
She titled her article "I've Got a Little List" and included her own list of the Top 100 20th Century Novels by Women. Jong explained that she had compiled the list from votes cast by those “250 or so distinguished women writers and critics” and “about thirty male novelists, critics and poets” whom she solicited directly, as well as participants in “the rather lively writers’ forum” on Jong’s website. The list is in order of the number of votes received.
Jong's method for creating the list was not scientific. But the results provide excellent reading.
Here is Jong's list. I've noted if I've read a book, if it's on my TBR shelf, or if it is available as an audiobook from my library.
Here is Jong's list. I've noted if I've read a book, if it's on my TBR shelf, or if it is available as an audiobook from my library.
See any favorites?
Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell FINISHED
Interview With the Vampire by Anne Rice ON OVERDRIVE
To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf FINISHED
Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf FINISHED
The Waves by Virginia Woolf TBR SHELF
Orlando by Virginia Woolf FINISHED
Nightwood by Djuna Barnes TBR SHELF
The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton FINISHED
The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton FINISHED
Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton FINISHED
The Well of Loneliness by Radclyffe Hall ON OVERDRIVE
Burger's Daughter by Nadine Gordimer TBR SHELF
The Dollmaker by Harriette Simpson Arnow
The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood FINISHED
My Ántonia by Willa Cather FINISHED
Fear of Flying by Erica Jong (reviewed here) FINISHED
Fanny by Erica Jong
Obasan by Joy Kogawa FINISHED
The Golden Notebook by Doris Lessing FINISHED
The Fifth Child by Doris Lessing
The Grass Is Singing by Doris Lessing TBR SHELF
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee FINISHED
Woman on the Edge of Time by Marge Piercy ON OVERDRIVE
A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley FINISHED
Her First American by Lore Segal FINISHED
The Color Purple by Alice Walker FINISHED
The Third Life of Grange Copeland by Alice Walker
The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley FINISHED
Memento Mori by Muriel Spark FINISHED
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark FINISHED
Bastard Out of Carolina by Dorothy Allison FINISHED
Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys (reviewed here) FINISHED
Anya by Susan Fromberg Schaeffer TBR SHELF
Trust by Cynthia Ozick TBR SHELF
The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan FINISHED
The Kitchen God's Wife by Amy Tan FINISHED
Chilly Scenes of Winter by Ann Beattie TBR SHELF
Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston FINISHED
A Book of Common Prayer by Joan Didion TBR SHELF
Play It as It Lays by Joan Didion (reviewed here) FINISHED
The Group by Mary McCarthy FINISHED
The Company She Keeps by Mary McCarthy FINISHED
The Little Disturbances of Man by Grace Paley TBR SHELF
The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath FINISHED
The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers FINISHED
The Death of the Heart by Elizabeth Bowen FINISHED
Wise Blood by Flannery O'Connor FINISHED
Anywhere But Here by Mona Simpson TBR SHELF
Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison FINISHED
Beloved by Toni Morrison FINISHED
Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons (reviewed here) FINISHED
Mr. Fortune's Maggot by Sylvia Townsend Warner TBR SHELF
Ship of Fools by Katherine Anne Porter FINISHED
Progress of Stories by Laura Riding
Heat and Dust by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala (Booker winner) FINISHED
The Blue Flower by Penelope Fitzgerald FINISHED
The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende FINISHED
Possession by A.S. Byatt FINISHED
The Ghost Road by Pat Barker TBR SHELF
Rubyfruit Jungle by Rita Mae Brown ON OVERDRIVE
Hotel du Lac by Anita Brookner FINISHED
Nights at the Circus by Angela Carter TBR SHELF
Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier (reviewed here) FINISHED
Geek Love by Katherine Dunn DNF
We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson (reviewed here) FINISHED
Excellent Women by Barbara Pym FINISHED
Ceremony by Leslie Marmon Silko TBR SHELF
Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant by Anne Tyler FINISHED
The Accidental Tourist by Anne Tyler FINISHED
Things Invisible to See by Nancy Willard (reviewed here) FINISHED
Sexing the Cherry by Jeanette Winterson FINISHED
Disturbances in the Field by Lynne Sharon Schwartz TBR SHELF
Civil Wars by Rosellen Brown TBR SHELF
Stones for Ibarra by Harriet Doerr
The Mountain Lion by Jean Stafford TBR SHELF
Novel on Yellow Paper by Stevie Smith
The Shipping News by E. Annie Proulx FINISHED
The Mind-Body Problem by Rebecca Goldstein
The Children of Men by P.D. James FINISHED
Stones From the River by Ursula Hegi FINISHED
The Life and Loves of a She-Devil by Fay Weldon FINISHED
Collected Stories by Katherine Mansfield TBR SHELF
Life in the Iron Mills by Rebecca Harding Davis TBR SHELF
The Beet Queen by Louise Erdrich TBR SHELF
The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin DNF
The Country Girls Trilogy by Edna O'Brien TBR SHELF
Realms of Gold by Margaret Drabble TBR SHELF
The Waterfall by Margaret Drabble FINISHED
The Locusts Have No King by Dawn Powell
The Women's Room by Marilyn French
The Optimist's Daughter by Eudora Welty FINISHED
The Stone Diaries by Carol Shields FINISHED
Annie John by Jamaica Kincaid TBR SHELF
Tell Me a Riddle by Tillie Olsen TBR SHELF
The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas by Gertrude Stein FINISHED
A Severed Head by Iris Murdoch FINISHED
Clear Light of Day by Anita Desai
The Drowning Season by Alice Hoffman FINISHED
The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole by Sue Townsend ON OVERDRIVE
The Pumpkin Eater by Penelope Mortimer TBR SHELF
NOTE
This is a repost of a list I first posted in 2009. So far, I've read 57 of the 100 and gave up on two others, so I have 41 to go. Of those that I read because they were on this list, my favorites are Play It as It Lays, Things Invisible to See, and The Children of Men.
Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell FINISHED
Interview With the Vampire by Anne Rice ON OVERDRIVE
To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf FINISHED
Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf FINISHED
The Waves by Virginia Woolf TBR SHELF
Orlando by Virginia Woolf FINISHED
Nightwood by Djuna Barnes TBR SHELF
The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton FINISHED
The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton FINISHED
Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton FINISHED
The Well of Loneliness by Radclyffe Hall ON OVERDRIVE
Burger's Daughter by Nadine Gordimer TBR SHELF
The Dollmaker by Harriette Simpson Arnow
The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood FINISHED
My Ántonia by Willa Cather FINISHED
Fear of Flying by Erica Jong (reviewed here) FINISHED
Fanny by Erica Jong
Obasan by Joy Kogawa FINISHED
The Golden Notebook by Doris Lessing FINISHED
The Fifth Child by Doris Lessing
The Grass Is Singing by Doris Lessing TBR SHELF
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee FINISHED
Woman on the Edge of Time by Marge Piercy ON OVERDRIVE
A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley FINISHED
Her First American by Lore Segal FINISHED
The Color Purple by Alice Walker FINISHED
The Third Life of Grange Copeland by Alice Walker
The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley FINISHED
Memento Mori by Muriel Spark FINISHED
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark FINISHED
Bastard Out of Carolina by Dorothy Allison FINISHED
Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys (reviewed here) FINISHED
Anya by Susan Fromberg Schaeffer TBR SHELF
Trust by Cynthia Ozick TBR SHELF
The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan FINISHED
The Kitchen God's Wife by Amy Tan FINISHED
Chilly Scenes of Winter by Ann Beattie TBR SHELF
Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston FINISHED
A Book of Common Prayer by Joan Didion TBR SHELF
Play It as It Lays by Joan Didion (reviewed here) FINISHED
The Group by Mary McCarthy FINISHED
The Company She Keeps by Mary McCarthy FINISHED
The Little Disturbances of Man by Grace Paley TBR SHELF
The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath FINISHED
The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers FINISHED
The Death of the Heart by Elizabeth Bowen FINISHED
Wise Blood by Flannery O'Connor FINISHED
Anywhere But Here by Mona Simpson TBR SHELF
Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison FINISHED
Beloved by Toni Morrison FINISHED
Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons (reviewed here) FINISHED
Mr. Fortune's Maggot by Sylvia Townsend Warner TBR SHELF
Ship of Fools by Katherine Anne Porter FINISHED
Progress of Stories by Laura Riding
Heat and Dust by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala (Booker winner) FINISHED
The Blue Flower by Penelope Fitzgerald FINISHED
The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende FINISHED
Possession by A.S. Byatt FINISHED
The Ghost Road by Pat Barker TBR SHELF
Rubyfruit Jungle by Rita Mae Brown ON OVERDRIVE
Hotel du Lac by Anita Brookner FINISHED
Nights at the Circus by Angela Carter TBR SHELF
Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier (reviewed here) FINISHED
Geek Love by Katherine Dunn DNF
We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson (reviewed here) FINISHED
Excellent Women by Barbara Pym FINISHED
Ceremony by Leslie Marmon Silko TBR SHELF
Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant by Anne Tyler FINISHED
The Accidental Tourist by Anne Tyler FINISHED
Things Invisible to See by Nancy Willard (reviewed here) FINISHED
Sexing the Cherry by Jeanette Winterson FINISHED
Disturbances in the Field by Lynne Sharon Schwartz TBR SHELF
Civil Wars by Rosellen Brown TBR SHELF
Stones for Ibarra by Harriet Doerr
The Mountain Lion by Jean Stafford TBR SHELF
Novel on Yellow Paper by Stevie Smith
The Shipping News by E. Annie Proulx FINISHED
The Mind-Body Problem by Rebecca Goldstein
The Children of Men by P.D. James FINISHED
Stones From the River by Ursula Hegi FINISHED
The Life and Loves of a She-Devil by Fay Weldon FINISHED
Collected Stories by Katherine Mansfield TBR SHELF
Life in the Iron Mills by Rebecca Harding Davis TBR SHELF
The Beet Queen by Louise Erdrich TBR SHELF
The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin DNF
The Country Girls Trilogy by Edna O'Brien TBR SHELF
Realms of Gold by Margaret Drabble TBR SHELF
The Waterfall by Margaret Drabble FINISHED
The Locusts Have No King by Dawn Powell
The Women's Room by Marilyn French
The Optimist's Daughter by Eudora Welty FINISHED
The Stone Diaries by Carol Shields FINISHED
Annie John by Jamaica Kincaid TBR SHELF
Tell Me a Riddle by Tillie Olsen TBR SHELF
The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas by Gertrude Stein FINISHED
A Severed Head by Iris Murdoch FINISHED
Clear Light of Day by Anita Desai
The Drowning Season by Alice Hoffman FINISHED
The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole by Sue Townsend ON OVERDRIVE
The Pumpkin Eater by Penelope Mortimer TBR SHELF
NOTE
This is a repost of a list I first posted in 2009. So far, I've read 57 of the 100 and gave up on two others, so I have 41 to go. Of those that I read because they were on this list, my favorites are Play It as It Lays, Things Invisible to See, and The Children of Men.