Literature by Women Authors

Old books by (mostly) dead ladies
In celebration of today being International Women’s Day, below is a list of all the fiction (or in a few cases, literary nonfiction) authored by women that has been reviewed at Old Books by Dead Guys. In keeping with the recurring interests of this blog, the list is heavy on writers of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, but it does reach as far back as 1666 (Margaret Cavendish) and also includes a few authors who are still alive and writing today (like Margaret Atwood). Click on the titles or cover images below to read the complete reviews.

(To keep the list from getting too unruly, it does not include the many recent nonfiction books by women historians, literary scholars, and art critics that Old Books by Dead Guys has reviewed.)

   

Alcott, Louisa May (1832-1888, American)

• “Lost in a Pyramid, or The Mummy’s Curse” in The Mummy Megapack (2012) - 5 stars

Ashe, Elizabeth (?)

• “The Glory-Box” in Atlantic Narratives: Modern Short Stories (1918) - 3 stars

Atwood, Margaret (1939-, Canadian)

• The Handmaid’s Tale (1985) - 5 stars

Beaumont, Mary (1849-1910, English)

• “The Revenge of Her Race” in Stories by English Authors: The Orient (1896) - 1 star

Bechdel, Alison (1960-, American) 

• Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic (2006) - 2.5 stars

Bolton, Sarah Knowles (1841-1916, American)

• Famous Men of Science (1889) - 4 stars

Bremer, Frederika (1801-1865, Swedish)

• “Hopes” in Stories by Foreign Authors: Scandinavian (1899) - 1 star

Brontë, Emily (1818-1848, English) 

• Wuthering Heights (1847) - 5 stars

Buck, Pearl S. (1892-1973, American, raised in China)

• East Wind, West Wind (1930) - 3 stars
• The Good Earth (1931) - 5 stars
• Sons (1933) - 4 stars
• A House Divided (1935) - 4.5 stars
• Other Gods (1940) - 3 stars
• Dragon Seed (1942) - 4 stars 
• The Promise (1943) - 4 stars
• China Flight (1943) - 3.5 stars
• The Townsman (1945) - 2 stars
• Peony (1948) - 4 stars
• Command the Morning (1959) - 4.5 stars
• The Living Reed (1963) - 3 stars
• Death in the Castle (1965) - 2 stars

Burnett, Frances Hodgson (1849-1924, American, born in England)

• “A Story of the Latin Quarter” in Stories by American Authors, Volume III (1884) - 4 stars

Butler, Katherine (?)

• “In No Strange Land” in Atlantic Narratives: Modern Short Stories (1918) - 3.5 stars

Campbell, Grace (1895-1963, Canadian)

• The Higher Hill (1944) - 4 stars

Cather, Willa (1873-1947, American)

• O Pioneers! (1913) - 5 stars
• The Song of the Lark (1915) - 2 stars
• My Ántonia (1918) - 5 stars
• One of Ours (1922) - 4 stars

Cavendish, Margaret, Duchess of Newcastle (1623-1673, English) 

• The Blazing World (1666) - 1.5 stars

Champney, Lizzie W. (1850-1922, American)

• “The Heartbreak Cameo” in Stories by American Authors, Volume VI (1884) - 5 stars

Chopin, Kate (1850-1904, American) 

• The Awakening (1899) - 3 stars

Comer, Cornelia A. P. (1865-1929, American)

• “The Preliminaries” in Atlantic Narratives: Modern Short Stories (1918) - 4 stars

Corelli, Marie (1855-1924, English)

• “The Hired Baby” in Stories by English Authors: London (1896) - 3.5 stars

Crawford, Meriah L. (?, American)

• “It Tore the Laugh from My Throat” in The Detective Megapack (2013) - 2 stars

Davis, Rebecca Harding (1831-1910, American)

• Life in the Iron Mills (1861) - 2.5 stars
• “The Balacchi Brothers” in Stories by American Authors, Volume I (1884) - 3 stars

de la Roche, Mazo (1879-1961, Canadian) 

• Jalna (1927) - 4.5 stars
• Whiteoaks (1929) - 3 stars

Dodd, Anna Bowman (1858-1929, American)

• The Republic of the Future: or, Socialism a Reality (1887) - 4 stars

Doty, Madeleine Z. (1877-1963, American)

• “Little Brother” in Atlantic Narratives: Modern Short Stories (1918) - 4 stars

Edwards, Amelia B. (1831-1892, English)

• “The Four-Fifteen Express” in Stories by English Authors: England (1896) - 4 stars

Eliot, George (1819-1880, English) 

• Silas Marner (1861) - 3.5 stars
• Romola (1863) - 3.5 stars

Fairfax, Lina Redwood (?, American)

• “The Misfortunes of Bro’ Thomas Wheatley” in Stories by American Authors, Volume VI (1884) - 3 stars

Ferber, Edna (1885-1986, American)

• Fanny Herself (1917) - 2.5 stars

Floyd, Margaret (?, American)

• “Passages from the Journal of a Social Wreck” in Stories by American Authors, Volume VII (1884) - 3 stars

Foote, Mary Hallock (1847-1938, American)

• “Friend Barton’s Concern” in Stories by American Authors, Volume IV (1884) - 1.5 stars

Fox, Janet (1940-2009, American)

• “A Witch in Time” in The Second Time Travel Megapack (2014) - 1 star

Freeman, Mary E. Wilkins

• “The Shadows on the Wall” in International Short Stories: American (1910) - 2 stars

Gale, Zona (1874-1938, American) 

• Miss Lulu Bett (1920) - 4.5 stars

Gerould, Katharine Fullerton (1879-1944, American)

• “A Moth of Peace” in Atlantic Narratives: Modern Short Stories (1918) - 3 stars

Gilman, Charlotte Perkins (1860-1935, American) 

• Moving the Mountain (1911) - 3 stars
• Herland (1916) - 4 stars

Green, Anna Katherine (1846-1935, American) 

• The Leavenworth Case (1878) - 2 stars
• “A Memorable Night” in International Short Stories: American (1910) - 4.5 stars

Haldeman-Julius, Marcet (1887-1941, American) 

• Dust (1921) with Emanuel Haldeman-Julius - 5 stars

Hale, Lucretia P. (1820-1900, American)

• “The Spider’s Eye” in Stories by American Authors, Volume III (1884) - 4 stars

Harraden, Beatrice (1864-1936, English)

• “The Bird on Its Journey” in Stories by English Authors: Germany and Northern Europe (1896) - 3 stars
• “An Idyl of London” in Stories by English Authors: London (1896) - 4 stars

Hoffman, Nina Kiriki (1955-, American)

• “The Power of Walking” in The Mummy Megapack (2012) - 3.5 stars
• “Whatever Was Forgotten” in The Mummy Megapack (2012) - 4.5 stars

Humphrey, Zephine (1874-1956, American)

• “Nothing” in Atlantic Narratives: Modern Short Stories (1918) - 3 stars

   

Jacobi, Mari Putnam, MD (1842-1906, American, born in England)

• “A Martyr to Science” in Stories by American Authors, Volume II (1884) - 2 stars

Jewett, Sarah Orne (1849-1909, American) 

• Deephaven (1877) - 3.5 stars
• The Country of the Pointed Firs (1896) - 4 stars

Johnson, E. Pauline (1861-1913, Canadian, Mohawk Nation) 

• Legends of Vancouver (1911) - 4 stars

Johnson, Virginia W. (?, American)

• “The Image of San Donato” in Stories by American Authors, Volume VII (1884) - 2.5 stars

Lagerlöf, Selma (1858-1940, Swedish) 

• The Treasure (1903) - 5 stars

Lane, Mary E. Bradley (?, American) 

• Mizora: A Prophecy (1881) - 3 stars

Le Guin, Ursula K. (1929-2018, American)

• The Lathe of Heaven (1971) - 3 stars

Lerner, Mary (1882-1938, American)

• “Little Selves” in Atlantic Narratives: Modern Short Stories (1918) - 2.5 stars

London, Charmian Kittredge (1871-1955, American) 

• The Book of Jack London, Volume 1 (1921) - 3 stars
• The Book of Jack London, Volume 2 (1921) - 3 stars

Lynn, Margaret (?)

• “The Legacy of Richard Hughes” in Atlantic Narratives: Modern Short Stories (1918) - 3.5 stars

Martin, Leonide (?, American) 

• The Visionary Mayan Queen: Yohl Ik’nal of Palenque (2013) - 3 stars

McCarter, Margaret Hill (1860-1938, American) 

• The Price of the Prairie (1910) - 2.5 stars

Middleton, Jessie Adelaide (1864-1933, English)

• “The Mummy’s Foot” in The Mummy Megapack (2012) - 3.5 stars

Miller, Madeline (1978-, American) 

• The Song of Achilles (2011) - 3.5 stars

Mitford, Mary Russell (1787-1855, English)

• “Tajima” in Stories by English Authors: The Orient (1896) - 3 stars

Montague, Margaret Prescott (1878-1955, American)

• “Of Water and the Spirit” in Atlantic Narratives: Modern Short Stories (1918) - 4.5 stars

Nalkowska, Zofia (1884-1954, Poland)

• “P.P.C.” in Selected Polish Tales (1921) - 1.5 stars

Nesbit, E. (1858-1924, English)

• “The Marble Child” in Atlantic Narratives: Modern Short Stories (1918) - 2.5 stars

Orczy, Baroness Emma (1865-1947, English, born in Hungary)

• The Scarlet Pimpernel (1905) - 3.5 stars

Ouida (1839-1908, English)

• “A Leaf in the Storm” in Stories by English Authors: France (1896) - 4.5 stars
• “A Dog of Flanders” in Stories by English Authors: Germany and Northern Europe (1896) - 4.5 stars

Pardo Bazán, Emilia (1851-1921, Spanish)

• “First Love” in First Love and Other Fascinating Stories of Spanish Life (1920s?) - 4stars

Phelps, Elizabeth Stuart (1844-1911, American)

• “Zerviah Hope” in Stories by American Authors, Volume VIII (1884) - 3.5 stars

Pickthall, Marjorie (1883-1922, Canadian, born in England)

• “The Worker in Sandalwood” in Cavalcade of the North (1958) - 3 stars

Pirkis, Catherine Louisa (1839-1910, English)

• “The Murder at Troyte’s Hill” in The Detective Megapack (2013) - 4 stars

Porter, Katherine Anne (1890-1980, American) 

• Flowering Judas and Other Stories (1930) - 4.5 stars
• The Leaning Tower (1934) - 3.5 stars
• Pale Horse, Pale Rider (1939)- 4.5 stars
• Ship of Fools (1962) - 2 stars
• Collected Stories and Other Writings (Library of America) - 3.5 stars

  

Quick, Dorothy (1900-1962, American)

• “The Black Adder” in The Adventure Megapack (2012) - 4 stars

Rand, Ayn (1905-1982, Russian-American) 

• Anthem (1938)- 4 stars

Ringwood, Gwen (1910-1984, Canadian, born in the USA)

• “The Little Ghost” in Cavalcade of the North (1958) - 2.5 stars

Robert, Clémence (1797-1872, French)

• “Baron de Trenck” in International Short Stories: French (1910) - 3 stars

Robinson, A. Mary F. (1857-1944, English)

• “Goneril” in Stories by English Authors: Italy (1896) - 2 stars

Roy, Gabrielle (1909-1983, Canadian)

• “The School on the Little Water Hen’’ in Cavalcade of the North (1958) - 4.5 stars

Rush, Kristine Kathryn (1960-, American)

• “The Gallery of His Dreams” in The Second Time Travel Megapack (2014) - 5 stars

Sandars, Mary Frances (1864-1934, ?) 

• Honoré de Balzac: His Life and Writings (1904) - 4.5 stars

Sayers, Dorothy L. (1893-1957, English)

• Whose Body? (1923) - 4 stars

Schayer, Julia (1842-1928, American)

• “The Story of Two Lives” in Stories by American Authors, Volume X (1884) - 4 stars

Sedgwick, Anne Douglas (1873-1935, English, born in America)

• “Hepaticas” in Atlantic Narratives: Modern Short Stories (1918) - 4 stars

Shelley, Mary (1797-1851, English) 

• Frankenstein (1818) - 2.5 stars
• The Last Man (1826) - 2 stars

Sherwood, Margaret (1864-1955, American)

• “The Clearest Voice” in Atlantic Narratives: Modern Short Stories (1918) - 2 stars

Shinn, Milicent Washburn (1858-1940, American)

• “Young Strong of ‘The Clarion’” in Stories by American Authors, Volume IX (1884) - 1.5 stars

Spofford, Harriet Prescott (1835-1921, American)

• “The Mount of Sorrow” in Stories by American Authors, Volume II (1884) - 1 star

Stockton, Louise (1839-?, American)

• “Kirby’s Coals of Fire” in Stories by American Authors, Volume VII (1884) - 2.5 stars

Stoddard, Elizabeth D. B. (1823-1902, American)

• “Osgood’s Predicament” in Stories by American Authors, Volume VIII (1884) - 1.5 stars

Stone, Amy Wentworth (?)

• “Possessing Prudence” in Atlantic Narratives: Modern Short Stories (1918) - 1.5 stars

Stretton, Hesba  (1832-1911, English)

• “Michel Lorio’s Cross” in Stories by English Authors: France (1896) - 2.5 stars

Strunsky, Anna (1877-1964, American, born in Russia) 

• The Kempton-Wace Letters (1903) with Jack London - 1 star

Styrett, Nyetta (1865-1943, English)

• “Thy Heart’s Desire” in Stories by English Authors: The Orient (1896) - 2 stars

Thaxter, Celia (1835-1894, American)

• “A Memorable Murder” in Stories by American Authors, Volume III (1884) - 5 stars

Tinckner, Mary Agnes (1833-1907, American)

• “Sister Silvia” in Stories by American Authors, Volume II (1884) - 2.5 stars

Undset, Sigrid (1882-1949, Norwegian, born in Denmark) 

• Jenny (1911) - 2.5 stars

Voynich, Ethel Lilian (1864-1960, Irish)

• The Gadfly (1897) - 3.5 stars

Waterhouse, Anna (?)

• Mycroft Holmes (2015) with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar - 3 stars

Wharton, Edith (1862-1937, American) 

• Ethan Frome (1911) - 4 stars

Wilson, Ethel (1888-1980, Canadian, born in South Africa)

• “Mrs. Golightly and the First Convention” in Cavalcade of the North (1958) - 2.5 stars

Woolson, Constance Fenimore (1840-1894, American)

• “Miss Grief” in Stories by American Authors, Volume IV (1884) - 3 stars