• The Greatest Female Writers of all Time

    in chronological order

    according to my Timelines of World Literatures


    Best novels | Best literature | Best poetry | Best theater

    Back to the literary page | Author | Comments


    (This list does not include playwrights yet. I only included the novelists that have at least one ++ in this list. Only one representative book per writer. I stopped checking female poets after 1980: there may be a lot after 1980 here)
    1. Bronte, Emily: Wuthering Heights
    2. Woolf, Virginia: To the Lighthouse
    3. Olga Tokarczuk (Poland, 1962): "Ksiegi Jakubowe/ The Books of Jacob" (2014)
    4. George Eliot (Britain, 1819): "Middlemarch" (1872)
    5. Elsa Morante (Italy, 1912): "L'Isola di Arturo" (1957)
    6. Anna Akhmatova (Russia, 1889): "Poema Bez Geroia/ Poem Without A Hero" (1962)[p]
    7. Murasaki Shikibu (Japan, 973): "Genji Monogatari" (100#)
    8. Hilary Mantel (Britain, 1952): "Wolf Hall" (2008)
    9. Jenny Erpenbeck (Germany, 1967): "Gehen Ging Gegangen/ Go Went Gone" (2015)
    10. Agustina Bessa-Luis (Portugal, 1922): "Vale Abraao/ Abraham's Valley" (1991)
    11. Toni Morrison (USA, 1942): "Beloved" (1987)
    12. Marie Under (Estonia, 1883): "Haal Varjust/ Voice from the Shadows" (1927) [p]
    13. Antonia Byatt (Britain, 1936): "Possession" (1990)
    14. Jane Austen (Britain, 1775): "Pride and Prejudice" (1813)
    15. Cecilia Meireles (Brazil, 1901): "Retrato Natural" (1949) [p]
    16. Janet Frame (New Zealand, 1924): "Scented Gardens For The Blind" (1963)
    17. Lessing, Doris: "The Golden Notebook" (1962)
    18. Elena Ferrante (Italy, 1943): "L'Amica Geniale/ My Brilliant Friend" (2014)
    19. Nadine Gordimer (South Africa, 1923): "The Burger's Daughter" (1979)
    20. Gertrude Stein (USA, 1874): "Stanzas in Meditation" (1932) [p]
    21. Clarice Lispector (Brazil, 1920): "A Paixao Segundo G.H./ The Passion According to G.H." (1964)
    22. Marianne Moore (USA, 1887): "Observations" (1924) [p]
    23. MariaLuisa Spaziani (1924): "L'occhio del ciclone (1970) [p]
    24. Marina Tsvetaeva/ Cvetaeva (Russia, 1892): "Poema Kontsa/ Poem of the End" (1924) [p]
    25. Gabriela Mistral (Chile, 1889): "Desolacion" (1922) [p]

    Not in order yet: