Significant women in fiction
Explore iconic female characters in fiction with our list of books featuring significant women. Discover powerful heroines, trailblazers, and unforgettable literary figures.
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Penguin Classics Anna Karenina
by Leo Tolstoy
'One of the greatest love stories in world literature' Vladimir Nabokov The heroine of Tolstoy's epic of love and self-destruction, Anna Karenina has beauty, wealth, …
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The Pool in the Desert
by Sara Jeannette Duncan
In The Pool in the Desert, first published in 1903, Sara Jeannette Duncan explores the impact of isolation on the small British communities of Victorian …
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The Unicorn
by Iris Murdoch
A brilliant mythical drama about well-meaning people trapped in a war of spiritual forces Marian Taylor, who has come as a “companion” to a lovely …
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The Great Gatsby
by F. Scott Fitzgerald
A mysterious American millionaire tries to recapture the sweetheart of his youth, which results in tragedy.
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Travels with My Aunt
by Graham Greene
"I met Aunt Augusta for the first time at my mother's funeral..." Described by Graham Greene as "the only book I have written just for …
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The Adventures of Captain Horn
by Frank R. Stockton
Early in the spring of the year 1884 the three-masted schooner "Castor," from San Francisco to Valparaiso, was struck by a tornado off the coast …
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Ship of Fools
by Katherine Anne Porter
The story takes place in the summer of 1931, on board a cruise ship bound for Bremerhaven, Germany. The passenger list is long and portentous, …
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Green Dolphin Street
by Elizabeth Goudge
The lives of sisters Marianne and Marguerite take very unexpected courses when William, the man they both adore, writes after a ten year absence and …
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Swann's Way
by Marcel Proust
The first volume of one of the greatest novels of the twentieth century, in Lydia Davis's award-winning translation Marcel Proust’s In Search of Lost Time …
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The House of Mirth
by Edith Wharton
Since its publication in 1905 The House of Mirth has commanded attention for the sharpness of Wharton's observations and the power of her style. Its …
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Nightwood
by Djuna Barnes
The fiery and enigmatic masterpiece--one of the greatest novels of the Modernist era.