100 Books Every Woman Should Read, Part One

Before you read this list, we strongly recommend reading Experimental Wifery’s Guide to the 100 Books Every Woman Should Read.

• The Odyssey by Homer
• Antigone by Sophocles
• The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri
• Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare
• The Letters of John and Abigail Adams by John and Abigail Adams
• Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
• Frankenstein by Mary Shelly
• The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
• Wuthering Heights by Charlotte Bronte
• Sonnets from the Portuguese by Elizabeth Barrett Browning
• Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
• Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
• Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
• A Doll’s House by Henrik Ibsen
• An Ideal Husband by Oscar Wilde
• Etiquette by Emily Post
• A Room of One’s Own by Virginia Woolf
• Howard’s End by E. M. Forster
• Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
• The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank
• A Good Man Is Hard to Find and Other Stories by Flannery O’Connor
• A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith
• To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
• Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand
• A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry
• Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi

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The Odyssey by Homer

Odysseus spends ten years trying to make his way home to Penelope in one of the foundational texts of Western literature. Penelope is one of the best wives literature has to offer—so wise, faithful, and desirable that no fewer than 108 suitors try to win her hand.

The more she spoke, the more a deep desire for tears welled up inside his breast—he wept as he held the wife he loved, the soul of loyalty, in his arms at last.

Read more about The Odyssey…

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Antigone by Sophocles

Antigone defies her uncle, the king, to obey the gods and pay her respects to her dead brother. Her actions remind us to always stand up for what’s right, no matter what the cost.

My nails are broken, my fingers are bleeding, my arms are covered with the welts left by the paws of your guards—but I am a queen!

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The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri

T. S. Eliot remarked that Dante, more than any other writer, shows us the depths and heights of the human soul. Dante goes on a journey through hell, purgatory, and heaven with the guidance of his perfect lady, Beatrice.

Do not rest in so profound a doubt except she tell it thee, who shall be a light between truth and intellect. I know not if thou understand: I speak of Beatrice.

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Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare

The classic pair of “star-crossed lovers” make this play the most highly-regarded romance ever written. Teenage girls love it and adult women can look back to a time when they had a very different—perhaps more dangerous—idea of what true love looks like.

Do thou but close our hands with holy words,

Then love-devouring death do what he dare;

It is enough I may but call her mine.

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The Letters of John and Abigail Adams by John and Abigail Adams

The letters exchanged by John and Abigail Adams during the turning point in the struggle for American independence show us a woman fighting to support a cause she causes about, enable a man she adores, and protect a family she loves. Plus Abigail has a political mind every bit as astute as her husband’s.

Men of Sense in all Ages abhor those customs which treat [women] only as the vassals of your sex; regard us then as Beings placed by Providence under your protection, and in imitation of the Supreme Being make use of that power only for our happiness.

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Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen

Like every other Austen novel, a tale of virtuous women looking for virtuous—and wealthy—husbands. Two sisters struggle, like all women, to find balance their brains and their hearts.

She was stronger alone; and her own good sense so well supported her, that her firmness was as unshaken, her appearance of cheerfulness as invariable, as, with regrets so poignant and so fresh, it was possible for them to be.

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Frankenstein by Mary Shelly

More an intellectual thriller than a gruesome horror novel. In one reading, Dr. Frankenstein is an anti-mother whose murderous creation serves as a warning about what happens when parents don’t love their children.

I, the miserable and the abandoned, am an abortion, to be spurned at, and kicked, and trampled on. Even now my blood boils at the recollection of this injustice.

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The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne

Hester Prinne triumphs over the oppressive Puritan culture by owning up to her sins and becoming a better woman. Hawthorne’s novel is a great fable for accepting our mistakes and moving on with our lives.

She would become the general symbol at which the preacher and moralist might point, and in which they might vivify and embody their images of women’s frailty and sinful passion.

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Wuthering Heights by Charlotte Bronte

Obsessive love gone horribly, horribly awry. Some find the romance between Heathcliffe and Catherine beautiful; others, terrible. But we can all agree about the cost of their selfish love.

It would degrade me to marry Heathcliff now; so he shall never know how I love him; and that, not because he’s handsome, Nelly, but because he’s more myself than I am.

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Sonnets from the Portuguese by Elizabeth Barrett Browning

A collection of love poetry unrelated to Portuguese or Portugal. Browning opens her heart to us by publishing the sonnets she wrote to her husband Robert.

I love thee freely, as men strive for Right;

I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise.

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Great Expectations by Charles Dickens

Pip may be the protagonist of Dickens’ novel, but he certainly isn’t the most memorable character. Miss Havisham is the world’s most famous spinster: a bitter, man-hating woman who reminds us all of the consequences of letting resentment ruin our lives.

With my teachings, and with this figure of myself always before her a warning to back and point my lessons, I stole her heart away and put ice in its place.

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Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

Little Women is probably the best book ever written about how girls can grow up to be great wives. (Modern versions actually combine Alcott’s first two books—Little Women and Good Wives.) Every woman I’ve ever met can see herself in at least one of the four sisters struggling to be good.

I’ll try and be what he loves to call me, “a little woman,” and not be rough and wild; but do my duty here instead of wanting to be somewhere else.

Read more about Little Women…

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Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy

Two stories in one—the adulterous title character and the romantic land-owner, Constantine Levin. Through their parallel stories, we see what love can take away from and add to an ordinary, human life.

Freedom? What do? Happiness lies in simply loving her, and in whishing and thinking her wishes and her thoughts, that is, no freedom at all—that’s what happiness is!

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A Doll’s House by Henrick Ibsen

Although generally read as a proto-feminist play, Ibsen insisted that his play was about what it is to be human. Nora’s husband fails to recognize her years of secret worry and self-sacrifice to support his ambition. Her story suggests that respect and love in a marriage must be mutual for a marriage to work.

I have been performing tricks for you, Torvald… You wanted it like that. You and Papa have done me a great wrong. It’s because of you I’ve made nothing of my life.

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An Ideal Husband by Oscar Wilde

A dark comedy about expectations and intrigue. Mrs. Chevely discovers that, though there is no such thing as an ideal husband, there are men worth loving and living for nonetheless.

There was your error. The error all women commit. Why can’t you women love us, faults and all? Why do you place us on monstrous pedestals?

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Etiquette by Emily Post

This isn’t a book to read from cover to cover, but a reference to own and cherish. Whether in its original 1922 printing or its current, 18th revision, Etiquette is an indispensible guide to making other people feel comfortable, welcome, and respected.

As fluid as manners are, they all rest on the same fundamental principles: respect, consideration, and honesty.

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A Room of One’s Own by Virginia Woolf

An important feminist text by modernism’s Most important female writer. Woolf reminds us all women that we need space for creativity in our lives.

Life for both sexes—and I look at them, shouldering their way along the pavement—is arduous, difficult, a perpetual struggle. It calls for gigantic courage and strength.

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Howard’s End by E. M. Forster

One of the few stories in which a woman sets out to save a man through marriage—and actually succeeds. A great novel about the power of love and the importance of home.

You picked up the pieces and made us a home. Can’t it strike you—even for a moment—that your life has been heroic

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Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier

The classic romantic thriller. Young, inexperienced narrator must find herself while standing up to the ghost of her new husband’s first wife, Rebecca. Thank goodness most of us are fighting against less impossible odds.

I wish I was a woman of about thirty-six dressed in black satin with a string of pearls.

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The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank

Anne’s unintentional autobiography is one of the most famous books by women ever written. Her light-hearted diary of teenaged life is all the more moving for its tragic, unwritten ending when Anne becomes a victim of the Holocaust.

I sometimes wonder if anyone will ever understand what I mean, if anyone will ever overlook my ingratitude and not worry about whether or not I’m Jewish and merely see me as a teenager badly in need of some good, plain fun.

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A Good Man Is Hard to Find and Other Stories by Flannery O’Connor

Southern Gothic stories about what it is to be human. Racism, religion, class prejudice, and serial killers all come together in one of literature’s strangest and most profound collections of short stories.

She would have been a good woman,” The Misfit said, “if it had been somebody there to shoot her every minute of her life.

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A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith

Immigrants struggle to make a new life for themselves in early twentieth-century New York. This largely autobiographical novel is the ultimate story of a young woman pulling herself up by her bootstraps.

A person who pulls himself up from a low environment via the boot-strap route has two choices. Having risen above his environment, he can forget it; or, he can rise above it and never forget it…

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To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

A classic story about growing up in the Jim Crow South. Lee’s novel is a strong contender for the great American novel. Young Scout Finch struggles to come to grips with how ugly—and beautiful—life really is.

You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view … until you climb into his skin and walk around in it.

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Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand

Love it or hate it, probably the most politically important book ever written by a woman. Atlas Shrugged is the great objectivist manifesto, loudly declaring that the only moral purpose of life is to pursue one’s own happiness. Even if you disagree with Rand’s philosophy, her novel serves as a powerful reminder of the human desire for autonomy.

I swear by my life and my love of it that I will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine.

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A Raisin in the Sun by Lorainne Hansberry

A black family in Chicago tries to find their place in this world—and in an all-white neighborhood. Although originally criticized for being relevant for only black audiences, Hansberry’s  play shows the universal importance of family and of striving to achieve our dreams.

Oh—So now it’s life. Money is life. Once upon a time freedom used to be life—now it’s money. I guess the world really do change…

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Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi

Set during and after the Iranian Revolution, this is one of the most recent and obscure books on the list. Nafisi’s book is a powerful memoir about the way fiction can change lives.

A great novel heightens your senses and sensitivity to the complexities of life and of individuals, and prevents you from the self-righteousness that sees morality in fixed formulas about good and evil…