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[messy]

Hello!

I'm after some recommendations for novels written in a female, first person point of view, preferably -- but not necessarily -- by female writers. So far I have only Jane Eyre and Villette. Thematically, anything goes; it's the point of view in which I'm interested.

Thanks heaps. :D

Comments

[mab_led]

One of the narrators of Wuthering Heights is a woman...although shes not one of the main characters...

Agnes Grey has 1st person female narrator

SOME of the Tenant of Wildfell Hall has a female POV, it begins with a male narrator but switches to a woman's diaries...

then there's Bleak House by Dickens...bit of a strange style, sort of a female POV, sort of omniscient...

beyond that I'm struggling!

I like your icon by the way.

[messy]

Thank you! That's wonderfully helpful.

The icon is from here. :)

[basje]

Eliot's Daniel Deronda! :) Little Women & the Secret Garden if they're your cup of tea, of course Jane Austen, there should be more but I can't think of any ;_;

[messy]

Thank you very much. :)

[elettaria]

But no first person narrators in those, alas.

[sam_t]

Some of The Woman in White has a female narrator.

It might be worth looking for epistolary novels, as well.

[messy]

Thanks!

[elettaria]

Also some of The Moonstone, and The Law and the Lady is first person female narrator throughout. However, these were all written by Wilkie Collins, a man. Also authored by men: The Turn of the Screw, Dracula (partial first-person female narration). As sam_t says, epistolary novels give you a decent chance, so that will include Austen's Lady Susan (female author at last!).

I'm really struggling past those and the Brontes. First person narration by female characters seems to be the main snag.

I trust that you're just looking for 19th c, since you've posted here?

[messy]

Thanks so much for the suggestions! I'm interested in pretty much any pre-1950 first person/female texts, but I'm on a 19th century kick at the moment so that seemed a good place to start.

[orts]

Gaskell's Cranford. Might be vaguely omniscient (I can't remember), but definitely first, and definitely female.

[messy]

Oh, thank you. I love what I've read so far of Gaskell.

[susannag]

I'm trying to remember if Gaskell's Mary Barton has an omniscient narrator or a female one. It's been at least 15 years since I read that one...

[orts]

Mary Barton has omniscient narration...

[elettaria]

Aha, I can think of one, but it's cheating, as it's effectively Jane Eyre fanfiction written in 1960. Wide Sargasso Sea, by Jean Rhys, which tells the story of the first Mrs Rochester.

Damn it, there must be more of these things around somewhere.

[messy]

Damn it, there must be more of these things around somewhere.

You'd certainly think so! I'll add WSS to the list; thanks again for your help. :)