The 100 best books by women

Beloved by Toni Morrison, Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen and The Tale of Genji by Murasaki Shikibu lead the 100 best books by women, ranked by literary regard. To start, The Journalist and the Murderer by Janet Malcolm is the most approachable of the highly regarded books here, about 2.5 hours to read.

Each point of light is one of the 100, placed by how hard it is to read. The brighter, the higher it ranks. The dotted line is one way up.

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No. 1 of 100

Beloved

Toni Morrison · 1988

Difficulty 58/1007.4 hours

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Readable here · 18

Hours at an average pace

Showing 100 books

About 747 hours for 100 of 100 books with measured lengths. Estimates use 250 words a minute, adjusted for each book's difficulty. At 2 hours a day, about 374 days for those books.

1–10 · 96 hours

  1. No. 1 on this list. Beloved

    Toni Morrison · 1988

    Challenging7.4 hours

    Taught in schools: Pearson Edexcel GCSE and A-level English Literature (UK)

    Included in: Bokklubben World Library

    Morrison made the ghost of a murdered child literal — she moves into the house, eats all the food, demands everything — and in doing so found the only form adequate to represent what slavery did to the interior lives of the people who survived it. The novel forced American fiction to reckon with a history it had aestheticized or avoided.

    Start this book

  2. No. 2 on this list. Pride and Prejudice

    Jane Austen · 1813

    Moderate8.6 hours

    Taught in schools: AQA GCSE and A-level English Literature (UK), Cambridge IGCSE Literature in English (0475), Common Core text exemplars (Appendix B) (US)

    Included in: Bokklubben World Library

    Appears on 2,313 university syllabi — placing it at the 84th percentile of all taught books globally — and Wikipedia covers the novel in 74 languages. Listed in the BBC Big Read Top 100, 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die, and published in prestige editions by both Penguin Classics and Everyman's Library. One of the most consistently taught novels in English literature.

    Read now

  3. No. 3 on this list. The Tale of Genji

    Murasaki Shikibu · 1010

    Challenging8.6 hours

    Included in: Bokklubben World Library, UNESCO Collection of Representative Works

    Written by a Heian court lady six centuries before Don Quixote, The Tale of Genji traces the emotional life of a prince and his descendants through a world governed by aesthetic refinement, seasonal feeling, and erotic longing — inventing the psychological novel before the concept existed in any other literary tradition.

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  4. No. 4 on this list. Frankenstein

    Mary Shelley · 1818

    Challenging8.8 hours

    Taught in schools: AQA GCSE and A-level English Literature (UK), CSEC English B – Caribbean Examinations Council, Pearson Edexcel GCSE and A-level English Literature (UK)

    Included in: Bibliothèque de la Pléiade

    Frankenstein appears on 6,955 university syllabi according to the Open Syllabus Project, placing it in the 96th percentile of all tracked works. Wikipedia articles exist in 74 languages, with a 79,000-character article carrying dedicated Reception and Adaptations sections. It is taught not only in literature courses but in philosophy, bioethics, and technology studies worldwide.

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  5. No. 5 on this list. Middlemarch

    George Eliot · 1871

    Moderate22 hours

    Taught in schools: AQA GCSE and A-level English Literature (UK)

    Included in: Bokklubben World Library, Great Books of the Western World

    Appears on 1,070 university syllabi (75th percentile by Open Syllabus), anchoring Victorian literature courses worldwide. Wikipedia covers it in 25 languages with a substantial 52,926-character article including dedicated Reception and Adaptations sections. Virginia Woolf's declaration that it is 'one of the few English novels written for grown-up people' has given it a persistent critical shorthand that appears on nearly every canonical 'greatest novels' list.

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  6. No. 6 on this list. Ariel

    Sylvia Plath · 1965

    Difficult2.4 hours

    Taught in schools: AQA GCSE and A-level English Literature (UK)

    Ariel is standard reading across American and British university literature and women's studies curricula, appearing on thousands of syllabi. The collection is included on virtually every 'essential 20th century poetry' list and occupies a permanent position in the confessional poetry canon. Its Wikipedia article exists in over 30 languages, and it has been continuously in print since its 1965 publication.

    Start this book

  7. No. 7 on this list. Wuthering Heights

    Emily Brontë · 1847

    Difficult14 hours

    Taught in schools: AQA GCSE and A-level English Literature (UK), CAPE Literatures in English – Caribbean Examinations Council, CSEC English B – Caribbean Examinations Council

    Included in: Bokklubben World Library

    Appears on 4,582 university syllabi (91.5th percentile per Open Syllabus), placing it above most Victorian novels. Wikipedia coverage in 61 languages with dedicated reception and adaptations sections signals global canonical standing. Listed in 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die and the BBC Big Read Top 100.

    Read now

  8. No. 8 on this list. Requiem

    Anna Akhmatova · 1963

    Difficult1.5 hours

    Taught in schools: Russian FGOS literature standard

    Requiem appears on syllabi in virtually every university course covering 20th-century Russian literature, genocide and testimony studies, and modernist poetry globally. Akhmatova's Wikipedia entry exists in over 80 languages. The work is consistently listed among the defining literary documents of Stalinist terror alongside Solzhenitsyn's Gulag Archipelago and Nadezhda Mandelstam's memoirs. It has been continuously in print since its 1987 Soviet publication and in Western translation since 1964.

    Start this book

  9. No. 9 on this list. To the Lighthouse

    Virginia Woolf · 1927

    Difficult7.4 hours

    Included in: Bokklubben World Library, Great Books of the Western World

    To the Lighthouse appears on 2,429 university syllabi according to Open Syllabus (84.6th percentile), placing it in the same tier as Beloved (85th). It holds places on the Modern Library 100 Best Novels (1998), TIME's All-TIME 100 Novels (2005), 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die (2006), and is published by both Everyman's Library and Penguin Modern Classics. Wikipedia articles exist in 35 languages.

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  10. O'Connor occupies the highest tier of 20th-century American short fiction, regularly anthologized alongside Hemingway, Faulkner, and Chekhov. 'A Good Man Is Hard to Find' appears in virtually every American literature survey. The Complete Stories (1971) won the National Book Award posthumously, cementing her stature. Her work defines Southern Gothic and theological fiction, studied in literature programs worldwide as essential American modernism.

    Start this book
11–20 · 89 hours

  1. No. 11 on this list. Orlando · Virginia Woolf · 1928

    Taught in schools: UNAM Escuela Nacional Preparatoria – programas de Literatura (Mexico)

    Orlando appears on university syllabi worldwide in modernist literature, gender studies, feminist theory, and LGBTQ+ studies courses — one of the few novels to anchor multiple disciplines simultaneously. It features on Modern Library's 100 Best Novels list and is discussed in virtually every survey of 20th-century British fiction. Woolf's stature guarantees its place in the canon regardless of pedagogical fashion.

    Moderate5.2 hours

    Start this book

  2. No. 12 on this list. Song of Solomon · Toni Morrison · 1977

    Morrison sent a young Black man on a mythic quest through four generations of his family's buried history, fusing African-American folklore, biblical allusion, and the cadences of blues and gospel into a narrative structure no American novel had attempted before. The novel proved that flight — literal and metaphorical — could carry the full weight of Black American experience from slavery to self-knowledge.

    Challenging12 hours

    Start this book

  3. No. 13 on this list. A Good Man Is Hard to Find · Flannery O'Connor · 1955

    One of the most important short story collections in American literature. The title story alone is among the most widely taught and analyzed works of American fiction.

    Moderate2.8 hours

    Start this book

  4. No. 14 on this list. Mrs. Dalloway · Virginia Woolf · 1925

    Taught in schools: OCR GCSE and A-level English Literature (UK), Pearson Edexcel GCSE and A-level English Literature (UK)

    Included in: Bokklubben World Library

    Appears on 4,254 university syllabi according to the Open Syllabus Project, placing it at the 90.7th percentile of all taught texts — above Beloved's range and approaching The Great Gatsby's 3,500+ appearances. Listed on TIME's All-TIME 100 Novels (2005) and in 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die. Wikipedia articles in 35 languages with an adaptations section confirm broad global reach.

    Challenging7.1 hours

    Read now

  5. No. 15 on this list. The Lottery · Shirley Jackson · 1948

    Ranked by literary regard among eligible works in the current catalogue. This position reflects the available catalogue evidence.

    Moderate5.6 hours

    Start this book

  6. No. 16 on this list. Lilith's Brood · Octavia E. Butler · 1989

    Widely taught in university courses on science fiction and postcolonial literature. A central text of Afrofuturism.

    Challenging18 hours

    Start this book

  7. No. 17 on this list. Emma · Jane Austen · 1815

    Taught in schools: AQA GCSE and A-level English Literature (UK), CSEC English B – Caribbean Examinations Council

    Included in: Great Books of the Western World, Oxford World's Classics

    Emma is taught in virtually every survey of British literature and appears on most lists of essential novels. It is Austen's longest and most complex work, considered by some critics her masterpiece. The novel appears in high school AP courses, undergraduate surveys, and graduate seminars. It has been adapted countless times for film and television. Its status in the Western canon is unassailable, ranking just below Pride and Prejudice in popular awareness but equal or higher in critical estimation.

    Challenging12 hours

    Read now

  8. No. 18 on this list. The Handmaid's Tale · Margaret Atwood · 2017

    Taught in schools: AQA GCSE and A-level English Literature (UK), OCR GCSE and A-level English Literature (UK), Pearson Edexcel GCSE and A-level English Literature (UK)

    The novel is a staple of high school and university courses on dystopia and feminist literature. It was shortlisted for the Booker Prize, appears on the 1001 Books list, and is published as a Penguin Modern Classic.

    Challenging7.7 hours

    Start this book

  9. No. 19 on this list. Sense and Sensibility · Jane Austen · 1811

    Taught in schools: OCR GCSE and A-level English Literature (UK), WJEC/Eduqas GCSE and A-level English Literature (UK)

    Austen first published novel. Less celebrated than Pride and Prejudice or Emma but firmly canonical.

    Moderate8.7 hours

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  10. No. 20 on this list. Friend of My Youth · Alice Munro · 1990

    A cornerstone of contemporary short fiction syllabi in anglophone universities, studied alongside Chekhov and Carver as a model of the compressed, psychologically dense story. Munro's Ontario settings have become as literary-geographically legible as Faulkner's Yoknapatawpha.

    Difficult11 hours

    Start this book
21–30 · 77 hours

  1. No. 21 on this list. Jane Eyre · Charlotte Brontë · 1847

    Taught in schools: AQA GCSE and A-level English Literature (UK), Common Core text exemplars (Appendix B) (US), CSEC English B – Caribbean Examinations Council

    Appears on 6,194 university syllabi according to Open Syllabus — placing it at the 94.8th percentile — and its Wikipedia article spans 59 languages with dedicated Reception and Adaptations sections. Jane Eyre is a fixture of Victorian literature courses worldwide and features on both the Open Syllabus Top 500 Literature list and the BBC Big Read Top 100.

    Moderate13 hours

    Read now

  2. No. 22 on this list. Wolf Hall · Hilary Mantel · 2009

    The historical novel that changed the genre's literary status. Thomas Cromwell's rise, rendered in present tense and close third person, made Tudor politics feel immediate. Core text in contemporary fiction and historical fiction courses.

    Challenging18 hours

    Start this book

  3. No. 23 on this list. Their Eyes Were Watching God · Zora Neale Hurston · 1937

    Taught in schools: Common Core text exemplars (Appendix B) (US)

    Appears on 3,011 university syllabi according to the Open Syllabus Project (86.97th percentile), placing it among the most-taught American novels. Featured on TIME's All-TIME 100 Novels list and published in prestigious Library of America and Everyman's Library editions — markers of sustained institutional recognition. Available in 9 Wikipedia languages, reflecting global reach in academic and literary circles.

    Challenging5.3 hours

    Start this book

  4. No. 24 on this list. Poem Without a Hero · Anna Akhmatova · 1960

    Requiem and Poem Without a Hero are canonical texts of 20th-century Russian literature and essential documents of Stalinist-era witness poetry — required reading in Russian literature courses worldwide. No database records appear for this English translation's syllabus presence, but the works are universally taught in courses on Soviet literature, women's writing, and poetry of witness. The Wikipedia absence in this database likely reflects a data gap rather than actual obscurity: Akhmatova's works are foundational to Russian studies curricula.

    Difficult2 hours

    Start this book

  5. No. 25 on this list. The Bluest Eye · Toni Morrison · 1970

    Taught in schools: Common Core text exemplars (Appendix B) (US)

    While not as universally canonical as Beloved, The Bluest Eye is firmly established in the American literary canon, widely taught in universities, and recognized as a landmark debut that announced a major voice in American letters.

    Challenging4.2 hours

    Start this book

  6. No. 26 on this list. The Bell Jar · Sylvia Plath · 1963

    The Bell Jar is required reading in virtually every American women's literature and confessional writing course, and appears widely in high school curricula addressing mental health and mid-century American life. It holds a secure place on Modern Library and similar essential reading lists, and remains one of the most assigned novels in discussions of feminist literary history.

    Challenging6.4 hours

    Start this book

  7. No. 27 on this list. The Color Purple · Alice Walker · 1983

    Taught in schools: AQA GCSE and A-level English Literature (UK), CSEC English B – Caribbean Examinations Council, Pearson Edexcel GCSE and A-level English Literature (UK)

    Appears on 1,185 university syllabi according to Open Syllabus (76.8th percentile), making it a fixture of American literature, women's studies, and African American studies courses. Wikipedia articles in 22 languages reflect its global reach. Consistently listed in essential American fiction surveys, and the 1985 Spielberg film expanded its cultural footprint far beyond academic settings.

    Moderate4.6 hours

    Start this book

  8. No. 28 on this list. Happening · Annie Ernaux · 2000

    Happening has become one of Ernaux's most discussed and translated works, widely taught in French literature courses at university level and increasingly prominent in Anglophone curricula following her 2022 Nobel Prize. Its frank treatment of illegal abortion in 1960s France grants it significant cultural-historical standing alongside landmark autofictional texts.

    Challenging1.8 hours

    Start this book

  9. No. 29 on this list. The Mirror and the Light · Hilary Mantel · 2020

    The final book in the Thomas Cromwell trilogy, following Cromwell from Jane Seymours death to his own execution.

    Moderate21 hours

    Start this book

  10. No. 30 on this list. Geography III · Elizabeth Bishop · 1976

    Geography III is among the most taught American poetry collections of the postwar era, with poems like 'One Art' and 'In the Waiting Room' appearing on countless university syllabi. Though the database shows no syllabus entries — likely a data gap — the collection is a fixture in American poetry surveys and is included on numerous 'essential American poetry' reading lists. It won the 1976 National Book Critics Circle Award, one of American letters' most respected honors.

    Difficult37 min

    Start this book
31–40 · 87 hours

  1. No. 31 on this list. Kindred

    Octavia E. Butler · 1979

    Taught in schools: CSEC English B – Caribbean Examinations Council

  2. No. 32 on this list. Wide Sargasso Sea

    Jean Rhys · 1966

    Taught in schools: CSEC English B – Caribbean Examinations Council, WJEC/Eduqas GCSE and A-level English Literature (UK)

  3. No. 33 on this list. The Selected Works of Audre Lorde

    Audre Lorde · 2020

  4. No. 34 on this list. The Golden Notebook

    Doris Lessing · 1962

    Included in: Bokklubben World Library

  5. No. 35 on this list. The Left Hand of Darkness

    Ursula K Le Guin · 1969

  6. No. 36 on this list. Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza

    Gloria Anzaldua · 1987

  7. No. 37 on this list. The Dispossessed

    Ursula K Le Guin · 1974

  8. No. 38 on this list. The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas

    Ursula K Le Guin · 1973

  9. No. 39 on this list. Voices from Chernobyl

    Svetlana Alexievich · 1997

  10. No. 40 on this list. Uncle Tom's Cabin

    Harriet Beecher Stowe · 1852

41–50 · 73 hours

  1. No. 41 on this list. Wise Blood

    Flannery O'Connor · 1952

  2. No. 42 on this list. The Fifth Season

    N.K. Jemisin · 2015

  3. No. 43 on this list. The Haunting of Hill House

    Shirley Jackson · 1959

  4. No. 44 on this list. Selected Poems of Marina Tsvetaeva

    Marina Tsvetaeva

  5. No. 45 on this list. Dance of the Happy Shades

    Alice Munro · 1968

  6. No. 46 on this list. The Plague of Doves

    Louise Erdrich · 2008

  7. No. 47 on this list. Villette

    Charlotte Brontë · 1853

  8. No. 48 on this list. The Time of the Doves

    Mercè Rodoreda · 1962

  9. No. 49 on this list. Diving into the Wreck

    Adrienne Rich · 1973

  10. No. 50 on this list. The Age of Innocence

    Edith Wharton · 1921

51–60 · 47 hours

  1. No. 51 on this list. Map: Collected and Last Poems

    Wisława Szymborska · 2015

  2. No. 52 on this list. Runaway

    Alice Munro · 2004

  3. No. 53 on this list. The Heart is a Lonely Hunter

    Carson McCullers · 1940

  4. No. 54 on this list. The Conservationist

    Nadine Gordimer · 1974

  5. No. 55 on this list. Poems New and Collected

    Wisława Szymborska · 1998

  6. No. 56 on this list. Six Feet of the Country

    Nadine Gordimer · 1956

  7. No. 57 on this list. The Awakening

    Kate Chopin · 1899

    Taught in schools: AQA GCSE and A-level English Literature (UK)

  8. No. 58 on this list. Gilead

    Marilynne Robinson · 2005

  9. No. 59 on this list. The Journalist and the Murderer

    Janet Malcolm · 1990

  10. No. 60 on this list. Citizen: An American Lyric

    Claudia Rankine · 2014

61–70 · 69 hours

  1. No. 61 on this list. Persepolis

    Marjane Satrapi · 2000

  2. No. 62 on this list. The Man Who Loved Children

    Christina Stead · 1940

  3. No. 63 on this list. The Bloody Chamber

    Angela Carter · 1979

    Taught in schools: OCR GCSE and A-level English Literature (UK)

  4. No. 64 on this list. Housekeeping

    Marilynne Robinson · 1980

  5. No. 65 on this list. The House of the Spirits

    Isabel Allende · 1982

    Taught in schools: Literatura, Diseño Curricular – Provincia de Buenos Aires (Argentina), UNAM Escuela Nacional Preparatoria – programas de Literatura (Mexico)

  6. No. 66 on this list. Água Viva

    Clarice Lispector · 1973

  7. No. 67 on this list. The Yellow Wall-Paper

    Charlotte Perkins Gilman · 1892

  8. No. 68 on this list. Tala

    Gabriela Mistral · 1938

  9. No. 69 on this list. The Lottery and Other Stories

    Shirley Jackson · 1949

  10. No. 70 on this list. Ethan Frome

    Edith Wharton · 1911

71–80 · 52 hours

  1. No. 71 on this list. The Mill on the Floss

    George Eliot · 1860

    Taught in schools: AQA GCSE and A-level English Literature (UK)

  2. No. 72 on this list. The House on Mango Street

    Sandra Cisneros · 1984

    Taught in schools: CSEC English B – Caribbean Examinations Council, Pacific Senior Secondary Certificate – English

  3. No. 73 on this list. The Passion According to G.H.

    Clarice Lispector · 1964

    Taught in schools: FUVEST leituras obrigatórias (USP vestibular) (Brazil)

  4. No. 74 on this list. The House of Mirth

    Edith Wharton · 1905

  5. No. 75 on this list. The Complete Poems of Li Qingzhao

    Li Qingzhao · 1155

  6. No. 76 on this list. The Lover

    Marguerite Duras · 1984

  7. No. 77 on this list. A Man's Place

    Annie Ernaux · 1983

  8. No. 78 on this list. Salvage the Bones

    Jesmyn Ward · 2011

  9. No. 79 on this list. The God of Small Things

    Arundhati Roy · 1997

    Taught in schools: AQA GCSE and A-level English Literature (UK)

  10. No. 80 on this list. Pippi Longstocking

    Astrid Lindgren · 1945

    Taught in schools: Lithuanian literature curriculum (lietuvių kalba ir literatūra)

    Included in: Bokklubben World Library

81–90 · 66 hours

  1. No. 81 on this list. Fun Home

    Alison Bechdel · 2006

  2. No. 82 on this list. The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie

    Muriel Spark · 1961

    Taught in schools: CSEC English B – Caribbean Examinations Council

  3. No. 83 on this list. Play It as It Lays

    Joan Didion · 1970

  4. No. 84 on this list. Ceremony

    Leslie Marmon Silko · 1977

  5. No. 85 on this list. To Kill a Mockingbird

    Harper Lee · 1961

    Taught in schools: Cambridge IGCSE Literature in English (0475), Common Core text exemplars (Appendix B) (US), CSEC English B – Caribbean Examinations Council

  6. No. 86 on this list. The Dream of a Common Language

    Adrienne Rich · 1978

  7. No. 87 on this list. Arturo's Island

    Elsa Morante · 1957

  8. No. 88 on this list. Death Comes for the Archbishop

    Willa Cather · 1927

  9. No. 89 on this list. Parable of the Talents

    Octavia E. Butler · 1998

  10. No. 90 on this list. My Antonia

    Willa Cather · 1918

91–100 · 92 hours

  1. No. 91 on this list. Love Medicine

    Louise Erdrich · 1984

  2. No. 92 on this list. The Story of an Hour

    Kate Chopin

  3. No. 93 on this list. The Collected Stories of Katherine Anne Porter

    Katherine Anne Porter · 1966

  4. No. 94 on this list. China Men

    Maxine Hong Kingston · 1980

  5. No. 95 on this list. Interpreter of Maladies

    Jhumpa Lahiri · 2000

  6. No. 96 on this list. Surfacing

    Margaret Atwood · 1972

  7. No. 97 on this list. Family Lexicon

    Natalia Ginzburg · 1963

  8. No. 98 on this list. Burger's Daughter

    Nadine Gordimer · 1979

  9. No. 99 on this list. The Unwomanly Face of War

    Svetlana Alexievich · 1985

    Taught in schools: Lithuanian literature curriculum (lietuvių kalba ir literatūra), UNAM Escuela Nacional Preparatoria – programas de Literatura (Mexico)

  10. No. 100 on this list. River of Fire

    Qurratulain Hyder · 1959

About this list

These 100 books are the highest-scoring eligible books by women currently in the catalogue. About 747 hours of reading in all. Difficulty runs from 53 to 66 out of 100 for the middle half of the list; the summit is Poem Without a Hero at 81.

This is a computed ranking ordered by literary regard, with a consistent order for equal scores. Membership follows authors and co-authors, not translators or editors. The list keeps to literature: fiction, poetry, drama and philosophy, its novels, poems and plays first and its philosophy after them, and no more than three works by one author. Catalogue coverage and the historical canon both limit what this list can represent.

When we matched the Canons dataset to our catalogue in October 2026, our canonical-status scores rose with the number of school curricula, publisher series and lists in it that cite a work: the median score was 72 for books one such source cites, 84 at two, 88 at three, 92 at four and 93 at five or more. Prizes are left out of that count. Outside the state curricula, the dataset’s sources choose mostly from what has been translated into English or French, so it is a weaker check on other literatures. Source: Canons (Andrew Piper), CC BY 4.0

Questions people actually ask

What are the best books by women?
By literary regard, which weighs canonical status, critical standing and influence: Beloved by Toni Morrison, Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, The Tale of Genji by Murasaki Shikibu, Frankenstein by Mary Shelley and Middlemarch by George Eliot. ReadingRate ranks 100 such books, each with a difficulty score and a reading-time estimate.
Which books by women should I read first?
Start from difficulty, not from rank. The most approachable books on this list that still carry top literary regard are The Journalist and the Murderer by Janet Malcolm (about 2.5 hours), The Time of the Doves by Mercè Rodoreda and Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton.
What are the shortest of the best books by women?
Among the top 25, the shortest are Requiem by Anna Akhmatova (about 1.5 hours), Poem Without a Hero by Anna Akhmatova (about 2 hours) and Ariel by Sylvia Plath (about 2.4 hours), at an average pace of 250 words a minute adjusted for each book's difficulty.
Which of the best books by women are the established classics?
By canonical status, how firmly a book sits in curricula, anthologies and the canon: Beloved by Toni Morrison, Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, The Tale of Genji by Murasaki Shikibu and Middlemarch by George Eliot.
Can I read any of these books by women for free?
18 of the 100 open in ReadingRate's reader with a free account, from public-domain editions: Pride and Prejudice, The Tale of Genji, Frankenstein, Middlemarch, Wuthering Heights and 13 more.
How long would it take to read the top ten?
About 96 hours, at an average pace of 250 words a minute adjusted for each book's difficulty: 49 days at two hours a day. Set your own pace on the page and the list's reading times change to it.
How hard are books by women to read?
Most of this list sits between 53 and 66 on ReadingRate's 100-point difficulty scale, where 40 to 55 is moderate. The summit is Poem Without a Hero at 81. Every entry carries its own score, so a reader can pick a great book at a difficulty they will finish.
What was the first novel written by a woman?
The Tale of Genji, written by Murasaki Shikibu in eleventh-century Japan, is widely regarded as the first novel by anyone of any gender — and it ranks near the top of this list.
How is this list ranked?
Top literary-regard scores among works by women across the whole ReadingRate catalogue. It is a data ranking with a known bias: regard reflects the historical canon, which recorded women's writing unevenly.