Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!snorkelwacker!bloom-beacon!ora!daemon
From: kupstas@unc.cs.unc.edu (Eileen Kupstas)
Newsgroups: soc.feminism
Subject: Re: great books?
Message-ID: <12423@thorin.cs.unc.edu>
Date: 6 Mar 90 14:53:14 GMT
References: <1263@male.EBay.Sun.COM>
Sender: ambar@ora.ora.com
Reply-To: kupstas@unc.cs.unc.edu (Eileen Kupstas)
Organization: University Of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
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Approved: ambar@ora.com


   You might try books by Frances Trollope; she is not as well known as her son,Anthony Trollope, but she wrote a remarkable number of books during her life.
Not all of them are "art" and are not popular today for real reasons. Others of
her books, though, are quite interesting as studies of a culture during a 
particular period. Her best known work is _Domestic Manners of Americans_
written around 1830 during a several year visit to America.

   Her life story is quite remarkable -- she took to writing in order to 
support her family after her husband's work ended and his poor financial 
sense drained their remaining savings. She travelled extensively by herself
and with her children BUT without the male escort dictated at the time. She
was quite a strong woman, regarded as strange by many in her time. I forgot
who wrote the biography I read (a woman, I know) but the title is 
_The Triumphant Feminine_ (sic, I'm pretty sure -- the author's grammar
is fine in the book).  I got a lot out of reading this.

   Other more current authors I enjoy are Margaret Atwood and Doris Lessing.
Atwood's more recent work has a lot to say about life from a woman's point of 
view. Her characters are not heroines, just normal folk dealing with things.
I especially liked _Cat's Eye_ and _Blue Beard's Egg_. I can't give any 
specific recommendations about Doris Lessing; her early work is science fiction,
the latter is just plain fiction. _The Golden Notebook_ was good. 

    One other I like is Jane Bowles. I've only read her collection    
_My Sister's Hand in Mine_. It isn't specifically about women but is good 
reading. 

  I'll post more as I think of them (have to go home and look at my shelves).
Hope this helps!

Eileen