Reading Recommendations for International Women’s Day
Sunday, March 8 is International Women’s Day. So congrats to women.. The following are some books I recommend which, although not exclusively written by women or featuring women as protagonists, provide excellent examples of virtuous women, contemplations on the vocations of women or simply delightful depictions of them.
In “The Unexpected Mrs. Pollifax” by Dorothy Gilman, Mrs. Pollifax, widowed, retired and feeling useless, takes advice from her doctor to do something she always dreamed of. So she goes to CIA headquarters and volunteers to be a spy. The novel is absolutely a joy to read.
Set in Italy in the 1600s, “The Betrothed” by Alessandro Manzoni follows Lucia and Renzo, a couple whom Don Rodrigo prevents from marrying by threatening the priest, since Don Rodrigo wants Lucia for himself. The story is great, as is the narrative voice. The relatively recent translation by Michael F. Moore is fantastic. It’s a beautiful, funny and poignant story of constancy, faith and love.
Elizabeth Gaskell’s “Cranford” is set in a delightful little town consisting largely of gossipy old ladies. I read it immediately after my JPo panel, so naturally I associate it with bliss and happiness. But even distinct from my subjective experience of it, “Cranford” is a delightful book, and I highly recommend it.
“Gaudy Night” by Dorothy Sayers is a detective novel set in Oxford in the 1930s. Detective novelist Harriet Vane, who visits her alma mater, Shrewsbury, is asked to investigate a series of off-putting disturbances targeting the women scholars of the college. Given that many women scholars at the time were unmarried, and that many people disapproved of women seeking higher education, Sayers’s novel explores the role of women in academia and the tension between family life and the delight of learning. Also, it features one of my favorite romances in literature. “Gaudy Night” is one of a series of books featuring Lord Peter Wimsey, but it can be read, I think, as a stand-alone novel.
Along with jousting, jesters and a fantastic display of deus ex machina, “Ivanhoe” by Sir Walter Scott features Rebecca, a stalwart woman who resists temptation. It’s my favorite novel I’ve read by Scott, and it left me thinking about such things as virtue and storytelling.
If you want a Western, “True Grit” by Charles Portis is about 14-year-old Mattie Ross, who sets out with U.S. Marshal Rooster Cogburn to avenge the death of her father. It’s a page-turner, with a great fast-paced adventure story that also ponders themes like justice and vengeance. And Mattie’s narration is spunky and hilarious.
“Aunts Aren’t Gentlemen” by P.G. Wodehouse involves Bertie Wooster getting engaged accidentally again, his aunt bribing him to do ridiculous favors for her, and cats. It’s absolutely hilarious, and it even includes a thoughtful contemplation on the part of Bertie about women: he concludes that life is more tranquil when aunts are not in the vicinity, and he flees England for New York.