Depending on the genre that you are interested in, there is a true lack of female authors. You could write a PhD on why exactly that is, but it is incredibly disappointing to see in 2024. As someone who reads a lot of non-fiction history and biography, it quickly becomes very obvious. And many of the non-fiction books that are written about women are authored by men. As readers, we can make a difference, though- and that starts with reading books written by women about women to show that we are interested! (And not just during Women’s History Month.) To give you reading inspiration, here are 7 must-read books by female authors!
7 Must-Read Books by Female Authors
I have included both non-fiction and fiction books in this list, as I know that everyone has different reading preferences!
Markievicz: A Most Outrageous Rebel, Lindie Naughton (Non-Fiction)
Countess Constance Markievicz was a revolutionary, a socialist, and a feminist, as well as an artist and writer. A natural leader, ‘Madame’, as she was known to thousands of Dubliners, took an active part in the 1916 Rising and was one of the few leaders to escape execution. Instead, she spent an arduous year in an English prison, surrounded by murderers, prostitutes, and thieves. Later, during another stretch in prison, she made history as the first woman elected to the House of Commons. Lindie Naughton’s compelling biography sheds light on all facets of Markievicz’s life-her privileged upbringing in County Sligo, her adventures as an art student in London and Paris, her marriage to an improbable Polish count, her political education, her several prison stretches, and her emergence as one of the pivotal figures in early 20th-century Ireland. Constance Markievicz, a woman with a huge heart, battled all her adult life to establish an Irish republic based on cooperation and equality for all. Her message is as relevant today as it was a century ago.
Why You Should Read This…
Constance Markievicz remains one of the most interesting women in modern history for me. (If you missed my blog post on her, you can find it here!) Born an Anglo-Irish socialite in Ireland, she was one of several leaders of those pushing for Irish independence, and pushed the boundaries of what was “acceptable” for women to do in many ways.
This biography is an in-depth look at Markvievicz’ fascinating life, and it provides insight into her character and career but also into the development of modern Ireland as we know it.
A Most English Princess, Clare McHugh (Fiction)
To the world, she was Princess Victoria, daughter of a queen, wife of an emperor, and mother of Kaiser Wilhelm. Her family just called her Vicky…smart, pretty, and self-assured, she changed the course of the world.
January 1858: Princess Victoria glides down the aisle of St James Chapel to the waiting arms of her beloved, Fritz, Prince Frederick, heir to the powerful kingdom of Prussia. Although theirs is no mere political match, Vicky is determined that she and Fritz will lead by example, just as her parents Victoria and Albert had done, and also bring about a liberal and united Germany.
Brought up to believe in the rightness of her cause, Vicky nonetheless struggles to thrive in the constrained Prussian court, where each day she seems to take a wrong step. And her status as the eldest daughter of Queen Victoria does little to smooth over the conflicts she faces.
But handsome, gallant Fritz is always by her side, as they navigate court intrigue, and challenge the cunning Chancellor Otto von Bismarck, while fighting for the throne—and the soul of a nation. At home they endure tragedy, including their son, Wilhelm, rejecting all they stand for.
Why You Should Read This…
McHugh is an exceptionally talented author; she brings to life many people from history that I think many of us have the tendency to discount. Princess Victoria, the Princess Royal, tends to feature in Queen Victoria and Prince Albert’s family as the image of Albert in intelligence and personality from a young age until she marries and then… exit stage left. However, her life obviously continued on.
I could not put this book down when I was reading it. It is heartbreaking to read at some points, as Vicky encountered countless challenges in marriage and motherhood but is a must-read for anyone interested in Victoria and Albert’s family.
Pandora’s Jar: Women in the Greek Myths, Natalie Haynes (Non-Fiction)
The Greek myths are one of the most important cultural foundation-stones of the modern world.
Stories of gods and monsters are the mainstay of epic poetry and Greek tragedy, from Homer to Virgil to from Aeschylus to Sophocles and Euripides. And still, today, a wealth of novels, plays and films draw their inspiration from stories first told almost three thousand years ago. But modern tellers of Greek myth have usually been men, and have routinely shown little interest in telling women’s stories.
Now, in Pandora’s Jar, Natalie Haynes – broadcaster, writer and passionate classicist – redresses this imbalance. Taking Greek creation myths as her starting point and then retelling the four great mythic sagas: the Trojan War, the Royal House of Thebes, Jason and the Argonauts, Heracles, she puts the female characters on equal footing with their menfolk. The result is a vivid and powerful account of the deeds – and misdeeds – of Hera, Aphrodite, Athene and Circe. And away from the goddesses of Mount Olympus it is Helen, Clytemnestra, Jocasta, Antigone and Medea who sing from these pages, not Paris, Agamemnon, Orestes or Jason.
Why You Should Read This…
I think that many of us were exposed to Greek and Roman mythology at a fairly young age; be it through Hercules, Percy Jackson, or a mythology primer. However, those myths tend to focus on the men in the story with the women barely on the periphery. Haynes digs into Greek mythology and through the original sources, she gives us more complete pictures of the women featured. While in many mythological sources, the woman in question may have a few direct actions or say something, but they are so much more than that. (There is a reason why Haynes is so popular on the BBC- she makes the Classics incredibly accessible!)
Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries, Heather Fawcett (Fiction)
Cambridge professor Emily Wilde is good at many things: She is the foremost expert on the study of faeries. She is a genius scholar and a meticulous researcher who is writing the world’s first encyclopaedia of faerie lore. But Emily Wilde is not good at people. She could never make small talk at a party–or even get invited to one. And she prefers the company of her books, her dog, and the Fair Folk.
So when she arrives in the hardscrabble village of Hrafnsvik, Emily has no intention of befriending the gruff townsfolk. Nor does she care to spend time with another new arrival: her dashing and insufferably handsome academic rival Wendell Bambleby, who manages to charm the townsfolk, get in the middle of Emily’s research, and utterly confound and frustrate her.
But as Emily gets closer and closer to uncovering the secrets of the Hidden Ones–the most elusive of all faeries–lurking in the shadowy forest outside the town, she also finds herself on the trail of another mystery: Who is Wendell Bambleby, and what does he really want? To find the answer, she’ll have to unlock the greatest mystery of all–her own heart.
Why You Should Read This…
This is what I call historical fantasy but I wanted to include it in case you are of a fictional, fantasy mind. I know that dark academia is quite popular on BookTok and Bookstagram, but I prefer a lighter tone. Enter: Emily Wilde. I love that Fawcett created an entire field of study around the fae, because it was a lot of fun to read about- it felt like she had clearly done the work of building this skeleton. And by setting it at a time when women have only established themselves at universities in the last generation, we are given another element to ponder. It is the perfect balance of light and serious, and the second book is just as fun!
Young Queens: Three Renaissance Women and the Price of Power, Leah Redmond Chang (Non-Fiction)
The boldly original, dramatic intertwined story of Catherine de’ Medici, Elisabeth de Valois, and Mary, Queen of Scots―three queens exercising power in a world dominated by men.
Orphaned from infancy, Catherine de’ Medici endured a tumultuous childhood. Married to the French king, she was widowed by forty, only to become the power behind the French throne during a period of intense civil strife. In 1546, Catherine gave birth to a daughter, Elisabeth de Valois, who would become Queen of Spain. Two years later, Catherine welcomed to her nursery the beguiling young Mary Queen of Scots, who would later become her daughter-in-law.
Together, Catherine, Elisabeth, and Mary lived through the sea changes that transformed sixteenth-century Europe, a time of expanding empires, religious discord, and populist revolt, as concepts of nationhood began to emerge and ideas of sovereignty inched closer to absolutism. They would learn that to rule as a queen was to wage a constant war against the deeply entrenched misogyny of their time.
Following the intertwined stories of the three women from girlhood through young adulthood, Leah Redmond Chang’s Young Queens paints a picture of a world in which a woman could wield power at the highest level yet remain at the mercy of the state, her body serving as the currency of empire and dynasty, sacrificed to the will of husband, family, kingdom.
Why You Should Read This…
I could not publish this list without including at least one book on Mary Stuart! (Yes, I will continue my crusade to have people consider her as more than a dumb, emotional woman who couldn’t do anything.) This group biography of Catherine de Medici, Elisabeth de Valois, and Mary Stuart works so well- while these women were all very different from each other, there are several threads that wind throughout each of their stories. They were each one of the most powerful women in their kingdom, and they handled their positions differently. It is a very readable book, and you do not need to know anything about Catherine, Elisabeth, or Mary to enjoy it!
The Queen’s Fortune, Allison Pataki
As the French revolution ravages the country, Desiree Clary is faced with the life-altering truth that the world she has known and loved is gone and it’s fallen on her to save her family from the guillotine.
A chance encounter with Napoleon Bonaparte, the ambitious and charismatic young military prodigy, provides her answer. When her beloved sister Julie marries his brother Joseph, Desiree and Napoleon’s futures become irrevocably linked. Quickly entering into their own passionate, dizzying courtship that leads to a secret engagement, they vow to meet in the capital once his career has been secured. But her newly laid plans with Napoleon turn to sudden heartbreak, thanks to the rising star of Parisian society, Josephine de Beauharnais. Once again, Desiree’s life is turned on its head.
Swept to the glittering halls of the French capital, Desiree is plunged into the inner circle of the new ruling class, becoming further entangled with Napoleon, his family, and the new Empress. But her fortunes shift once again when she meets Napoleon’s confidant and star general, the indomitable Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte. As the two men in Desiree’s life become political rivals and military foes, the question that arises is: must she choose between the love of her new husband and the love of her nation and its Emperor?
From the lavish estates of the French Riviera to the raucous streets of Paris and Stockholm, Desiree finds herself at the epicenter of the rise and fall of an empire, navigating a constellation of political giants and dangerous, shifting alliances. Emerging from an impressionable girl into a fierce young woman, she discovers that to survive in this world she must learn to rely upon her instincts and her heart.
Why You Should Read This…
Pataki is another favourite author of mine; I know that when she publishes a book I will be reading it. She tends to write about women who were very popular and well-known during their lifetimes but are not common historical figures now. Desiree is a woman who largely disappears into Napoleon’s story; Josephine tends to be one of the only women in Napoleon’s orbit that retained her independence from him historically.
Pataki’s research is thorough, and she builds Desiree’s path from a young woman trying to survive the aftermath of the French Revolution to a queen. It reads like it could be a television show, and I think she remains one of the most readable historical fiction authors today.
Romantic Outlaws: The Extraordinary Lives of Mary Wollstonecraft and Her Daughter Mary Shelley, Charlotte Gordon
Although mother and daughter, these two brilliant women never knew one another – Wollstonecraft died of an infection in 1797 at the age of thirty-eight, a week after giving birth. Nevertheless their lives were so closely intertwined, their choices, dreams and tragedies so eerily similar, it seems impossible to consider one without the other.
Both women became famous writers; fell in love with brilliant but impossible men; and were single mothers who had children out of wedlock; both lived in exile; fought for their position in society; and thought deeply about how we should live. And both women broke almost every rigid convention there was to break: Wollstonecraft chased pirates in Scandinavia. Shelley faced down bandits in Naples. Wollstonecraft sailed to Paris to witness the Revolution. Shelley eloped in a fishing boat with a married man. Wollstonecraft proclaimed that women’s liberty should matter to everyone.
Not only did Wollstonecraft declare the rights of women, her work ignited Romanticism. She inspired Coleridge, Wordsworth and a whole new generation of writers, including her own daughter, who – with her young lover Percy Shelley – read Wollstonecraft’s work aloud by her graveside. At just nineteen years old and a new mother herself, Mary Shelley composed Frankenstein whilst travelling around Italy with Percy and roguish Lord Byron (who promptly fathered a child by Mary’s stepsister). It is a seminal novel, exploring the limitations of human nature and the power of invention at a time of great religious and scientific upheaval. Moreover, Mary Shelley would become the editor of her husband’s poetry after his early death – a feat of scholarship that did nothing less than establish his literary reputation.
Romantic Outlaws brings together a pair of visionary women who should have shared a life, but who instead shared a powerful literary and feminist legacy. This is inventive, illuminating, involving biography at its best.
Why You Should Read This…
I was introduced to both Mary Wollstonecraft and Mary Shelley in a Romantic literature course, and I’ve continued to return ever since. Although they wrote in very different styles and for different purposes, I think that they are two of the most interesting female authors in history. And Gordon recreates both of their lives for us in a way that makes it feel like we were watching them ourselves.
Given that Wollstonecract’s A Vindication of the Rights of Women continued to influence the women’s suffrage movement for centuries, and Shelley’s Frankenstein is still a landmark science fiction text, it feels like more people should be writing and reading about them!
♠
What are your must-read books by female authors?
Cheers,
The Historian
Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Pinterest
