50 Best-Loved Novels Written by a Woman (United Kingdom)

This is one of the 759 lists we use to generate our main The Greatest Books list.

About this list

Guardian, 51 Books

During the Orange Prize for Fiction in 2003 - now known as the Women's Prize for Fiction - a poll was done to determine the UK's 50 best loved novels written by a woman, past or present, in English and published in the UK. The results were compiled by public vote. Over 6,000 votes were collected via text message, voting cards in public libraries and Orange Retail Shops, the Orange Prize for Fiction website and a promotion with Classic FM. Kate Mosse, the co-founder of the Orange Prize for Fiction... said: "Our aim was to encourage as a wide a range of readers to vote as possible and to see which contemporary novels found their place among the classics".
The result was an interesting mix of venerable classics and newer favorites, e.g. Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility shared position 23 with Bridget Jones's Diary by Helen Fielding.
More info about the list can be found at https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2003/may/12/books.booksnews

This list was originally published in 2003 and was added to this site over 1 year ago.

View: List Grid Table
Rank Book Authors Year Country Language Actions
13 Pride and Prejudice Jane Austen 1813 British English
29 Jane Eyre Charlotte Brontë 1847 British English
15 Wuthering Heights Emily Brontë 1847 British English
28 Middlemarch George Eliot 1871 British English
59 Rebecca Daphne du Maurier 1938 British English
192 Persuasion Jane Austen 1817 British English
39 Frankenstein Mary Shelley 1818 British English
83 Emma Jane Austen 1815 British English
2929 Unless Carol Shields 2002 Canadian English
16 To Kill a Mockingbird Harper Lee 1960 American English
132 The Handmaid's Tale Margaret Atwood 1985 Canadian English
221 White Teeth Zadie Smith 2000 British English
236 Harry Potter And The Philosopher's Stone J. K. Rowling 1997 British English
58 Gone With the Wind Margaret Mitchell 1936 American English
27 To the Lighthouse Virginia Woolf 1927 British English
1842 Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire J. K. Rowling 2000 British English
878 The Poisonwood Bible Barbara Kingsolver 1998 American English
643 Silas Marner George Eliot 1861 British English
718 Possession A. S. Byatt 1990 British English
359 The God of Small Things Arundhati Roy 1997 Indian English
32 Mrs. Dalloway Virginia Woolf 1925 British English
414 The Mill on the Floss George Eliot 1860 British English
641 Bridget Jones's Diary Helen Fielding 1996 British English
425 Sense and Sensibility Jane Austen 1811 British English
1261 The Blind Assassin Margaret Atwood 2000 Canadian English
17152 Chocolat Joanne Harris 1999 British English
488 The Shipping News Annie Proulx 1993 Canadian English
93 Little Women Louisa May Alcott 1868 American English
454 The Sea, The Sea Iris Murdoch 1978 British English
575 I Capture the Castle Dodie Smith 1948 British English
17152 Family Bites Lisa Williams Unknown Unknown
2144 Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets J. K. Rowling 1998 British English
2108 The Shell Seekers Rosamunde Pilcher 1987 British English
95 Orlando Virginia Woolf 1928 British English
765 The Thorn Birds Colleen McCullough 1977 Australian English
1010 Fingersmith Sarah Waters 2002 British English
7005 The Girl With The Pearl Earring Tracy Chevalier 1999 British English
1461 Oranges are not the only Fruit Jeanette Winterson 1985 British English
158 Wide Sargasso Sea Jean Rhys 1966 British English
2158 The Clan of the Cave Bear Jean M. Auel 1980 American English
103 The Bell Jar Sylvia Plath 1963 American English
279 The Secret History Donna Tartt 1992 American English
17152 Five Quarters Of The Orange Joanne Harris 2001 British English
1017 Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban J. K. Rowling 1999 British English
49 Beloved Toni Morrison 1987 American English
947 Bel Canto Ann Patchett 2001 American English
3808 Hotel du Lac Anita Brookner 1984 British English
1385 The Bell Iris Murdoch 1958 British English
849 Regeneration Pat Barker 1991 British English
1145 The Bone People Keri Hulme 1984 New Zealand English
157 The Color Purple Alice Walker 1982 American English