Literary Ladies Guide

The Awakening by Kate Chopin is a short novel, published in 1899. Now considered a feminist classic, it was widely criticized, even reviled when first published.

The heroine, a young Creole named Edna Pontellier, searches for meaning outside her accepted roles of wife and mother. She also seeks sexual fulfillment and independence.

It’s more accurate to say that The Awakening was silenced rather than was banned after initial publication, as is commonly believed. Critics were brutal; one called the story “poison,” which captured the prevailing sentiment of others. Read More→

I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith was the first novel by this British author. It’s the story of Rose and Cassandra Mortmain, two sisters who are part of an eccentric family living in genteel poverty in a crumbling castle in the 1930s.

This coming of age novel has been beloved by young adults ever since it was published in 1948.

At the time of its publication, Smith was an established playwright, and would later become even better known for the children’s classic, The 101 Dalmatians (1956). I Capture the Castle was as well received by critics as it was by the public; here is one such review: Read More→

Clock Without Hands by Carson McCullers was this esteemed American author’s final novel, published in 1961. McCullers was known for writing in the Southern Gothic genre, with elements of the grotesque in some of her storytelling.

When her first novel, The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter, was published in 1940 she became the toast of the literary scene. The novel was wildly successful, more so than her next three works, which were all published before her thirtieth birthday. 

Clock Without Hands received mixed- to favorable reviews; by the time of its publication, her greatest successes were behind her. Following is a review from the year of its publication, which gives a mixed view of the novel. Read More→

From the 1941 John Day Company edition of Dragon Seed (1941) by Pearl S. Buck: In Dragon Seed, Pearl Buck writes once more in the mood and vein of The Good Earth and The Mother. 

Like those two classic novels this new one tells of plain people dwelling close to the Chinese soil, but a soil now sodden by the invader.

The story is of the farmer Ling Tan, and his wife and sons and daughters. The scene is outside and inside the walls of Nanking, the capital city where the author lived for seventeen years. Read More→

From the original review in The Corpus Christi Caller, July 1965 by Maurice Dolbier:  Dodie Smith was born near Manchester, went to London stagestruck, was unsuccessful as an actress, went into business and then wrote plays and novels.

She now has a novel in which the heroine is a stagestruck Manchester girl who goes to London, is unsuccessful as an actress, goes into business, and does some writing.

Authenticity of background, therefore, can be comfortably assumed. The rest is fiction, charming, entertaining, and at times, mildly rueful — cool refreshment in a hot summer, a champagne cocktail from Miss Smith. Read More→

Gwendolyn Brooks (1917 – 2000), the Pulitzer Prize-winning American poet, produced works that included sonnets and ballads as well as blues rhythm in free verse. The Bean Eaters was a well-received collection of poems published in 1960. Critics noted her ability to tap into both specific and universal experiences:

“Her poems are clear, not because they are childishly simple but because they strike at the thought and feelings common to mature people.”

Though Brooks poetry reflects urban African-American life, its underlying themes are universal to the human experience. Following is a review of this collection from the year in which it was published: Read More→

Excerpted from an interview with Edna Ferber in 1924 — early in her career. Originally published in The Brooklyn Daily Eagle; by Ruth Brindze – Sun, Nov 9, 1924. Edna Ferber started writing during a vacation seventeen years ago — and the vacation still lasts! 

Like a fairy godmother, she touches her typewriter with her wand and creates cities and people just as she wants them. “I find writing so difficult that I wonder how I ever can do it. And when I finish a novel I try to console myself and say, ‘No one can really write a novel.’”

That is what Edna Ferber thinks of her profession and herself. Read More→

The Alpine Path: The Story of My Career (1917) by L.M. Montgomery, description adapted from the 1974 edition, Fitzhenry and Whiteside, Canada:  Lucy Maud Montgomery, the creator of Anne of Green Gables, wrote this charming autobiographical memoir when she was in the middle of her career.

It is the most complete account she ever published of her childhood and early years as a writer. It originally appeared as a series of magazine articles in 1917, and this new edition is its first republication in any form. Read More→