Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre
The story is about an orphaned young woman who starts working as the Thornfield Manor governess. She soon falls in love with the manor’s master but realises that he has a dark secret.
The book was written at a time when women were the weaker sex but Charlotte Bronte definitely doesn’t portray that too much in her writing. Her female characters are strong-willed, beautiful and smart.
Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women
This is another story about strong-willed women. They are four sisters all at different stages of their lives. It is about how they grow up and develop from girls into young women.
This was loosely based on Louisa May Alcott’s life; similar to the way that the story ends with a book written about the oldest sister, Jo.
Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird
This novel was Harper Lee’s only published novel. It is told through the eyes of a six-year-old girl and set during the Great Depression in Alabama.
The girl’s father is a lawyer and defending a black man who has been accused of rape. It shows all the atrocities that happened during these years but all through the innocence and misunderstandings of a child.
Edith Wharton’s The House of Mirth
This tale is all about a woman who simply wants to secure her wealth and a name by marrying a rich husband. It is set in a time when marriages were for political reasons and people rarely married for love if they wanted power.
The novel shows women of today everything they would have had to face at the start of the 19th century.
George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four
This classic novel was written in 1949 but set in George Orwell’s fiction 1984. The government has taken over and is changing history to tell the story that they want.
The people live in a true Big Brother state where even your home isn’t safe from the prying eyes.
One wrong move could have you removed from existence! It’s actually quite scary when you think of it but reading it will make you feel thankful for the world we live in today.
Victor Hugo’s Les Miserables
If you enjoyed the movie or have seen the stage performance, it is time to read the novel it was all based on.
Even if you haven’t see the musical, the novel is worth a read. It tells a story of a French man, Jean Valjean, who is released from prison after 19 years. He is forced to live a life on parole where finding work is near impossible so runs from it.
There he comes into contact with many characters that form part of the student’s revolution against the French monarchy and government.
Margaret Atwood’s A Handmaid’s Tale
Margaret Atwood’s novel is similar to that of Nineteen Eighty-Four although goes one step further. Undesirables, including women, find their bank accounts frozen. Liberties and civil rights have taken a backwards step thanks to the extremists the Sons of Jacob. Just think of a world where extremists rule.