Vladimir Nabokov's nasty tragicomedy

Can a man really write a woman? It is an issue that has been revisited by various critics and feminists again and again. Some say that men couldn’t possibly understand the opposite sex enough to write about them. But are gender boundaries really that rigid? This might have been more accurate in the past. But with more women confident in their own voice, could it be that male authors are more aware of what makes us tick? Its interesting to note how sexualised our shortlist of female characters tend to be. That’s not some sort of perverse deliberate choice on our part, but is pretty common across the board. What does that say about the male perception of women? Just a few things for you to have a think about as you tuck into our top ten…

Lolita – Vladimir Nabokov

Banned shortly after publication in the UK and France, Lolita is the story of the young nymphet Dolores ‘Lolita’ Hayes and her seducer (or abuser) Humbert Humbert, who is also the narrator. This nasty tale is presented as a tragicomedy. The narrator is a paedophile and a murderer whose inability to resist his desires leads him through a spiral of increasingly absurd situations: Humbert marries Lolita’s mother, becomes the girl’s sole guardian, travels across America with her, loses her and then tries desperately to get her back. Their relationship is mutually exploitative – Lolita plays games with Humbert demanding money and threatening him, while Humbert takes away her home comforts and childhood. It is a beautifully crafted novel and reading it you become so engrossed Humbert’s language that you may find yourself losing, if only for a split second, the sheer gravity of his crime.

Anna Karenina – Leo Tolstoy

‘Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.’ These famous opening words begin Tolstoy’s story of a dysfunctional family. We have courageous and rebellious Anna, who leaves her husband to live with her lover Vronsky, contrasted by her sibling’s relationships. Anna’s affair ends unhappily, alienated because of her adultery and resentful of Vronsky’s unchanged social life, in desperation she throws herself under a train. Another whopper from Tolstoy at over 800 pages, but it is well worth the commitment.

Madame Bovary – Gustave Flaubert

Flaubert’s first published novel focuses on doctor’s wife Emma Bovary. Beautiful Emma is a romantic whose life as wife and mother in a provincial French town fails to live up to her aspirations. Unfulfilled, she embarks on two illicit love affairs and takes loans to facilitate her lavish spending. At the end of the novel, driven to despair after the affairs come to an end and due to insurmountable debts, Emma commits suicide. Her oblivious, doting husband Charles dies alone in his garden and their daughter is sent to work in a cotton mill. The novel was banned for obscenity when first published and is acclaimed by many as the finest piece of literature of its time.

Women in Love – D.H. Lawrence

Women in Love is the sequel to The Rainbow and rejoins the Brangwen family with the tale of two sisters. The story centers on four central characters who make up two couples: Rupert Birkin and Ursula Brangwen, and Gudrun Brangwen and Gerald Critch. Both relationships are potentially destructive and are made more complicated as physical attraction between the two men becomes apparent. Tensions mount when the foursome holiday together in the Alps. Jealous Gerald attempts to murder Gudrun, fails and freezes to death as he walks through the snow. This has direct consequences on the other pair who had recently decided to marry. A complicated story of sexuality and relationships – but we wouldn’t expect anything less from Mr Lawrence…

Emile Zola's tale of murderous lovers

Thérèse Raquin – Émile Zola

This is an infamous story of two murderous lovers. Thérèse, who is desperately unhappy in her marriage to Camille, begins a love affair with her husband’s friend Laurent. The lovers soon conspire to kill Camille by drowning him so that they can be together happily ever after. But, things don’t go as smoothly as planned – the pair are so racked by guilt that they think they see Camille everywhere and are unable to continue their relationship. The story ends tragically with their double suicide. 150 years after its publication Zola’s work is still as shocking as ever. Brace yourself.

The Reader – Bernhard Schlink

The story begins with an affair between 15-year-old Michael and 36-year-old Hanna until without warning she leaves town. It is only later in life when Michael reencounters her and becomes fully aware of atrocities she has committed and her lifelong struggle with illiteracy. Debates around The Reader tend to concentrate on generational conflict as Germany comes to term with its past, and quite rightly so. But Hanna is such an interesting and complicated character that the book deserves its place in the Top Ten. She begins cold and detached, but vulnerable and at numerous times dependent on Michael. An insightful read for many reasons, one definitely being Hanna Schmidt.

The Scarlet Letter – Nathaniel Hawthorne

Hester Prynne is convicted of adultery in 17^th century colonial Boston, and condemned to wear the scarlet letter ‘A’ on her clothing. Ornately sewn by her own hand, she wears the letter openly for all to see, serving perhaps to remind fellow villagers of their own sins. Hester and daughter Pearl, who is the result of the affair, are ostracised from the Puritan society in which they live and forced to deal with the consequences alone; her co-adulterer lives unidentified and her husband is missing, presumed dead. This rings alarmingly true with today’s society where injunctions and gagging orders have enabled philandering men to live without consequence, while their mistresses are named and shamed. The story resists discussion of the passionate affair itself, focusing solely on the emotional and psychological aftermath.

Millennium Trilogy – Stieg Larsson

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl that Played with Fire and The Girl that Kicked the Hornet’s Nest make up this gripping, fast-paced crime novel trilogy. Themes of violence and abuse towards women throughout the trilogy is influenced by Larsson’s past where he witnessed the gang rape of a girl. The victim was named Lisbeth, and the central female character in the novel is of the same name. The experience is said to have shaped his feelings towards violence and abuse towards women which feature heavily in the books. It is only in the third novel as Lisbeth Salander’s life is explored that the reader understands why she is such a closed and guarded individual.

Henry James' classic novel of 1881

The Portrait of a Lady – Henry James

The woman at the centre of James’ story is Isabel Archer who battles between her obligations as a wife and safeguarding her freedom as an individual. Before her marriage to Gilbert Osmond she rejected two marriage proposals for fear that her independence would be compromised. Her marriage to Osmond, who only became interested in Isabel after she received a large inheritance, is an unhappy one, full of deceit and infidelity. But even the strong-minded Isabel is resigned to the vows she made on her wedding day and sticks by her husband. Frustratingly tragic.

Lady Chatterley’s Lover – D.H. Lawrence

Banned from its publication in 1928 until 1960, Lady Chatterley’s Lover is notorious for its salacious storyline. Constantine (Lady Chatterley) is sexually unsatisfied by her husband who, paralysed from the waist down, is impotent. Reaching sexual maturity, Constantine realises her physical needs and begins an affair with gamekeeper Oliver Mellors. Eventually she leaves her husband to be with Mellors for good. Class and social standing makes them an unlikely couple, but we root for it anyway. Lawrence’s tale is almost revolutionary and the obscenity case of over 30 years only strengthens it.