Voices from the other room | Women’s writing from the 20th century
When you go to your local bookshop, and glance over the bestseller tables, you could be forgiven for thinking that, when it comes to publishing, it’s very much a woman’s world. Along with the hyper-selling Romantasy genre, chiefly geared towards the female reader, literary fiction also appears skewed in favour of women writers. Names like Sally Rooney and Elizabeth Strout not only shift units, they win prizes. Women’s place on that bestseller table doesn’t just feel right, if feels inevitable.
But female authors outselling their male counterparts is only a recent phenomenon. In the 1960s, only 16% of books being published were by women. In 2020, the number, for the first time, tipped over into 50%. It is, on the face of it, good news but there is the possibility of new names edging out older, more obscure authors as space on the bookshop shelves becomes increasingly tight.
In the list of female authors below, there is postmodern angst, experiments with magic realism and thoughts on ageing and dying that are as relevant now as when they were first written in the 20th century. But the risk of these voices being marginalised and forgotten is all too real, as publishing becomes ever more niche, chasing that next big trend. A narrowing point of view, surely, cannot be what reading is really about. When you’ve read Rooney, and you’ve even read Moshfegh, exploring who came before them can shed further light on their work, it can also widen your perception of what “women’s writing” is and can be.
ANITA BROOKNER
A truly fascinating literary figure, Brookner’s reputation may not be known to the BookTok generation (self-proclaimed “internet librarian” Jack Edwards claimed to not have heard of her), but she has an impressive catalogue of fiction and art criticism to explore.
Born in 1928, Brookner was, in every sense, the modern 20th century woman. The first woman to hold the post of Slade Professor of Fine Art at Cambridge, Brookner undertook her art history doctorate at the Courtauld Institute. Her supervisor at the time was the director of the Courtauld: Anthony Blunt. She then began a long, distinguished career lecturing at the Courtauld, an authority on 18th century art and the Romantics.
Her debut into literary fiction was a late one: her first novel, A Start in Life, was published when she was 53. Her fourth novel, Hotel Du Lac, won the Booker Prize in 1984.
A riposte to the primary colours of 1980s blockbuster fiction, Brookner’s wry, pessimist humour (don’t expect anything and you won’t be disappointed) means that her fiction has aged better than that of her peers. It can be said that many of Brookner’s female characters are superficially similar to her: intellectual, middle-class women who don’t particularly fit any mould. Characters who find themselves on the outside, looking in. Brookner is one of those authors who ages with the reader. Delve into her work at 20, and there’s things to admire, things to enjoy. But come back to her at 40, 50, 60 and she’s a different creature altogether. Brookner specialises in the emotional fractures caused by disappointment and regret. She is a writer who implicitly understands failure (real or perceived). Considering her cool, balanced prose, Brookner is not afraid to go for the jugular. Deftly written and emotionally devastating, Brookner’s cache of novels will take you through the rest of your life.
Where to start: everyone else will say Hotel du Lac. I would instead recommend the excellent Look at Me.
BARBARA COMYNS
Another writer who came to fiction through art, Comyns (pronounced “Cummins”) attended the Heatherley School of Fine Art. Along with her husband, John Pemberton, she became part of the artistic community in London (known colloquially as the London Group). She could count poet Dylan Thomas and artist Augustus John among her friends.
After the breakdown of her marriage to Pemberton, and a period scraping a living through odd jobs, she returned to London in 1942. She remarried. Her second husband, Richard Comyns Carr, worked in MI6 alongside Graham Greene and Kim Philby (the world of espionage is a small one). During this time, Comyns expanded on some sketches she’d written on her childhood and wrote her first novel, The Vet’s Daughter (which wasn’t published until the 1950s).
Described by Graham Greene as a “crazy but interesting novelist”, Comyns’ literary voice is unlike any other. Combining elements of biography and a world view that is utterly unique, Comyns’ novels are dark, gothic and elemental. But this description doesn’t nearly cover the reading experience. She’s a little bit Shirley Jackson, a little bit Sylvia Townsend Warner but she feels less contained, more chaotic than either writer. A bold streak of magic realism runs through her fiction (especially The Vet’s Daughter) and Comyns’ take on surrealism presses on the thin veneer of “respectability” inherent in pre-war British society. There is a strong sense of the uncanny threaded through her novels which lifts her work out of time and place. Comyns’ eye on social commentary is sharp but even here you become aware that she is looking both ahead and beyond. Not everything in Comyns’ world can, or should be, explained.
Where to start: the foetid, stinking world of The Vet’s Daughter is unforgettable, but I’ll also put a word in for the page-turning Who Was Changed and Who Was Dead.
ELIZABETH TAYLOR
No, not that one. This Elizabeth Taylor kept well away from Richard Burton. A novelist and short-story writer, Taylor has been described as “deft, accomplished and somewhat underrated” by Hilary Mantel. Anne Tyler has compared Taylor to Barbara Pym, Elizabeth Bowen and Jane Austen. Shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 1971 for her novel Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont, Taylor may well be one of the best writers you’ve never heard of.
Born in 1912, Taylor’s life is not as eventful or go-getting as Anita Brookner’s. There is no glittering career at the Courtauld. In fact, Taylor was fiercely private and routinely destroyed personal letters. Her close friend, novelist Elizabeth Jane Howard, was asked by Taylor’s husband to write a biography after Taylor died in 1975. Howard refused, citing a lack of incident, but went on to describe the women’s friendship in her memoir, Slipstream.
Taylor is one of those writers who doesn’t need a jam-packed biography to reel us in. Tyler’s connecting her to Austen is spot-on: like Austen, Taylor left everything you need to know on the page. A prolific talent, Taylor writes about relationships in a clear-eyed, unflinching way. Her stories, especially, feature touches of cruel humour that unsettle the reader. She is not a cosy lady-novelist. In her most famous novel, Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont, Taylor writes about an older woman who finds herself alone at the end of her life, slowly realising that the world has left her behind.
Where to start: you can’t go far wrong with Taylor, anywhere will do. But to see her at her best, it’s got to be Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont
DOROTHY WEST
If you’re looking for a new-to-you author that’s had a LIFE, then Dorothy West is your woman. Her life spans the entirety of the 20th century (she died in 1998, aged 91) and her list of friends and associates will satisfy even the most starry-eyed reader.
Born to a former enslaved man, her father, Isaac Christopher West, gained his freedom at age 7 and by 10, he had saved enough money to start his own business. West became a successful businessman which means that his daughter enjoyed an affluent, middle-class upbringing. West’s interest in exploring the Black-American experience stems from this perspective, challenging stereotypes and expectations. Her fiction looked at the diversity of Black lives, decades before it became common literary practice. Hers was a voice anchored in individuality, but also acknowledging the weight of history that came before her own.
West studied at the Columbia University School of Journalism, and in 1926 tied for second place in a writing contest. Her fellow writer was Zora Neale Hurston. West moved to Harlem with her cousin, and became an active member of the Harlem Renaissance, mixing with Langston Hughes and undertaking magazine editing (working alongside Richard Wright). She showcased work by Black writers including Ralph Ellison.
Her first novel, The Living is Easy, was published in 1948 and describes her experience of growing up in a middle-class family in Boston. There is a nearly 50-year gap between this and her second novel, The Wedding. Published in 1995, this fascinating novel looks at race, class and gender and was turned into a mini-series by Oprah Winfrey in 1998. The novel occurs over a weekend at Martha’s Vineyard, and the 85-year-old author dedicated the novel to Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis who had, during her time working at Doubleday publishing, encouraged West to complete her second novel. I told you it would get starry. Interviewed at the end of her life, West was asked what her legacy should be. She simply replied that “that I hung in there.”
Where to start: The Wedding is superb, but also seek out her stories and essays. She’s a woman of many talents.
Yes, there are affiliate links on this page. But you can search our your local indie bookshop via Bookshop.org, and go in or order online. And remember your local library.
Discover more from ArtsCulture
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
