# Female first-person literature? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 8, 2014, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/female-first-person-literature/706691 "2014-12-08T20:21:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2014, 9:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/female-first-person-literature/706691/61 "2014-12-11T09:04:47Z")
_The Wind Done Gone_ by Alice Randall (_Gone With the Wind_ parody from a Black character’s perspective) _Diary of a Young Girl_ by Anne Frank (The OP specified “literature,” not fiction) _Diary of a Teenage Girl_ by Phoebe Gloeckner (Not a graphic novel, although it does feature a lot of the comics stories that it was semi-based on) ---
**Author:** ![BobArrgh](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bobarrgh/32/2881_2.png) [@BobArrgh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobArrgh)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2014, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/female-first-person-literature/706691/62 "2014-12-14T02:32:00Z")
Book about the Black Plague in England; spoilering the title because it completely gives away the book. **Company of Liars** , by Karen Maitland ---
**Author:** ![tippytop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/90ced4/32.png) [@tippytop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tippytop)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2014, 8:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/female-first-person-literature/706691/63 "2014-12-14T08:54:38Z")
_Alice in Wonderland_ by Lewis Carroll aka Charles Lutwidge Dodgson is occasionally narrated in first person. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2014, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/female-first-person-literature/706691/64 "2014-12-14T18:30:59Z")
> [@tippytop](#): > > _Alice in Wonderland_ by Lewis Carroll aka Charles Lutwidge Dodgson is occasionally narrated in first person. 😕 ---
**Author:** ![tippytop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/90ced4/32.png) [@tippytop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tippytop)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2014, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/female-first-person-literature/706691/65 "2014-12-14T21:33:02Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > 😕 Technically. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2014, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/female-first-person-literature/706691/66 "2014-12-14T23:20:51Z")
The Stephanie Plum novels, by Janet Evanovich, are from the POV of a rather inept female bounty hunter. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2014, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/female-first-person-literature/706691/67 "2014-12-15T00:52:28Z")
[_Fanny Hill_.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fanny_Hill) 😃 ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2014, 9:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/female-first-person-literature/706691/68 "2014-12-15T09:45:03Z")
> [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](#): > > **Gerald’s Game** by Stephen King. Also, _Dolores Claiborne_. Another male writer who did female 1st person narration, and rather well, was Winston Graham. _Marnie_ was written this way, and IIRC, so was _The Walking Stick_. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2014, 1:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/female-first-person-literature/706691/69 "2014-12-15T13:03:12Z")
We now know the anti-drug book _ **Go Ask Alice** _ was fake, not a real memoir, but it was written from the point of view of a teenage girl. ---
**Author:** ![Sattua](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sattua/32/11906_2.png) [@Sattua](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sattua)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2014, 1:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/female-first-person-literature/706691/70 "2014-12-15T13:11:25Z")
**Moll Flanders** is told first-person in Moll’s voice, iirc. ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2014, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/female-first-person-literature/706691/71 "2014-12-15T19:28:00Z")
_Slaves of New York_ is written in first person female. The chapters were originally published as short stories, but they were arranged and edited to make a long narrative, and it worked. It got lukewarm critical reception, but made the NYT bestseller list for several weeks, albeit, it never got above 9, or something. GenX was very young, and was reading it in droves. That generation at that age could relate to staying in a bad relationship because you couldn’t find another place to live. Just mentioning all that since the OP asked for “famous” literature. This book was pretty famous when it first came out, and would have “trended,” had that existed at the time, even though it’s largely forgotten now. A couple of other books that are very well know in literary circles (anyone with a degree in English has heard of them), but not famous among the general public, like, say, _Gone with the Wind_, are _Housekeeping_, and _My Brilliant Career_, both of which are written in first person female voices. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2014, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/female-first-person-literature/706691/72 "2014-12-17T19:08:56Z")
Speaking of known-in-literary-circles-anyone-with-a-degree-in-English-has-heard-of novels: _Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys_. This book is invariably the first thing mentioned when the topic is Post-Colonial Literature. It’s also one of the earliest books (perhaps the earliest?), like _The Wind Done Gone_ or _The Red Tent_, to rewrite a classic from the point of view of a supporting character (in this case, a reimagining of _Jane Eyre_ from Bertha’s point of view. I remember Tama Janowitz was on top of the NY literary world, a regular demigoddess, for one magic year… and then… now… she’d make a great subject for “Where Are They Now?/Whatever Became of…?” or an American Express “Do you know me?” commercial. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/female-first-person-literature/706691.md?page=3)