The Penguin Book of Women's Lives

by Phyllis Rose (Editor)

This amazingly rich lode of memoirs, letters, and diaries jumbles together a great roster of 20th-century women, including Virginia Woolf, Simone de Beauvoir, Bernadette Devlin, Emily Mashinini, Sara Suleri, and Santha Rama Rau.

Le Ly Hayslip, the sixth child in a Vietnamese peasant family, describes a life pinched between the violence of Viet Cong revolutionaries and South Vietnamese republicans. Poet and lesbian feminist Audre Lorde writes about being introduced to the wonders of reading as a stubborn, bright, legally blind youngster. "I lay spreadeagled on the floor of the Children's Room like a furious brown toad, screaming bloody murder and embarrassing my mother to death," she recalls. Jill Ker Conway tells of her father's depression and death when a drought crushed their sheep farm in the Australian outback.

The excerpts drop us smack into the middle of each life; inventive cross-referencing encourages the reader to fly back and forth, sampling other writings on "filial exasperation," for example, or child's-eye views of romance and war. --Francesca Coltrera

Originally published: as The Norton book of women's lives. New York: Norton, 1993.

Genres: Nonfiction, Feminism, Biography, History, Essays, Anthologies, Womens

826 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 1993

About the author

Phyllis Rose is an American literary critic, essayist, biographer, and educator.

She lives in Connecticut with her husband, writer and illustrator Laurent de Brunhoff

Reviews

[Kaia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well, at 810 pages this took quite a while to read. Mostly because my arms gave out trying to hold it up long before I wanted to stop reading. Many of the 61 excerpts caused me to research further to learn more about some of these amazing women from all parts of the world. My personal favorites were (in alphabetical order): Simmon de Beauvoir (conceited); Vera Brittain (death is the end); Emilie Carles (WW1); Nien Cheng (cultural revolution China 1960's-1970's which also reminded me of the wonderful book "Wild Swans"); Isak Dinesen (Karen Blixen about Kenya); Anne Frank- memoirs of a typical dutch teenager killed by Nazis; Emily Hahn (opium addiction in 1930's China); Helen Keller - the story of my life; Anne Morrow Lindburgh (excerpt from one of my favorite books of all time "Gift from the Sea"; Onnie Lee Logan - midwife; Beryl Markham- pilot in Africa for game hunters; Emma Mashini- showed the arrogance and ignorance of white South Africans; Mary McCarthy - interesting look at Catholicism by a teenager; Nisa- !Kung first hand narrative of one of the last primitive hunter/gatherers on the planet; and my favorite in this book by Florida Scott-Maxwell concerning memories in old age. Funny but so true! This book will encourage you to read more of the writings of these amazing women.

[Joan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very LONG. But a lot of interesting stories. It sat on my shelf for over 10 years, so I'm proud of myself for finally tackling this book!!!

[Kayla Randolph · Rating 4 out of 5]

For multiple reasons, this took me so long to finish. First, I separated my shoulder and couldn't hold a book for a while. The second is that it was 800+ pages. Third is the additional time it took me from getting the book to reading it--practically six years! I won the Wellesley College Book Award in high school but deemed it too precious to actually read. I've since gotten over that and am glad I did.

Since reading this, I've added the following books to my Want To Read shelf:
- Cross Creek by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings
- 7 Volume SET the Diary of Anais Nin 1943 Thru 1974 by Anaïs Nin
- The Loony-Bin Trip by Kate Millett
- An American Childhood by Annie Dillard

It's an incredible selection that introduced me to many writers beyond those above as well. Phyllis Rose truly took care in its compilation, and she expands upon that in the introduction, which is worth a read.

[Neeltje · Rating 4 out of 5]

A mild Herculean effort and my thickest book to date; 61 excerpts of autobiographical writing from women in the 20th century. Read March 9 to April 9. I think I had expected there to be a type of underlying 'femaleness', but remove the names and you wouldn't know these pieces were strictly by women. I also expected a sort of Sylvia Plathness: very much turned inward and a little sickening but again, wrong! I expected to like Didion and Woolf more. Rose's (editor) cross-referencing is killer! Closest I can get to an overarching sentiment here is eager resistance: to 'the nest', sentimentality, pity, optimism, pessimism, giving up the farm, taking appearance too seriously, imposed religion, leaving, staying.


Favourites that I want to read in their entirety:

Maya Angelou - I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings : Had read Heart of a Woman but a woman on a train who talked to me because I was reading her favourite book(Wuthering Heights) said this really was the best one, and the passage Rose chose was very very funny.

Colette - My Apprenticeships : Sort of indirect, clever, expects enough from the reader.

Eleanor Coppola - Notes: On the Making of "Apocalypse Now" : Simple, accessible (about being torn between motherhood and creativity).

Bernadette Devlin - The Price of my Soul: Fun teenager, unapologetic.

Annie Dillard - An American Childhood : Small, personal, philosophical in an unpretentious way, like an explorer on a new planet.

We were whole, we were pleasing to ourselves. Our crystalline eyes shone from firm, smooth sockets; we spoke in pure, piping voices through dark, tidy lips. Adults were coming apart, but they neither noticed nor minded. My revulsion was rude so I hid it.

The point was that he had chased us passionately without giving up, and so he had caught us. Now he came down to earth. I wanted the glory to last forever. If in that snowy backyard the driver of the black Buick had cut off our heads, I would have died happy, for nothing has required so much of me since [...]

Anne Frank - The Diary of a Young Girl : I have to complain about the choice to translate whatever the original Dutch was(I think usually moeder, maybe vader?) into 'mommy' and 'daddy', it just doesn't work.

Eugenia Ginzburg - Journey into the Whirlwind : Sick and human.

Emily Hahn - Times and Places : What better to do than willingly get an opium addiction.

Anne Lindbergh - Gift from the Sea : Just really speaks to me (but don't care about shell metaphors).

I am no longer aware of the dust. I have shed my Puritan conscience about absolute tidiness and cleanliness. Is it possible that, too, is a material burden? [...] I find I am shedding hypocrisy in human relationships. What a rest that will be! The most exhausting thing in life, I have discovered, is being insincere.

Beryl Markham - West with the Night : Hilarious, snarky, exciting, great, so jealous i feel sick. So unpretentious but well-described.

Winston stares at the tips of his boots like a child who has never before had boots and never wants to lose them. I sit with a notebook on my knee and a pencil in my hand, trying to write a list of what I need, and writing nothing.

Mary Mccarthy - Memories of a Catholic Girlhood : Vicious, honest, funny.

Sylvia Plath - The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath : Just brimming with infp-ness.

Brief note: to self. Time to take myself in hand.

Sophia Tolstoy - The Diaries of Sofia Tolstoy : Made we want to vow never to read War and Peace. If you can't be nice to your wife what are all your great literary observations on life if not boring empty promises.

[Melissa McDonald]

Because of the breadth and richness of these 61 selections, which demonstrate the evolution of women's autobiographical writing, this anthology is destined to become a classic. Works of the famous, i.e., Helen Keller and Anne Morrow Lindbergh, are interspersed with those not publicly known. There are landmark passages from Anne Frank, Mary McCarthy, and Anais Nin, women whose names are synonymous with the diary form. Many passages represent the experiences of political activists like Bernadette Devlin. The collection is multicultural in scope, ranging, for example, from the poetry of Maya Angelou in the United States to the oral autobiography of Nisa, an African tribal member. The emphasis is upon experience rather than literary quality, resulting in the inclusion of passages not readily available elsewhere. The selections are alphabetically arranged, and the introductory material about each author helpfully refers the reader to related passages. Recommended for public and academic library collections.

[Sara · Rating 5 out of 5]

Austin gave this book to me for Valentine's Day... in 1994. I finally decided this year to read all the way through it, and I'm so glad I did. It offers a great variety of autobiographical material written by women - some famous, others I'd never heard of in my life.

This is an excellent jumping off point if you're interested in women's autobiographies, obviously - but the international nature of it is fantastic. Even stories hailing from the same country differ wildly; there's an excerpt from Nien Cheng's _Life and Death in Shanhai_ - an account of her persecution and imprisonment in China during the Cultural Revolution, as well as a piece from Emily Hahn, an American who lived in China in the 1930s and became an opium addict.

I thoroughly enjoyed all 800 pages and the introduction to many writers and their experiences.

[Mary Jo · Rating 4 out of 5]

My friend Maggie kept talking about this book. She checked it out from the library and renewed it a couple of times, I think, so when she finally took it back, I snagged it. There are the usual women we've all heard of and then many who were more obscure, at least to me. These are pieces from memoirs, diaries, letters and each one gives a glimpse into a life experience. I especially liked reading the ones from countries other than the U.S.

[Sabra]

beautiful accounts of incredible women. Plethora stories, so i've barely read cover to cover, but it's work to at least read an excerpt or two!

[Beneth]

wow, must read.

[Ana · Rating 5 out of 5]

Must read for every woman, for every man - just amazing little excerpts - there's something in here for everyone. I've been dipping into this for at least a decade, just great collection.

[Wendy Hollister · Rating 5 out of 5]

The women in this book are phenomenal. I have read many authors in this book as they inspired me.

[Joan Winnek · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a good book to dip into each day. So far I've read the selections by Florida Scott-Maxwell, Virginia Woolf, and Vita Sackville-West.

[Elsie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very interesting to read perspectives of women throughout the world.

[Kate]

great insights!

[Abigail Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

To be savored as it is devoured.

[Erin Sullivan · Rating 4 out of 5]

It took me three and a half months, but I finally finished this book! The editor helpfully suggests that you only read the sections which seem of interest to you, but I arrogantly disregarded that suggestion and slogged my way through the whole thing. To anybody who's thinking of reading this book, I would like to reiterate the editor's suggestion. That said, it was nice to read all of the excerpts and gain a new appreciation for just how varied the female experience is on this Earth. I have added a few of the authors' whole works to my want-to-read list and look forward to reading them!

[Lise · Rating 5 out of 5]

to be clear i have not read every single essay/excerpt in this. but i've read quite a few and i love love love it and look forward to delving into it for many years to come

[Ellen Moth]

picked up at brookline booksmith (used cellar my beloved) today on an impulse....in the spirit of reading more random things

[Dasha]

I will be reading this for a long time!