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Women and Fiction: Stories By and About Women
From Kate Chopin’s turn-of-the-century Lousiana, to Gertrude Stein’s war-time Paris, to Alice Walker’s modern-day America, here are twenty-six short stories by the finest women writers of the twentieth century. These well-known and well-loved authors people their stories with vibrant female characters, from all over the world and all walks of life. Separately, each of these stories bears the mark of a skilled writer. Together, they celebrate woman in her many roles—as daughter, mother, worker, wife, lover, sister, and friend. In Tillie Olsen’s classic, “I Stand Here Ironing,” a single mother considers her success in raising a daughter. In Eudora Welty’s “The Worn Path,” an African-American grandmother meets with grace the impudence of a young, white man. In Alice Munro’s “The Office,” a wife who has too many distractions to write at home rents a room in town, only to be constantly interrupted by her landlord. Superbly written, and at once poignant and ironic, these insightful stories capture the essence of being a woman—in all its similarity, and all its diversity.
480 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published December 1, 1975
22 people are currently reading
559 people want to read
About the author
Susan Cahill
26 books52 followersSUSAN CAHILL has published several travel books on France, Italy, and Ireland, including Sacred Paris, Hidden Gardens of Paris and The Streets of Paris. She is the editor of the bestselling Women and Fiction series and author of the novel Earth Angels. She spends a few months in Paris every year. MARION RANOUX, a native Parisienne, is an experienced freelance photographer and translator into French of Czech literature.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 45 reviews
August 28, 2010
For a person who claims not to like short stories, I've read an awful lot of short story collections this year.
This was by far the best of them. I don't know where I got this book from, but I have definitely known for awhile that I need to read more women authors, especially considering my Philip Roth obsession.
The worst story in this book was easily Miss Furr and Miss Skeene by Gertrude Stein. Here's a sample paragraph :
"To be regularly gay was to do every day the gay that they did every day. To be regularly gay was to end every day at the same time after they had been regularly gay. They were regularly gay. They were gay every day. They ended every day in the same way, at the same time, and they had been every day regularly gay."
The entire story was like this. Sentences full of how gay they were, every day, in every way. Over and over again.
The best was Winter Night by Kay Boyle. Of course I don't remember anything about it.
Other authors in this collection that have been added to my watch list are :
Doris Lessing
Grace Paley
Alice Munro
This was by far the best of them. I don't know where I got this book from, but I have definitely known for awhile that I need to read more women authors, especially considering my Philip Roth obsession.
The worst story in this book was easily Miss Furr and Miss Skeene by Gertrude Stein. Here's a sample paragraph :
"To be regularly gay was to do every day the gay that they did every day. To be regularly gay was to end every day at the same time after they had been regularly gay. They were regularly gay. They were gay every day. They ended every day in the same way, at the same time, and they had been every day regularly gay."
The entire story was like this. Sentences full of how gay they were, every day, in every way. Over and over again.
The best was Winter Night by Kay Boyle. Of course I don't remember anything about it.
Other authors in this collection that have been added to my watch list are :
Doris Lessing
Grace Paley
Alice Munro
May 5, 2015
Some of the stories are four stars, most three, and some two. As a collection, it's just average. I got tired of the same types of stories about women. The editor, Susan Cahill, obviously had a vision in mind when she put the anthology together. It's just that I would have liked more variety. I want stories about women who aren't all oppressed in some way, stories where the women are actually happy, stories where mothers enjoy being mothers. I know the collection was published during or just after the second wave of feminism in America, so Cahill's point of reference is obviously very different than mine, but I've read stories where women aren't depressed and held down that were published before the 80s, so I think she could have found some. But oh well. It's a good collection with some excellent stories in it. Not an excellent collection.
Recommended to fans of a feminist slant on women's literature and to fans of the individual authors.
Recommended to fans of a feminist slant on women's literature and to fans of the individual authors.
July 23, 2008
An excellent compilation of female authors. The short story format made it easy to get a feel for a writer's style without being overwhelmed. The collection features many women who aren't well known, as well as some women already in the accepted cannon (e.g. Virginia Woolf). It was helpful for discovering some new women with intriguing perspectives. The pink cover and loopy script are a bit kitschy for my taste, but ya win some, ya lose some.
April 20, 2016
26 short stories by and about women.
The stories, as the subtitle states, are all by and about women. They take place between late 19th century until 1975, when the book was published. So we see a lot differences in life style and the perception of women by the society among the stories. Reading this book almost felt like being in a time machine. My favourite stories were the ones written by Tillie Olsen, Doris Lessing and Alice Munro.
The stories, as the subtitle states, are all by and about women. They take place between late 19th century until 1975, when the book was published. So we see a lot differences in life style and the perception of women by the society among the stories. Reading this book almost felt like being in a time machine. My favourite stories were the ones written by Tillie Olsen, Doris Lessing and Alice Munro.
November 16, 2008
This is a great anthology of women’s fiction, with lots of classic work. They range from Kate Chopin’s intense “Story of an Hour” to Alice Walker’s sixties-flavored “Everyday Use”. In between there’s Willa Cather, Edith Wharton, Colette, Virginia Woolf, Eudora Welty, Tillie Olsen, Doris Lessing, Grace Paley, Flannery O’Connor, Margaret Drabble, and more. How could you go wrong?
November 4, 2009
Really great book because it's a reader of women writers. Doris Lessing especially opened my eyes with her writing. The book is a collection of short stories, and each author has a 1-2 page bio prefacing the short story. Great format for reading!
April 14, 2023
genius microfiction by genius women -- the stories are quick but their impact is lasting. a very well curated collection and I really appreciated the intros before each story (and the main intro) that provided some light feminist literary criticism...truly an excellent reading experience. also helped that i got a vintage copy for $1 and felt like a badass sitting reading this in the park. women in fiction? who is she
November 21, 2021
Interesting selection. Varied quality. Some are great, especially those by Lessing, Chopin, Mary Lavin, Jean Stubbs, Alice Munro, Carol Oates. But the ones by American authors (especially from the South), I did not like much. On a side note, British Library's Women Writer Series is great!!
August 26, 2023
Fair warning - out of the 26 short stories in this collection only one (Edith Wharton’s “The Other Two”) is light-hearted and optimistic. The anthology starts with the brilliant and tragic “The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin which kind of sets the tone for this volume. Some of the best stories here deal with dreadful husband - wife/men-women relationships:
1)Ann Petry’s “Like a Winding Sheet” starts innocuously enough, but as we follow the male protagonist’s journey through his work day, we watch the anger that he feels (due to real and perceived racism) grow and result in a terrible crescendo of violence against his wife;
2)My personal favourite and the longest story in this collection - Doris Lessing’s “To room nineteen” is about a married woman with four children who seemingly lives in a suburban paradise. But as time goes on, the “perfect” marriage cracks and the woman falls into an abyss of despair, depersonalization/derealization and madness. There’s only one way things can end…
3)Grace Paley’s tragicomic “An interest in life” which follows Lessing’s story is a perfect antidote to it. It opens with the following lines: “My husband gave me a broom one Christmas. This wasn’t right. No one can tell me it was meant kindly.” With a great sense of tongue-in-cheek humour the narrator goes on to chronicle her struggles as an unemployed mother of four who has been abandoned by her deadbeat husband;
4)In very elegant prose Edna O’Brien’s story tells us about a toxic relationship between a callous womanizer and a woman desperate to please;
5)The bitter main character of Margaret Drabble’s “The Gifts of War” is stuck in a marriage to an alcoholic and the only ray of sunshine in her life is her young son for whom she wants to buy a wonderful birthday present, but her plans go awry.
The aunt in Willa Cather’s “A Wagner Matineée” marries for love but she’s forced to move to the countryside and give up the music which she loves so much. During her brief visit to the city her nephew takes her to the eponymous matineée and as she listens, “her eyes were closed, but tears were glistening on her cheeks, and I think in a moment more they were in my eyes as well. It never really died, then - the soul which can suffer so excruciatingly and so interminably; it withers to the outward eye only; like that strange moss which can lie on a dusty shelf half a century and yet, if placed in water, grows green again. She wept so throughout the development and elaboration of the melody.”
Kay Boyle’s wonderful “Winter Night” features my favourite opening lines in this collection: “There is a time of apprehension which begins with the beginning of darkness, and to which only the speech of love can lend security. It is there, in abeyance, at the end of every day, not urgent enough to be given the name of fear but rather of concern for how the hours are to be reprieved from fear, and those who have forgotten how it was when they were children can remember nothing of this.”
Unfortunately, some stories seemed subpar to me because they were preceded by much better ones. There are two stories about widows - Hortense Calisher’s “The Scream on Fifty-Seventh Street” and Mary Lavin’s “In a Café”. The former deals with the crushing loneliness experienced by a widow in New York. The latter feels underwhelming, coming after Calisher’s and Petry’s brilliant tales.
The same is true for the two stories about adolescents. Katherine Mansfield’s “The Garden Party” follows Virginia Woolf’s exquisite psychological portrait of a painfully self-conscious woman in “The New Dress” and is somewhat overshadowed by it (but still, “The Garden Party” is well worth reading). However, Carson McCuller’s “Wunderkind” (her first published story) can’t hold a candle to Maeve Brennan’s heartbreaking “The Eldest Child”.
Luckily, there’s only one awful story in this anthology - Gertrude Stein’s “Miss Furr and Miss Skeene”; the other stories range from okay-ish to brilliant.
And finally, an honorable mention goes to two other great stories - Tillie Olsen’s wistful tale about motherhood “I Stand Here Ironing” and Jean Stubbs’ “Cousin Lewis” whose female protagonist has a male persona modelled on her deceased cousin with whom she was in love “at thirteen. In love as one never is again, with someone who can never let you down, never be destroyed.”
1)Ann Petry’s “Like a Winding Sheet” starts innocuously enough, but as we follow the male protagonist’s journey through his work day, we watch the anger that he feels (due to real and perceived racism) grow and result in a terrible crescendo of violence against his wife;
2)My personal favourite and the longest story in this collection - Doris Lessing’s “To room nineteen” is about a married woman with four children who seemingly lives in a suburban paradise. But as time goes on, the “perfect” marriage cracks and the woman falls into an abyss of despair, depersonalization/derealization and madness. There’s only one way things can end…
3)Grace Paley’s tragicomic “An interest in life” which follows Lessing’s story is a perfect antidote to it. It opens with the following lines: “My husband gave me a broom one Christmas. This wasn’t right. No one can tell me it was meant kindly.” With a great sense of tongue-in-cheek humour the narrator goes on to chronicle her struggles as an unemployed mother of four who has been abandoned by her deadbeat husband;
4)In very elegant prose Edna O’Brien’s story tells us about a toxic relationship between a callous womanizer and a woman desperate to please;
5)The bitter main character of Margaret Drabble’s “The Gifts of War” is stuck in a marriage to an alcoholic and the only ray of sunshine in her life is her young son for whom she wants to buy a wonderful birthday present, but her plans go awry.
The aunt in Willa Cather’s “A Wagner Matineée” marries for love but she’s forced to move to the countryside and give up the music which she loves so much. During her brief visit to the city her nephew takes her to the eponymous matineée and as she listens, “her eyes were closed, but tears were glistening on her cheeks, and I think in a moment more they were in my eyes as well. It never really died, then - the soul which can suffer so excruciatingly and so interminably; it withers to the outward eye only; like that strange moss which can lie on a dusty shelf half a century and yet, if placed in water, grows green again. She wept so throughout the development and elaboration of the melody.”
Kay Boyle’s wonderful “Winter Night” features my favourite opening lines in this collection: “There is a time of apprehension which begins with the beginning of darkness, and to which only the speech of love can lend security. It is there, in abeyance, at the end of every day, not urgent enough to be given the name of fear but rather of concern for how the hours are to be reprieved from fear, and those who have forgotten how it was when they were children can remember nothing of this.”
Unfortunately, some stories seemed subpar to me because they were preceded by much better ones. There are two stories about widows - Hortense Calisher’s “The Scream on Fifty-Seventh Street” and Mary Lavin’s “In a Café”. The former deals with the crushing loneliness experienced by a widow in New York. The latter feels underwhelming, coming after Calisher’s and Petry’s brilliant tales.
The same is true for the two stories about adolescents. Katherine Mansfield’s “The Garden Party” follows Virginia Woolf’s exquisite psychological portrait of a painfully self-conscious woman in “The New Dress” and is somewhat overshadowed by it (but still, “The Garden Party” is well worth reading). However, Carson McCuller’s “Wunderkind” (her first published story) can’t hold a candle to Maeve Brennan’s heartbreaking “The Eldest Child”.
Luckily, there’s only one awful story in this anthology - Gertrude Stein’s “Miss Furr and Miss Skeene”; the other stories range from okay-ish to brilliant.
And finally, an honorable mention goes to two other great stories - Tillie Olsen’s wistful tale about motherhood “I Stand Here Ironing” and Jean Stubbs’ “Cousin Lewis” whose female protagonist has a male persona modelled on her deceased cousin with whom she was in love “at thirteen. In love as one never is again, with someone who can never let you down, never be destroyed.”
February 14, 2008
Okay, so I haven't actually read this book. I put it on Good Reads because it was the only anthology that I could find that had the portrait "Miss Furr and Miss Skeene" by Gertrude Stein.
What is amazing about "Miss Furr and Miss Skeene" is that it is really the first text that uses the word "gay" to mean homosexual. Stein was a Lesbian herself, and by using the word "gay" over and over again in this portrait, she transformed the meaning of the word to describe her own sexual orientation.
It was this portrait and Lolita that really sold me on the Modernist movement. I think it amazing that one person could change the meaning of a word, just by using it in an obscure short story! What a feat! And besides the cultural impact it had, this story is revolutionary just for its literary value. It is beautiful! I love the questions she asks about the English language with the style of her writing.
What is amazing about "Miss Furr and Miss Skeene" is that it is really the first text that uses the word "gay" to mean homosexual. Stein was a Lesbian herself, and by using the word "gay" over and over again in this portrait, she transformed the meaning of the word to describe her own sexual orientation.
It was this portrait and Lolita that really sold me on the Modernist movement. I think it amazing that one person could change the meaning of a word, just by using it in an obscure short story! What a feat! And besides the cultural impact it had, this story is revolutionary just for its literary value. It is beautiful! I love the questions she asks about the English language with the style of her writing.
July 1, 2008
I just finished this collection of short stories and they were excellent. Susan Cahill edited the collection and makes it very clear that this book is not about feminism, it is simply stories about the lives of women in many of their roles: mother, daughter, lover, wife, professional, etc. While I found this distinction annoying, particularly because many of the stories clearly illustrate feminist beliefs and principles, the collection is wonderful nonetheless. Many authors are represented here such as Virginia Woolf, Gertrude Stein, Alice Walker, Joyce Carol Oates and many, many more so the reader gets to experience a variety of writing styles, women characters and many, many facets of women dealing with their day-to-day lives. I think that reading this collection will also encourage me to pick up other stories and books by these authors.
May 21, 2016
Some great stories in this anthology: short stories by and about women. Mostly well-known writers like Katharine Mansfield, Flannery O'Connor, Alice Walker, Alice Munro, Joyce Carol Oates, Gertrude Stein, Edith Wharton, Doris Lessing, Virginia Woolf and Kate Chopin. New writers that I have only just discovered are going to lead me to their other works; Grace Paley had me hooked straight away with her first line in An Interest in Life 'My husband gave me a broom one Christmas.'
I studied Alice Munro's story - The Office at university, such a long time ago. So, it was especially interesting to revisit and take in the significance of a story well-told and especially how one can empathise with the woman's need, as a writer, to have a room of one's own . However, the landlord in Munro's story is not someone you want to meet.
Helen Hagemann
I studied Alice Munro's story - The Office at university, such a long time ago. So, it was especially interesting to revisit and take in the significance of a story well-told and especially how one can empathise with the woman's need, as a writer, to have a room of one's own . However, the landlord in Munro's story is not someone you want to meet.
Helen Hagemann
December 6, 2011
This is an excellent intro to literature in the form of short stories. It's great because the short stories introduce you to the authors' writing styles, but you're not on the hook for a full length feature. I agree with some of the reviews...the Gertrude Stein piece was my least favorite, and it may be a bit outdated, but these authors and pieces are classic, and excellent for the most part. A sequel with modern pieces would be most appropriate. It definitely introduces the best or most important of early female short story fiction, and I left with a new appreciation of it. Now I have a direction to go in when exploring fiction authors further, for instance, I will never buy a Gertrude Stein book! But really, I now have a much larger list of who to check out.
January 30, 2015
A wonderful and varied collection showing many aspects and social levels of women. While older stories, many read as they could have be written recently, some stories I found myself skimming, some I just enjoyed but there were a handful that I loved and plan to find more by the authors.
October 25, 2007
One of my favorite anthologies of all time - with stories from legendary writers like Kate Chopin, Gertrude Stein, Katherine Anne Porter, Edith Wharton, etc, etc
July 27, 2008
Need inspiration? What better than this book of shorts written by women. Aah.
GREAT!!!
GREAT!!!
Read
July 31, 2011Sensational collection about women, for women and by women.
March 9, 2025
A thick collection of novels by female authors，read all the way from the last night in Beijing last winter to the rooftop wooden house in a Mediterranean town, for a whole three months.
26 people and 26 short stories , but they were compiled in the 1970s, so people like Doris Lessing, Alice Munro and Joyce Carol Oates, who had long and prosperous creative abilities in the future, had just started their careers. Some writers are now unknown, but fortunately there are several of my favorite stories , such as Mansfield's "The Garden Party", McCullers' "Wunderkind", Lessing's "To Room 19", and Munro’s "The Office". Especially the two seemingly "desperate housewives" stories of Lessing and Munro, which are actually a spiritual resonance and inheritance of Woolf's "one's own room", are a rare and difficult novel style presentation of women's writing for a hundred years.
Susan in Lessing's story , in order to regain her true self and identity outside of her family, is willing to lie and cheat, fabricate her lover, and ultimately make a deal with the devil in exchange for her life, dreaming and walking into a dark river like Woolf in her sleep; Munro style female writer,on the other hand, are driven out of her room by the interference and framing of the landlord,unable to bear it any longer, leaving behind endless depression and despair amidst their anger. It reads both Gothic and authentic.
26 people and 26 short stories , but they were compiled in the 1970s, so people like Doris Lessing, Alice Munro and Joyce Carol Oates, who had long and prosperous creative abilities in the future, had just started their careers. Some writers are now unknown, but fortunately there are several of my favorite stories , such as Mansfield's "The Garden Party", McCullers' "Wunderkind", Lessing's "To Room 19", and Munro’s "The Office". Especially the two seemingly "desperate housewives" stories of Lessing and Munro, which are actually a spiritual resonance and inheritance of Woolf's "one's own room", are a rare and difficult novel style presentation of women's writing for a hundred years.
Susan in Lessing's story , in order to regain her true self and identity outside of her family, is willing to lie and cheat, fabricate her lover, and ultimately make a deal with the devil in exchange for her life, dreaming and walking into a dark river like Woolf in her sleep; Munro style female writer,on the other hand, are driven out of her room by the interference and framing of the landlord,unable to bear it any longer, leaving behind endless depression and despair amidst their anger. It reads both Gothic and authentic.
December 9, 2019
A collection of twenty-six short stories focusing on the roles and experiences of women in the US and UK. Published in the seventies and with some of them written much earlier, the variety of women seemed very limited in contrast to societal changes that have occurred since.
There were some great standards I’ve read in other anthologies: “The Other Two” by Edith Wharton; “A Worn Path” by Eudora Welty; “Revelation” by Flannery O’Connor; and “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker.
And then some powerful stories I enjoyed for the first time: “A Wagner Matinee” by Willa Cather; “Rope” by Katherine Anne Porter; “The Scream on Fifty-Seventh Street” by Hortense Calisher; “Like a Winding Sheet” by Ann Petry; “To Room Nineteen” by Doris Lessing; and “In a Region of Ice” by Joyce Carol Oates.
The most outstanding was “The Gifts of War” by Margaret Drabble, who was a new discovery. She has been quite busy in the forty-some years since this collection was published, and I look forward to reading more of her work.
There were some great standards I’ve read in other anthologies: “The Other Two” by Edith Wharton; “A Worn Path” by Eudora Welty; “Revelation” by Flannery O’Connor; and “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker.
And then some powerful stories I enjoyed for the first time: “A Wagner Matinee” by Willa Cather; “Rope” by Katherine Anne Porter; “The Scream on Fifty-Seventh Street” by Hortense Calisher; “Like a Winding Sheet” by Ann Petry; “To Room Nineteen” by Doris Lessing; and “In a Region of Ice” by Joyce Carol Oates.
The most outstanding was “The Gifts of War” by Margaret Drabble, who was a new discovery. She has been quite busy in the forty-some years since this collection was published, and I look forward to reading more of her work.
April 10, 2024
This is one of the most interesting collections of short stories I’ve read. The range of writing showcased was incredibly diverse, I enjoyed falling asleep to Woolf’s writing and then being jolted awake by The Garden Party. I also read 26 female authors in a single book, so Kathy can’t get mad at me, which is what truly makes this book five stars.
August 24, 2024
Some really excellent stories. Started with a bang: "The story of an hour" by Kate Chopin.
Other great stories included:
" The other two" by Edith Wharton
"Miss Furr and Miss Skeene" by Gertrude Stein
" The garden party" by, Katharine Mansfield
" The scream on 57th Street" by Hortense Calisher
" In a cafe" by Mary Lavin
" To room 19" by Doris Lessing
Other great stories included:
" The other two" by Edith Wharton
"Miss Furr and Miss Skeene" by Gertrude Stein
" The garden party" by, Katharine Mansfield
" The scream on 57th Street" by Hortense Calisher
" In a cafe" by Mary Lavin
" To room 19" by Doris Lessing
October 25, 2021
A great way to sample a variety of authors. My favourites were; The Story of an Hour by Kate Chopin, The Other Two by Edith Wharton, A Wagner Matinee by Willa Cather, Winter Night by Kay Boyle, and A Journey by Edna O’Brien.
November 3, 2022
Interesting selection/collection of short stories by various female authors. I am generally not a fan of the short story but there were some that I really enjoyed. Especially "The Story of an Hour" by Kate Chopin and "The Office" by Alice Munro.
October 3, 2024
God, what a book. Women writing about women—many shades of fantasy and longings and sadness and anger. This was published in 1975. I wish such an anthology had been collated every decade and across continents.
June 5, 2025
a fun, poignant, varied anthology. lots of gems. a vein of sadness runs throughout; veers on misandry without delving into it. i think the Stein one was my favourite as it was so uniquely written. recommend
July 7, 2017
Very narrow collection of women writers, but I enjoyed most of the stories.
January 14, 2018
A couple of the stories were very good (I’ll always love Alice Walker), most were forgettable, and a few were dreck.
September 17, 2021
What an absolutely wonderful selection of authors and their stories. This should be included in high school lit classes. Now I have some authors to go find more work from.
July 21, 2022
not what I was looking for
Displaying 1 - 30 of 45 reviews