The 82 best books of myth and folklore by women

No. 11 on this list. Penelopiad · Margaret Atwood · 2005

The Penelopiad appears regularly on feminist literature syllabi, myth-retelling courses, and contemporary women's fiction reading lists, benefiting from its position in the Canongate Myths series and Atwood's towering reputation. It has not achieved the universal curricular penetration of Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale, placing it in established rather than major canon territory.

No. 12 on this list. Always Coming Home · Ursula K Le Guin · 1985

Always Coming Home appears on 72 university syllabi according to Open Syllabus Project data (46th percentile), primarily in science fiction, utopian literature, and feminist studies courses. Its Wikipedia article exists in only 4 languages — modest global reach for a book of this ambition. The book is well-known within Le Guin scholarship and SF studies but has not achieved the broad canonical presence of Le Guin's The Left Hand of Darkness or The Dispossessed. It was a National Book Award finalist in 1985 and is included in the Library of America's Le Guin edition, which confirms critical recognition without mass adoption.

No. 13 on this list. Circe · Madeline Miller · 2019

Ranked by literary regard among eligible works in the current catalogue. This position reflects the available catalogue evidence.

No. 14 on this list. The Mysteries of Udolpho · Ann Radcliffe · 1794

The Mysteries of Udolpho is a foundational text taught in 18th-century literature, Gothic studies, and women's writing courses in universities worldwide. Its Wikipedia article spans over 40 languages. Jane Austen's parody in Northanger Abbey has guaranteed it a permanent place in the British literary canon—any reader of Austen eventually encounters Udolpho. It sits at the center of every Gothic fiction course.

No. 15 on this list. The Magic Toyshop · Angela Carter · 1967

The Magic Toyshop is taught regularly in British postmodern and feminist literature courses as Carter's first major novel and an early exemplar of feminist Gothic fiction. It is less ubiquitous on syllabi than The Bloody Chamber or Nights at the Circus but occupies a secure place in courses on women's writing and postmodern British fiction. No data signals found in database; score based on established literary reputation.

No. 16 on this list. The Saga of Gosta Berling · Selma Lagerlöf · 1891

Gösta Berling, a defrocked priest, joins a company of cavaliers on an estate in rural Sweden, where he embarks on a series of romantic adventures. Lagerlöf's debut novel, rich in folklore and Romanticism, established her as a major voice and paved the way for her Nobel Prize.

No. 17 on this list. The Silence of the Girls · Pat Barker · 2019

Taught in schools: Leaving Certificate English – NCCA / State Examinations Commission (Ireland)

Briseis is a queen captured by Achilles when he sacks her city. She becomes his slave, his prize, the woman over whom he and Agamemnon quarrel. Barker retells the Iliad from her perspective, giving voice to the women Homer left silent. The prose is direct and modern, the ancient world rendered without nostalgia, the heroes seen from the tents where women wait. The novel asks whose stories survive, whose suffering counts, and what it means to speak for those who were never allowed to speak.

No. 18 on this list. The Robber Bride · Margaret Atwood · 1993

The Robber Bride is firmly established in the Atwood canon and is regularly taught in Canadian literature, women's literature, and postmodern fiction courses, though it occupies a secondary position behind The Handmaid's Tale and The Blind Assassin. It is included in multiple major syllabi but is not universally assigned the way Atwood's most iconic works are.

No. 19 on this list. Woman Hollering Creek and Other Stories · Sandra Cisneros · 1991

Widely taught alongside The House on Mango Street. A touchstone of Chicana literature and a landmark of American short fiction.

No. 20 on this list. Löwensköld Trilogy · Selma Lagerlöf · 1925

Three generations of Swedish women are shaped by a curse and a ring in 18th-century Sweden. Lagerlöf's trilogy combines historical fiction with supernatural elements in her characteristically vivid storytelling.

No. 21 on this list. Blonde · Joyce Carol Oates · 2000

Blonde occupies a significant position in contemporary American literature, taught in courses on Oates, postmodern fiction, and biographical novels. While not yet a fixture in the traditional literary canon, it appears regularly in syllabi on late 20th-century fiction and feminist rewritings of cultural mythology. Its length and formal ambition mark it as a major work, though canonical status remains emerging rather than entrenched.

No. 22 on this list. Red Doc> · Anne Carson · 2013

Carson is a major teaching poet, and this book is a sequel to a widely taught verse novel; the author's Nobel Prize in Literature (2026) raises its profile. It is less taught than Autobiography of Red.

No. 23 on this list. The Puttermesser Papers · Cynthia Ozick · 1997

National Book Award finalist in 1997, and recognized as a central work in Jewish-American fiction, but without measurable syllabus presence in Open Syllabus data and no Wikipedia article, it sits outside the general literary curriculum. It appears in Jewish American literature and women's writing courses but is not a standard-curriculum assignment. Ozick's body of work carries more canonical weight than this specific title.

No. 24 on this list. The City of Brass · S.A. Chakraborty · 2017

Part of the wave of non-European-inspired fantasy. Widely read and critically praised.

No. 25 on this list. The Bear and the Nightingale · Katherine Arden · 2017

Bestseller, part of the Slavic-inspired fantasy wave. Widely loved.

No. 26 on this list. The Tiger's Wife · Tea Obreht · 2011

Remembering childhood stories her grandfather once told her, young physician Natalia becomes convinced that he spent his last days searching for "the deathless man," a vagabond who claimed to be immortal. As Natalia struggles to understand why her grandfather, a deeply rational man would go on such a farfetched journey, she stumbles across a clue that leads her to the extraordinary story of the tiger's wife.

No. 27 on this list. The Mermaid of Black Conch · Monique Roffey · 2020

This enchanting tale of a cursed mythical creature and the lonely fisherman who falls in love with her is “a daring, mesmerizing novel…single-handedly bringing magic realism up-to-date” (Maggie O’Farrell, best-selling author of Hamnet). “Sentence by sensuous sentence, Roffey builds a verdant, complicated world that is a pleasure to live inside…. You might start to believe in the existence of mermaids.” —The New York Times In 1976, David is fishing off the island of Black Conch when he comes upon a creature he doesn’t expect: a mermaid by the name of Aycayia. Once a beautiful young woman, she was cursed by jealous wives to live in this form for the rest of her days. But after the mermaid is caught by American tourists, David rescues and hides her away in his home, finding that, once out of the water, she begins to transform back into a woman. Now David must work to win Aycayia’s trust while she relearns what it is to be human, navigating not only her new body but also her relationship with others on the island—a difficult task after centuries of loneliness. As David and Aycayia grow to love each other, they juggle both the joys and the dangers of life on shore. But a lingering question remains: Will the former mermaid be able to escape her curse? Taking on many points of view, this mythical adventure tells the story of one woman’s return to land, her healing, and her survival.

No. 28 on this list. House of Day, House of Night · Olga Tokarczuk · 1998

Appears on 8 university syllabi (22.5th percentile) and has a Wikipedia article in 6 languages with a reception section — modest reach for this specific title. Tokarczuk's Nobel Prize (2018) has elevated her entire body of work, but House of Day, House of Night remains less taught than Flights or Drive Your Plow. It sits in the tier of significant Nobel-author works that specialists read rather than general curriculum fixtures.

No. 29 on this list. The Daughter of Time · Josephine Tey · 1951

Voted the greatest mystery novel of all time by the Crime Writers' Association in 1990, and it consistently appears on best-of lists for the genre. It surfaces in university courses on detective fiction and historiography but lacks the broad syllabi presence of mainstream literary canon fixtures.

No. 30 on this list. Everything Under · Daisy Johnson · 2018

Words are important to Gretel, always have been. As a child, she lived on a canal boat with her mother, and together they invented a language that was just their own. She hasn’t seen her mother since the age of sixteen, though – almost a lifetime ago – and those memories have faded. Now Gretel works as a lexicographer, updating dictionary entries, which suits her solitary nature. A phone call from the hospital interrupts Gretel’s isolation and throws up questions from long ago. She begins to remember the private vocabulary of her childhood. She remembers other things, too: the wild years spent on the river; the strange, lonely boy who came to stay on the boat one winter; and the creature in the water – a canal thief? – swimming upstream, getting ever closer. In the end there will be nothing for Gretel to do but go back. Daisy Johnson’s debut novel turns classical myth on its head and takes readers to a modern-day England unfamiliar to most. As daring as it is moving, Everything Under is a story of family and identity, of fate, language, love and belonging that leaves you unsettled and unstrung.