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/lit/ - Literature

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3055288 No.3055288[DELETED]  [Reply] [Original]

Looking for fiction novels with a likeable female as a main character. Emphasis on likeable.

>> No.3055293

There aren't any.
/thread

>> No.3055301

true grit

>> No.3055303

>>3055288
Dante's Divine Comedy?

>> No.3055309

Genre unimportant. Pleb is fine too.

>> No.3055316

>>3055309
Can it be non-fiction then? Patti Smith was pretty amazing in her autobiography

>> No.3055313

>>3055293
Hence the fiction part. Surely we can at least imagine such a creature...

>> No.3055319

I don't know who you are so I can't know who you'd "like".

>> No.3055322

Pride and Prejudice?

>> No.3055324

>>3055319
That's probably why I never asked you what I'd like. I asked you what you liked.

>> No.3055325
File: 22 KB, 208x300, Valerie_and_Her_Week_of_Wonders.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
3055325

The Hearing Trumpet by Leonora Carrington
The Summer Book by Tove Jansson
Log of the S.S. The Mrs Unguentine by Stanley Crawford
The Wall by Marlen Haushofer
Fatale by Jean-Patrick Manchette
House of Day, House of Night by Olga Tokarczuk
Valerie and Her Week of Wonders by Viteszlav Nezval

>> No.3055327

Alice in Wonderland?

>> No.3055332

Matilda by Roald Dahl

>> No.3055340

Sophie in Howl's Moving Castle

>> No.3055339

who dat bitch in ops pic? she got nudez?

>> No.3055337

crying of lot 49

>> No.3055334

>>3055325
Thank you for a start, I will research these further.

>> No.3055342

>>3055327
Alice was terribly annoying. Almost everyone was.

>> No.3055343

>>3055324

In the context you used "likeable" is implied to be some objective quality.

>> No.3055385

>>3055343
>objective
More like normative.

>> No.3055417

>>3055339
Take a stroll over to /v/ and you'll learn all about her.

>> No.3055421

>>3055339
https://encyclopediadramatica.se/Feminist_Frequency

>> No.3055980

Any more? It'd probably help if it was written by a man.

>> No.3055990

>>3055980

>Looking for fiction novels with a likeable female as a main character.
>It'd probably help if it was written by a man.

I like how you're sexist in a thread you made trying not to be. Would lol again.

>> No.3055993

Hey, Nostradamus! by Douglas Coupland
The Country of Last Things by Paul Auster

>> No.3055998

The Hunger Games

>> No.3056015

>>3055990
You must have missed the picture and >>3055313

>> No.3056021

Lolita

>> No.3056032
File: 311 KB, 1600x1200, best served cold.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
3056032

Although it probably won't be as enjoyable or make as much sense if you haven't read the trilogy that comes before it.

>> No.3056053

>>3055993
>The Country of Last Things by Paul Auster

This is a good choice.

>> No.3056065

Madame de Sade by Yukio Mishima

It's a play, but I think it's perfectly relevant for this. The likableness of her is probably questionable for most though.

>> No.3056074
File: 12 KB, 205x300, Border_Town.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
3056074

Border Town by Shen Congwen.

Cuicui is likable despite the initial naivete that you'd expect from any coming of age novel. Her ability to endure and her selflessness make her a fairly admirable character.

>> No.3056083
File: 15 KB, 193x300, the_Three-Inch_Golden_Lotus.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
3056083

The Three-Inch Golden Lotus by Feng Jicai

Main character is Fragrant Lotus, whose beautifully bound/mutilated feet allow her to marry into a very wealthy family. She maneuvers through the violent and manipulative politics of large Chinese families, works her way to the top through her own cunning, becomes a political activist in favor of foot binding, proudly suffers through ridicule there, and is pretty much in all ways a determined and likable character. Would probably be excellent for any sort of feminist analysis. It was written in 1985, by a male author.

>> No.3056150

>>3055325
Of these Fatale seems more up my alley, but the one pictured definitely piqued my interest as well.

>>3055993
>>3056053
Might check it out then.

>>3056032
Will look into the lot of them, thank you all.

>> No.3056168

Again, likable is subjective.

Hecuba by Euripedes. I liked both Polyxena and Hecuba.
The Tombs of Atuan by Ursula le Guin.
The Discworld novels about the witches.
Kristin Lavransdatter by Sigrid Undset. It's historical novel with a female character who isn't a modern woman with modern values pasted into a historical setting.

>> No.3056179

The Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon
Wittgenstein's Mistress by David Markson
Tess of d'Urbervilleby Thomas Hardy

>> No.3056193

As a /lit/ n00b, all I got for you is "A Handmaid's Tale".

>> No.3056201
File: 51 KB, 388x582, blood of flowers.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
3056201

She's more memorable than likeable maybe. Admirable in her determination and I think it portrays realistically what it is to be headstrong and stubborn and the consequences that come with it.

>> No.3056206

>>3055303
Are you insinuating that Beatrice is both a main character and actually likeable? That snobby bitch is barely there except for the random pop-in to tell Dante he's an idiot.

The sad thing is that the character I thought of first was the transgendered character in Kafka on the Shore.

If you go the route of Shakespeare's comedies, there are many pleasant women in lead roles.

It's tough. I read mostly older novels and there aren't many women that I'd find really likeable as a reader in the 21st century. LIke Victor Hugo's women... overall very giving but pretty dull in terms of personality otherwise. Compare Cossette to Enjolras and tell me who is more interesting.

>> No.3056236

>>3056179
Would you please try to give a brief summary of the plot and why you liked Lot 49, the book and the main character? Because you're not the first person to mention it here, but the 'conspiracy' heavy reviews I just scanned didn't exactly leave me dying to read it, yet didn't completely turn me off either...

>> No.3056252

* True Grit -- Charles Portis
Story of My Life -- Jay McInerney
Never Let Me Go -- Kazuo Ishiguro
Little Women -- Louisa May Alcott
To Kill a Mockingbird -- Harper Lee

Sewer, Gas & Electric -- Matt Ruff
The Diamond Age -- Neal Stephenson
A Wrinkle in Time -- Madeline L'Engle
Only Begotten Daughter-- James Morrow

>> No.3057265

A Song of Ice and Fire

>> No.3057276

>>3055288
Tamora Pierce's stuff
Wicked

And by likable, I mean I didn't find them completely insufferable. I guess it's pretty much the same thing.

>> No.3057284

Is it possible to troll this girl into insulting muslims so they come and behead her?

That would be a win-win situation.

>> No.3057289

Jane EyreJane EyreJane EyreJane EyreJane EyreJane EyreJane EyreJane EyreJane EyreJane EyreJane EyreJane EyreJane EyreJane EyreJane EyreJane EyreJane EyreJane EyreJane EyreJane EyreJane EyreJane EyreJane EyreJane EyreJane Eyre

>> No.3057313

A Foreign Affair: A Passionate Life in Four Languages, by Valerie Barnes.

Good stuff.

>> No.3057328

hunger games

>> No.3057392

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ORLANDOORLANDOORLANDOORLANDOORLANDOORLANDOORLANDOORLANDOORLANDOORLANDOORLANDOORLANDOORLANDOORLANDOOR
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>> No.3057401

>>3057392
Yes. Go read Orlando and then go fuck your normative gender roles.

>> No.3058021

>>3057328
twilight the next generation? no thanks.

>> No.3058026

>>3055288

Madame Bovary. I love Emma. 8/10 would bang in a taxi-carriage.

>> No.3058042

>>3057392
Orlando is trans

Check your cis privilege

>> No.3058062

Mrs. Dalloway. I think you'd be better off looking for sympathetic characters though, OP. I find it tricky to think of likeable males too. Try White Teeth, there are several main characters, some female.

>> No.3058119

Pride and Prejudice and Jane Austen have almost universally adored protagonists.
Most people like the protagonists from The Handmaid's Tale, Northanger Abbey and Mansfield Park.

>> No.3058130

>>3058119
That's because Austen's characters are actually protagonists and have to experience believable transformations. The protagonist of The Handmaid's tale is a blank recorder for the epilog's historian.

>> No.3058174

>>3058119
Apparently. Though I'm probably looking for something a little more modern and plebtastic. The majority of recommendations here seem to be ye olde classics or teen fantasy : /

But I appreciate any and all recommendations, though, and have looked into every single book listed ITT.

>> No.3058191

>>3058026

Surely you're joking. Stuck up bourgeois bitch who spends the entire novel sulking, cheats on her husband, and then kills herself, causing her husband to kill himself from grief.

Charming lady.

>> No.3058213

>>3058191

Yeah, she's a stone slut. Awesome, isn't she?

if women didn't cheat on their husbands, my sex life would be a lot more dull

>> No.3058234

>>3058174
Okay, then. How about middle-aged woman lit?

Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See
The Help by Kathryn Stockett
The Shell Seekers by Rosamunde Pilcher

>> No.3058517

The Golden Compass, The Subtle Knife, The Amber Spyglass - Phillip Pullman

>> No.3058655

>>3058174
None of the recommendations I made are "ye old classics" (or teen fantasy). Most were surrealist or fantastical works, though often considered classics in their own country. Don't write them off as boring just because they're respected and widely loved.

>> No.3058665
File: 134 KB, 1181x1808, endym.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
3058665

>> No.3058680

>>3058665
Troll alert.

Endymion was one of those books that manages to tear down the, in this case slight, peak hit by its prequels, at the same time as it greatly lessens my respect for the author.

Hyperion was ok, Fall of Hyperion was nice, Endymion is a steaming pile of shit. The surr9ounding argument is irrelevant.

>> No.3058732

The kid from The Little Friend.
She was a bit of a monster but I liked her anyway.

>> No.3058910

Game of Thrones series, imo.

Hate to circlejerk this but Arya Stark is pretty nifty.

>> No.3059163

>>3058234
How about no.

>> No.3059166

Jane Eyre is incredibly likeable.

>> No.3059177

Good Morning Midnight by Jean Rhys

>> No.3059181

The Broom of the System by David Foster Wallace

>> No.3060635

Lisbeth is pretty likable in Larsson's Millennium trilogy, at least in the first book (Dragon Tattoo) anyway. The second one becomes a little too feminist super heroic, but there are moments there too, plus it helps explain why she is the way she is.

>> No.3060646
File: 43 KB, 308x475, matilda-by-roald-dahl.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
3060646

Fucking Matilda, jesus.

/thread.

>> No.3060655
File: 63 KB, 306x468, True Grit.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
3060655

I want Mattie Ross on my team.

>> No.3060660

I have over 500 novels.... the only novels I own that has a female protagonist is winter's bone by Daniel Woodrell and the golden notebook by Dorris Lessing.
none of these books have likable female characters

>> No.3060669

>>3060635
Ha ha.

>> No.3060676

>>3057328
Lol.

>> No.3060986

>>3060669
>>3060676
list some of your own or gtfo

>> No.3060992

>>3060986
Uh, Anne of Green Gables? Lol.

>> No.3061042

>>3055990
or vice versa?

>> No.3061961

Left Hand of Darkness

>> No.3061970

There's no such thing as a likeable female main character.

The only honest women are extensions of man's will. To be likeable, you need to be independent, to be an independent woman is to be a woman who is searching for a man.

Prove me wrong.

>> No.3061975

>>3061970

>bullshit bullshit bullshit
>prove me wrong

lrn2burdenofproof you ape

>> No.3061997
File: 37 KB, 320x320, Jewel of Medina cover.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
3061997

>>3057284
have her review this book.
it was written by a feminist

>> No.3063736

>>3061975
but if there were no likeable female characters, ever, how could he prove it?

>> No.3063754

People who say "fiction novels" sound so fucking inbred and stupid. It's like saying "movie films".

>> No.3063758

>>3061970
Read The Wall by Marlen Haushofer.

>> No.3063762

>>3063736
He can't, so he can stop talking bullshit

>> No.3063766

>>3061970

Lesbians

>> No.3063805

>>3056206

I think he's implying that Dante is a little bitch. Which make him unlikeable

>> No.3063824

>>3063754
Movie is the dumbest world of all times.

Brit: "Let's go watch a film."
Yank: "Oh boy let's go to the picture show!"
Brit: "I'm more in the mood for cinema, not an art gallery."
Yank: "Art? I don't know whatcha talking 'bout, pal! The pictures! They move! Movie movie! It's a little movie povie!"
Brit: "I'm rather fancying a drink at the moment."

>> No.3063838

>>3063754
DC Comics. You mad bro?

>> No.3063865

>>3063824
what about walkie-talkie

>> No.3063873
File: 26 KB, 384x768, 1.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
3063873

>>3063824
what about "cold-on-the-cob"?

>> No.3063891
File: 8 KB, 200x147, Emperor_Gum_Moth.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
3063891

>>3055288
Sarsleazian looks like a moth.

pic related

>> No.3063910
File: 13 KB, 300x300, logic.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
3063910

>>3063838
"Fiction novels" implies that there are multiple types of novels. That Anon's complaint isn't based on him thinking there aren't multiple forms of fiction. Just like "running shoes" implies there are other shoes than shoes for running, while it doesn't imply that one can only run in shoes.

>> No.3063938

>>3063910
I could care less, bout to run to the ATM machine.

>> No.3063940

>>3063824
Go to bed Nigel, it's about to be BONG BONG BONG BONG BONG BONG BONG BONG BONG BONG BONG o'clock.

>> No.3063957
File: 89 KB, 540x791, Big-Ben-account-1.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
3063957

>>3063940
Not for another ten minutes.

https://twitter.com/big_ben_clock