The return of the difficult woman in fiction

“I am no bird; and no net ensnares me,” says Jane Eyre, and there is still something thrilling in the force of it. It is not merely a romantic declaration. It is a refusal to be made smaller, prettier or more convenient than the self demands. 

The difficult woman in fiction has many ancestors, and Jane is one of them. For a long time, women in fiction were allowed to be many things, provided they were legible.

The comfort of unlikeable characters and why we do not need to like who we read about

There is a particular kind of discomfort that comes from spending time with characters you do not especially like. They make poor decisions. They frustrate. They resist redemption. They say the wrong thing, choose the wrong person, protect themselves when they should reach out, or pursue what they want with a moral flexibility that makes you shift slightly in your seat.

And yet, more often than we might admit, they are the ones who linger. I can think of so many books that are true of this, and we always reach for them.

Why we’re in love with literary angst

From tear-in-the-rain heartbreak to existential quiet, bleaker classics are finding a new, eager audience.

Remember when reading heavy meant dragging yourself through dense tomes? Nowadays, bleakness has become chic. The recent surge in interest around titles such as White Nights by Fyodor Dostoevsky and Madonna in a Fur Coat by Sabahattin Ali is showing us something more profound about why readers gravitate toward literary angst.