On the shelf

It8217;s perhaps the only comment we can make on yet another list of best books by women writers8230; were the poll to have taken place just a couple of months later, Harry Potter and the Order of Phoenix would edge out one of the current worthies. From Jane Austen to Arundhati Roy to J.K. Rowling, the women who charm readers are a mixed bunch, as a British poll shows.

1. Pride and Prejudice: Jane Austen
2. Jane Eyre: Charlotte Bronte
3. Wuthering Heights: Emily Bronte
4. Middlemarch: George Eliot
5. Rebecca: Daphne du Maurier
6. Persuasion: Jane Austen
7. Frankenstein: Mary Shelley
8. Emma: Jane Austen
9. Unless: Carol Shields
10. To Kill a Mockingbird: Harper Lee
11. The Handmaid8217;s Tale: Margaret Atwood
12. White Teeth: Zadie Smith
13. Harry Potter and the Philosopher8217;s Stone: J.K. Rowling
14. Gone with the Wind: Margaret Mitchell
15. To the Lighthouse: Virginia Woolf
16. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire: J.K. Rowling
17. The Poisonwood Bible: Barbara Kingsolver
18. Silas Marner: George Eliot; Possession: A.S. Byatt
20. The God of Small Things: Arundhati Roy
21. Mrs Dalloway: Virginia Woolf; The Mill on the Floss: George Eliot
23. Bridget Jones8217;s Diary: Helen Fielding; Sense and Sensibility: Jane Austen
25. The Blind Assassin: Margaret Atwood
26. Chocolat: Joanne Harris
27. The Shipping News: E. Annie Proulx
28. Little Women: Louisa May Alcott
29. The Sea, the Sea: Iris Murdoch; I Capture the Castle: Dodie Smith
31. Family Bites: Lisa Williams
32. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets: J.K. Rowling; The Shell Seekers: Rosamund Pilcher
34. Orlando: Virginia Woolf; The Thorn Birds: Colleen McCullough
36. Fingersmith: Sarah Waters
37. Girl with a Pearl Earring: Tracy Chevalier; Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit: Jeanette Winterson; Wide Sargasso Sea: Jean Rhys
40. The Clan of the Cave Bear: Jean Auel
41. The Bell Jar: Sylvia Plath
42. The Secret History: Donna Tartt
43. Five Quarters of the Orange: Joanne Harris
44. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban: J.K. Rowling; Beloved: Toni Morrison
46. Bel Canto: Ann Patchett
47. Hotel du Lac: Anita Brookner
48. The Bell: Iris Murdoch
49. Regeneration: Pat Barker
50. The Bone People: Keri Hulme; The Color Purple: Alice Walker