The Great Gatsby isn't the only big literary centenary ...

Women writers were busy making literary history in 1925, too

There’s a lot of hoopla around this being the centenary of The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, published in 1925. It’s the quintessential novel of the era that’s come to be known as the Jazz Age.

In today’s Literary Ladies Lite Sunday edition, I’ll be looking at some 1925 centenaries worth celebrating, from the pens (and typewriters) of women, including Virginia Woolf, Zora Neale Hurston, Willa Cather, Anita Loos, Anzia Yezierska, and more.

Poor Scott Fitzgerald didn’t live long enough to see the lasting legacy of his work (he was gone by 1940, at the age of 44). There’s a LOT (this is the listing on Google News alone) of news and editorializing about Gatsby. It’s kind of cool that a book is getting so much attention in the midst of all the horrors we’re living through — kind of a testament to the power of literature.

So this got me to wondering … what were the literary ladies up to in 1925? What centenaries are being swept aside or not discussed enough? Let’s give them some centenary love as well. Here are just a few …

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Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf

Mrs. Dalloway, arguably one of Virginia Woolf's most accessible novels, describes a day in the life of Clarissa Dalloway, an upper-class woman preparing to host a party that evening. The unique aspect of the novel is that it focuses on her inner world, and that of the peripheral characters, taking the reader as she travels back in time.

Unusual for its time in using stream of consciousness as literary structure, the novel was met with positive response, and often appears on lists of best novels of the twentieth century.

As Clarissa goes around London, buying flowers and doing other preparations for the evening, she reflects on her youth and her choice of husband. She ruminates on a former suitor, the enigmatic Peter Walsh, and her youthful flirtation with Sally Seton. The novel covers many themes including time, mental and physical illness, the role of women in society, regret, sexuality, and more.

“He thought her beautiful, believed her impeccably wise; dreamed of her, wrote poems to her, which, ignoring the subject, she corrected in red ink.”

Read more lovely quotes from Mrs. Dalloway here.

Mrs. Dalloway’s centenary is coming right up on May 14. but Google News UK doesn’t list a fraction of the kind of press being bestowed upon Gatsby on this side of the Atlantic, but hopefully it will get its due on its actual birthdate.