(no subject)

[coraa]

I have a reason for this inquiry, which will be explained in the fullness of time!

I'm looking for suggestions of books with unreliable narrators where the narrator is female (besides Larbalestier's Liar, which I've already got in mind). I'd prefer speculative or historical fiction, but if you have a great example from another genre, by all means share it.

Secondarily, I'd love suggestions of books prominently featuring female liars (or con artists) regardless of whether they're unreliable narrators. Again, speculative or historical fiction preferred, but great examples from other genres would be useful too.

The books don't necessarily have to be good, for what it's worth.

(rachelmanija and sartorias and I tried to think of examples in the car, but with limited success.)

Comments

[larryhammer]

Some of Jane Austen's omnicient narrators -- I'm thinking of Northanger Abbey in particular -- are unreliable, but I'm not sure this quite fits the bill. For one thing, we never get any indication of the narrator's gender.

The only other 19th century example I can think of by a woman author is Jane Eyre. I'm pretty sure, um, let me see, a novel by Wilkie Collins (The Woman in White? I think??) in which there is an extensive testimony from a female character, not all of which is veracious -- I forget whether she was giving false or unreliable testimony, though.

If you just want lying female characters who aren't villians, the heroine of The Eustace Diamonds. But she never narrates, and the omniscient narrator always immediately points out when she changes her story.

---L.

[larryhammer]

Come to think of it, most first-person narrators of gothic novels, of the sort that Northanger Abbey is spoofing, are of dubious reliability.

---L.