The Greatest Chick Lit Books Of All Time

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Updated June 23, 2023 2.7K votes 418 voters 72.1K views
Over 400 Ranker voters have come together to rank this list of The Greatest Chick Lit Books Of All Time
Voting Rules
Books targeted towards women and that deal with women's issues; can be from any time period

List of the best chick lit books ever. The genre of women's literature provides some of the greatest books of all time, and these books have passionate followings. From modern stories about women trying to make it through vast metropolises to classic tales of love in the English countryside, Chick Lit usually provides at least one book that turns up in peoples list of favorites.

Join the rankings and help us determine what are the best women's books of all time. Vote on existing entries or really make your case by adding your own list and writing why you love them and think they are the best chick books of all time in the commentary section.

What the greatest chick lit books of all time? Take a look on this list and give your input.

Check out more lists like Worst Things About Retail, Most Popular Female Characters in Literary History, The Greatest Romantic Novelists
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Ranked by
  • Pride and Prejudice
    1

    Pride and Prejudice

    Jane Austen
    201 votes
    • First Published: 1813-01-28
    • Subjects: Popular literature, Literary, Education, 19th century, English Language
    • Genres (Book): Romance novel, Satire, Novel of manners, Fiction, Novel
    • Original Language: English Language
    Pride and Prejudice is a novel of manners by Jane Austen, first published in 1813. The story follows the main character, Elizabeth Bennet, as she deals with issues of manners, upbringing, morality, education, and marriage in the society of the landed gentry of the British Regency. Elizabeth is the second of five daughters of a country gentleman living near the fictional town of Meryton in Hertfordshire, near London. Set in England in the early 19th century, Pride and Prejudice tells the story of Mr and Mrs Bennet's five unmarried daughters after the rich and eligible Mr Bingley and his status-conscious friend, Mr Darcy, have moved into their neighbourhood. While Bingley takes an immediate liking to the eldest Bennet daughter, Jane, Darcy has difficulty adapting to local society and repeatedly clashes with the second-eldest Bennet daughter, Elizabeth. Though Austen set the story at the turn of the 19th century, it retains a fascination for modern readers, continuing near the top of lists of "most loved books." It has become one of the most popular novels in English literature, selling over 20 million copies, and receives considerable attention from literary scholars.
  • Sense and Sensibility
    2

    Sense and Sensibility

    Jane Austen
    129 votes
    • First Published: 1811
    • Subjects: Popular literature, Literary, Education, 19th century, English Language
    • Genres (Book): Romance novel, Children's literature, Fiction, Novel
    • Original Language: English Language
    Sense and Sensibility is a novel by Jane Austen, and was her first published work when it appeared in 1811 under the pseudonym "A Lady". A work of romantic fiction, better known as a comedy of manners, Sense and Sensibility is set in southwest England, London and Kent between 1792 and 1797, and portrays the life and loves of the Dashwood sisters, Elinor and Marianne. The novel follows the young ladies to their new home, a meagre cottage on a distant relative's property, where they experience love, romance and heartbreak. The philosophical resolution of the novel is ambiguous: the reader must decide whether sense and sensibility have truly merged.
  • Jane Eyre
    3

    Jane Eyre

    Charlotte Brontë
    142 votes
    • First Published: 1847-10-16
    • Subjects: Popular literature, Social class, Morality, England
    • Genres (Book): Romance novel, Bildungsroman, Fiction, Novel, Gothic fiction
    • Original Language: English Language
    Jane Eyre is a novel by English writer Charlotte Brontë. It was published on 16 October 1847 by Smith, Elder & Co. of London, England, under the pen name "Currer Bell." The first American edition was published the following year by Harper & Brothers of New York. Primarily of the bildungsroman genre, Jane Eyre follows the emotions and experiences of its title character, including her growth to adulthood, and her love for Mr. Rochester, the byronic master of fictitious Thornfield Hall. In its internalisation of the action—the focus is on the gradual unfolding of Jane's moral and spiritual sensibility, and all the events are coloured by a heightened intensity that was previously the domain of poetry—Jane Eyre revolutionised the art of fiction. Charlotte Brontë has been called the 'first historian of the private consciousness' and the literary ancestor of writers like Joyce and Proust. The novel contains elements of social criticism, with a strong sense of morality at its core, but is nonetheless a novel many consider ahead of its time given the individualistic character of Jane and the novel's exploration of classism, sexuality, religion, and proto-feminism.
  • Little Women
    4

    Little Women

    Louisa May Alcott
    65 votes
    • First Published: 1868
    • Subjects: Literary, Adolescence, New England, Women, 19th century
    • Genres (Book): Coming of age, Fiction, Novel
    • Original Language: English Language
    Little Women is a novel by American author Louisa May Alcott, which was originally published in two volumes in 1868 and 1869. Alcott wrote the books rapidly over several months at the request of her publisher. The novel follows the lives of four sisters—Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy March—detailing their passage from childhood to womanhood, and is loosely based on the author and her three sisters. Little Women was an immediate commercial and critical success, and readers demanded to know more about the characters. Alcott quickly completed a second volume. It was also successful. The two volumes were issued in 1880 in a single work entitled Little Women. Alcott also wrote two sequels to her popular work, both of which also featured the March sisters: Little Men and Jo's Boys. Although Little Women was a novel for girls, it differed notably from the current writings for children, especially girls. The novel addressed three major themes: "domesticity, work, and true love, all of them interdependent and each necessary to the achievement of its heroine's individual identity."
  • Persuasion
    5

    Persuasion

    Jane Austen
    98 votes
    • First Published: 1817-12
    • Subjects: Literary, Education, Literature, Classics, 19th century
    • Genres (Book): Romance novel, Suspense, Children's literature, Fiction, Novel
    • Original Language: English Language
    Persuasion is Jane Austen's last completed novel. She began it soon after she had finished Emma and completed it in August 1816. She died, at age 41, in 1817; Persuasion was published in December of that year. Persuasion is linked to Northanger Abbey not only by the fact that the two books were originally bound up in one volume and published together, but also because both stories are set partly in Bath, a fashionable city with which Austen was well acquainted, having lived there from 1801 to 1805. Besides the theme of persuasion, the novel evokes other topics, such as the Royal Navy, in which two of Jane Austen's brothers ultimately rose to the rank of admiral. As in Northanger Abbey, the superficial social life of Bath—well known to Austen, who spent several relatively unhappy and unproductive years there—is portrayed extensively and serves as a setting for the second half of the book. In many respects, Persuasion marks a break with Austen's previous works, both in the more biting, even irritable satire directed at some of the novel's characters and in the regretful, resigned outlook of its otherwise admirable heroine, Anne Elliot, in the first part of the story.
  • Emma
    6

    Emma

    Jane Austen
    112 votes
    • First Published: 1815-12
    • Subjects: Popular literature, Literary, Education, Linguistics, Women
    • Genres (Book): Romance novel, Children's literature, Comedy of manners, Fiction, Comedy
    • Original Language: English Language
    Emma, by Jane Austen, is a novel about youthful hubris and the perils of misconstrued romance. The novel was first published in December 1815. As in her other novels, Austen explores the concerns and difficulties of genteel women living in Georgian-Regency England; she also creates a lively comedy of manners among her characters. Before she began the novel, Austen wrote, "I am going to take a heroine whom no one but myself will much like." In the very first sentence she introduces the title character as "Emma Woodhouse, handsome, clever, and rich." Emma, however, is also rather spoiled, headstrong, and self-satisfied; she greatly overestimates her own matchmaking abilities; she is blind to the dangers of meddling in other people's lives; and her imagination and perceptions often lead her astray.