Marilyn French Author Of 'The Women's Room' Dies Age 79 (R.I.P.)

The Women's Room

Marilyn French, the writer and feminist has died aged 79 years of heart failure. Her best-selling 1977 novel, The Women's Room, made her a feminist icon in the women's movement, with the novel achieving sales of around 20 million. French initially studied at Hofstra University, before subsequently earning a Ph.D at Harvard University in 1972. In later years she returned to teach at Hofstra University. The pop group ABBA mention Marilyn in their 1982 song, The Day Before You Came - "I must have read a while, the latest one by Marilyn French or something in that style".

Marilyn French is particularly remembered for the following quote which came from the character Val in The Women's Room:

"All men are rapists, and that's all they are. They rape us with their eyes, their laws, and their codes."

Publications by Marilyn French include:

• The Book as World: James Joyce's Ulysses (1976)
• The Women's Room (1977)
• The Bleeding Heart (1980)
• Shakespeare's Division of Experience (1981)
• Beyond Power: On Women, Men, and Morals (1985)
• Her Mother's Daughter (1987)
• The War Against Women (1992)
• Our Father (1993)
• My Summer with George (1996)
• A Season in Hell: A Memoir (1998)
• Introduction: Almost Touching the Skies (2000)
• Women's History of the World (2000)
• From Eve to Dawn: A History of Women in Three Volumes (2002)
• The Love Children (2005)
• In the Name of Friendship (2006)
• Further novel to be published this fall (2009)
  

Marilyn French (1929-2009) R.I.P.