The 10 most attractive women in literature

Simon Akam's writing has appeared in publications including the New York Times, the New York Times Book Review, the Guardian, the Observer, the Washington Post, the Economist, the Times Literary Supplement, the Financial Times, the Independent, the New Statesman, the New Republic, the Literary Review, Intelligent Life and Tatler.

From his list of the ten most attractive women in literature, compiled for Slate:

A strand of criticism maintains that Ernest Hemingway could not draw plausible women, but for some readers the occasionally androgynous Hemingway heroine remains the ideal literary fantasy object. “Damned good-looking” Brett Ashley in The Sun Also Rises narrowly defeats Catherine Barkley from A Farewell to Arms on the back of a single simile: Brett, Hemingway writes, is “built with curves like the hull of a racing yacht.”

Read about another novel on the list.

The Sun Also Rises is on John Mullan's list of 10 of the best taxis in literature. It came in at #6 on the American Book Review list of the 100 best last lines from novels; it is a book that Andre Dubus III frequently returns to.

--Marshal Zeringue