Germaine Greer Books

An anthology of women's poetry from the 17th century to today, showcasing a diverse range of English language poetry, inspired by Germaine Greer's dedication to the history of women's writing.

This publication documents the exhibition Stella Paintings, the first major solo show in the UK by the enfant terrible of British art. Stella Vine's paintings are exuberant, funny and irreverent. She is notorious for her portraits of Kate Moss and disturbing images of Princess Diana and the heroin victim Rachel Whitear, but she also paints her mother and her son from photographs and memory. Born in 1969 in Northumberland, Stella Vine studied painting part-time at Hampstead School of Art in 1999. Her work has been included in solo and group exhibitions in the UK and internationally, notably New Blood at the Saatchi Gallery in 2004 when she first came to public attention. Stella Vine currently lives and works in London. This fully illustrated publication accompanies the exhibition Stella Paintings held at Modern Art Oxford, July - September 2007.

Period Ancient Greek Athens is in the grip of a futile, destructive war with Sparta and its men are fighting abroad, taken away from their wives and families for long periods at a time. The women of Athens have had enough.

The term "slip-shod sibyls", adapted from a gibe of Alexander Pope, encapsulates the common contempt for the half-educated women who dared to expose themselves in the pre-1900 literary market-place. In this collection, Germaine Greer argues that the problem is not that such women were ignored but that, when most women were unable to express themselves in written form at all, and only a tiny minority dared to write in metre, the female poet was given undue attention, flattered and exploited only to be rejected and humiliated in her own lifetime and forgotten by posterity. She argues that what has come down to us is largely unworthy of inclusion in the canon. In many cases, the texts are inauthentic and cannot be relied upon to represent women's work or women's sensibility. As much of the poetry is intensely derivative, it cannot be evaluated by readers unfamiliar with the poets' models. This study examines the life and work of an extraordinary group of women - from the myth of Sappho to the dishonesty of Katherine Philips, the enduring mysteries of Aphra Behn and the tragic tale of Letitia Landon, forced to masquerade as "The Child of Song".

This title explores various themes related to boys, highlighting their sensuality, flirtatiousness, and vulnerability, from being passive love objects to soldier boys and the female gaze.

With outrage and compassion, insight and scholarship, the internationally bestselling author of The Female Eunuch confronts the subject of menopause. "A brilliant, gutsy, exhilarating, bruising, exasperating fury of a book".--The New York Times Book Review.

In this singularly authoritative, intelligent and audacious study, Germaine Greer challenges all of our accepted notions about the physical and emotional effects of menopause and aging - and thereby lays the foundation for a drastic reassessment by women of the ways in which they contemplate and experience the stages of their lives that society has conditioned them to fear and, ultimately, to regret. Quoting extensively from medical, historical, anthropological, literary and other cultural sources, Greer examines the diverse ideas and theories about menopause and aging during the last two hundred years, revealing how they have and have not evolved, concluding that "the sum of our ignorance still far outweighs our knowledge," and that the sum of a woman's self-knowledge is potentially more enlightening than anything she can learn from "objective" observers of her condition. Greer exhorts women to take responsibility for their own health and to question the accepted "truths" and those who determine them. To that end, she makes a detailed study of the various current treatments for menopause - particularly of estrogen replacement therapy, puncturing the overblown promises made on its behalf by the medical profession and drug manufacturers - and explores myriad less well publicized, traditional and alternative non-medical treatments. She delves into the full range of emotional and physical changes in the menopausal woman and proposes a new "art" of aging based on each woman's acceptance of her own experience and her transformed needs and desires. The deeply impassioned ideas Germaine Greer puts forth sound a rallying cry against the cultural and sexual stereotypes that have long hampered the lives of menopausal and aging women. With a profound fierceness of purpose, she encourages women to embrace the freedoms inherent in the change and to forge the serenity and power that can be its most permanent consequences

"[T]his slim volume...is committed to a description of Shakespeare’s thought as it is evinced in the works which he has left us.” Noted feminist and internationally bestselling author Germaine Greer explores Shakespeare as a thinker, unraveling the methods he used to dramatize moral and intellectual issues. Her astute and highly original look at the Bard covers his life, his poetics and politics, his characters (especially his "passionate and pure” females), his audience, and his theater--all placed in the larger context of Elizabethan society and culture. As long as Shakespeare's work remains central to the English-speaking world, Greer concludes, it will retain the values that make it unique.

One bright day in December 2001, sixty-two-year-old Germaine Greer found herself confronted by an irresistible challenge in the shape of sixty hectares of dairy farm, one of many in south-east Queensland that, after a century of logging, clearing and downright devastation, had been abandoned to their fate. She didn't think for a minute that by restoring the land she was saving the world. She was in search of heart's ease. Beyond the acres of exotic pasture grass and soft weed and the impenetrable curtains of tangled Lantana canes there were Macadamias dangling their strings of unripe nuts, and Black Beans with red and yellow pea flowers growing on their branches . . . and the few remaining White Beeches, stupendous trees up to forty meters in height, logged out within forty years of the arrival of the first white settlers. To have turned down even a faint chance of bringing them back to their old haunts would have been to succumb to despair. Once the process of rehabilitation had begun, the chance proved to be a dead certainty. When the first replanting shot up to make a forest and rare caterpillars turned up to feed on the leaves of the new young trees, she knew beyond doubt that at least here biodepletion could be reversed. Greer describes herself as an old dog who succeeded in learning a load of new tricks, inspired and rejuvenated by her passionate love of Australia and of Earth, most exuberant of small planets.

With a mix of passionate rhetoric and sharp humor, Germaine Greer tackles contemporary issues facing women at the turn of the century. She critiques societal norms and "lifestyle feminists," advocating for a more holistic understanding of womanhood. From workplace challenges to personal choices like abortion and body image, Greer offers insightful commentary on the persistent discrimination and exploitation women endure globally. Her vibrant and provocative style makes this sequel essential for anyone invested in the evolution of feminism.