The Nasty Girls

Stories of 10 outstanding intellectual women of the 20th century. Bright, exceptional, prickly, audacious - they have been called many things for their ability to strike with words and thought. The world would be completely different without Dorothy Parker's sharp reflections on the absurdity of life, without Rebecca West's skill in summarizing half of world history in one travel diary, without Hannah Arendt's ideas on totalitarianism, without Susan Sontag's discussions on photography, without Nora Ephron's skeptical attitude towards feminism, without Janet Malcolm's remarks on traps and treats in psychoanalysis and journalism. Their biographies are even more striking when we remember that they achieved success precisely in the 20th century, when women first spoke out loud in history and showed that they had something to say.