Reading order
| # | Title | Published | Author | Buy on Amazon |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Novels of Virginia Woolf | 1977 | Hermione Lee | Buy |
| 2 | Elizabeth Bowen | 1981 | Hermione Lee | Buy |
| 3 | Philip Roth | 1982 | Hermione Lee | Buy |
| 4 | Willa Cather | 1989 | Hermione Lee | Buy |
| 5 | Virginia Woolf | 1996 | Hermione Lee | Buy |
| 6 | Body Parts | 2005 | Hermione Lee | Buy |
| 7 | Virginia Woolf’s Nose | 2005 | Hermione Lee | Buy |
| 8 | Edith Wharton | 2007 | Hermione Lee | Buy |
| 9 | Penelope Fitzgerald | 2013 | Hermione Lee | Buy |
| 10 | Tom Stoppard: A Life | 2020 | Hermione Lee | Buy |
Hermione Lee’s non-fiction spans 10 books of literary biography and criticism published between 1977 and 2020. Her early work — The Novels of Virginia Woolf (1977), Elizabeth Bowen (1981), Philip Roth (1982), and Willa Cather (1989) — established her as a leading literary critic and biographer.
Her later biographies became major publishing events: Virginia Woolf (1996) is considered the definitive life of its subject, Edith Wharton (2007) brought similar depth to the American novelist, Penelope Fitzgerald (2013) won the James Tait Black Prize, and Tom Stoppard: A Life (2020) provided the first authorized biography of the playwright. She was president of Wolfson College, Oxford, and is one of the most honored literary biographers of her generation.