All men are beasts in women's top books

Tales of loveless sex, rape and male domination may not be everyone's idea of a woman's favourite bedside reading.

But novels in which females fall victim to abusive lifestyles feature prominently in a new list of the Top Ten novels that have most transformed women's lives.

The Women's Watershed Fiction poll, organised by BBC Radio 4, includes two books that portray women as the submissive gender. The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood (1986) looks at a woman used as a breeding tool in a futuristic state.

The Women's Room (1977) by feminist writer Marilyn French tells of a suburban woman trapped in a loveless marriage.

It includes the line: 'All men are rapists. That's all they are. They rape us with their eyes, their laws, their codes.'

One listener said of the book: 'It had a tremendous impact on me and helped to shape the person I have become.'

With just seven per cent of the 14,000 votes cast by male listeners, nine out of

the ten titles were by women authors. The only book by a man, Thomas Hardy's Tess of the D'Urbervilles (1891), features one of the great tragic female characters of English literature.

The list also includes Charlotte BrontÃ's Jane Eyre (1847). A listener said: 'I find it inspiring because of Jane's strength.'

The final line-up of the top ten will be disclosed on Women's Hour on Wednesday morning.