winning writer V.S. Naipaul faced criticism Thursday for saying he does not regard any female authors as his equal, even famed novelist Jane Austen, because they are “sentimental”. The Trinidad-born Naipaul said the work of female writers was inferior partly because they are not the “complete master of a house”. “Women writers are different, they are quite different. I read a piece of writing and within a paragraph or two I know whether it is by a woman or not. I think (it is) unequal to me,” he told the London Evening Standard newspaper. The 78-year-old won the 2001 Nobel Prize in Literature for works such as his semi-autobiographical novel “A House for Mr Biswas”. “My publisher, who was so good as a taster and editor, when she became a writer, lo and behold it was all this feminine tosh. I don't mean this in any unkind way,” he added. – Agence France
