So many otherwise right-minded people who don't love Austen. You all make me sad.

What Dana said, also she is the example of marrying for practicality rather than love. Austen was very good at showing the limited prospects for women in her society, and I love the irony of the fact that she was writing these novels about romance and finding a husband so that she essentially never had to make the choices her female characters are forced to make.

I might like her with zombies. Just not solo.

Senior year was read what you like, so I read Betty Smith (I like Maggie-Now so much better than Tree Grows in Brooklyn), Anne Rivers Siddons, and read a lot of drama

Wow. I used to love Siddons, but I can't imagine reading her for school. I feel like now she writes the same book over and over, too. I loved Fox's Earth, though -- all that Southern gothic family drama.

Senior year we read The Color Purple, Waiting For Godot, Albee's American Dream, and I forgot what else, although I read On the Road for my research paper. Or that might have been junior year, and Tess might have been sophomore year. Huh. I think we read some Shakespeare senior year, too.

Wow, the years pass, and I can't remember shit.

Senior year was Anna K, Madame Bovine, A Doll's House, Things Fall Apart, and some other stuff.

Yeah, Siddons has been writing the same book over and over, but the one I read and fell in love with was Heartbreak Hotel. That is such a magnificent book and so different from all of her others, except maybe Downtown. Ironically, my two favorites.

My favorite book of hers was the one (I'm pretty sure) published first, if not written first -- The House Next Door. Really chilling psychological horror with a great couple, great characters, and fabulous writing. Totally unlike anything else she's ever done. It was the one they made a TV movie of with Colin Ferguson and Lara Flynn Boyle, which was impossible to watch without screaming, "The Botox! Oh my god, the Botox!" about Boyle.

Actually, her first published book was a book of essays she'd done as a journo called John Chancellor Makes Me Cry in 1973, I think? And I'm pretty sure that Heartbreak Hotel came next, in '75 or '76. It was after that that she went the Southern gothic route for a good bit before turning to the Southern women's fic, which really is where she started sounding like she was writing the same book over and over.

Madame Bovine

Hee hee hee, AWESOME. Boy, did I ever hate that book.

However, I = Dana when it comes to Austen and Hardy. I just... I get that certain tragedies are cathartic and all, but oy, so much obsession with spiritual death and ruination of women.

Of the books I had to read for class, I loved Wharton (although I've thankfully never had to read Ethan Frome for class) and Henry James the best. Well, some Henry James. Tried as I might, I just couldn't go through The Golden Bowl.

Actually, her first published book was a book of essays she'd done as a journo called John Chancellor Makes Me Cry in 1973, I think? And I'm pretty sure that Heartbreak Hotel came next, in '75 or '76.

Oh, that's right! I'm not sure if I ever read Heartbreak Hotel.