Books you’d most likely find in a traditional English Lit class…

Sense and Sensibility, Jane Austen
I remembered really liking this one the first time I read it. I didn’t like it so much the next time, but perhaps because I went through a phase and read them all back to back. This was near the end and I was probably Jane-Austened out.

Northanger Abbey, Jane Austen
I didn’t particularly like this story. Perhaps I ought to re-read it sometime.

Nicholas Nickleby, Charles Dickens
A good story (that falls apart at the end), but I, for one, need to remember that Dickens wrote for the serials and to make money by publishing his stories. This is not a novel that I could read chapter after chapter in one sitting. I needed to parse it out. Still, now I can say I’ve read something by Dickens. (I have a problem with the way he portrays women, but that’s another issue.)

Room with a View, E.M. Forester
It’s been years since I’ve read this, and I still think it’s an excellent little, silly portrait of English people in love with Italy. The movie’s just as good, too.

The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne
I hated it in high school…but liked it much better as an adult. Though I still think it would have made a better short story.

Farewell to Arms, Ernest Hemingway
I read this one because it was referred to in another book I read (the title escapes me now) where the character praised it. I thought since I’d never read any Hemingway why not start with this one. I realized about half way through that Hemingway is one of those authors for whom the style of writing is more important than the story. I finished it, but I wasn’t thrilled by it.

Daisy Miller, Henry James
A short novella – and an intriguing story about a young American woman in Europe and her lack of “propriety” that eventually leads to her downfall, of sorts. An interesting commentary on propriety and its place or lack of place in society.

Washington Square, Henry James
Of the two James books I read, I liked this one better. The heroine, while not exactly likeable, was more sympathetic, and I was glad for the choices she made through the course of the novel. She showed strength of character and resolve.

Slaughterhouse Five, Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
This has been sitting on our shelf for years, and I finally got around to reading it. An interesting book, though a bit pretentious. Vonnegut seems to be like Hemingway: more concerned with the way things are written rather than what it’s about.