The House of Mirth, first published in 1905, is about New York socialite Lily Bart and her attempts to secure a husband amidst the social whirl of New York’s Fifth Avenue at the dawn of the Twentieth Century. Wharton pictures a new class of self-made millionaires created by Wall Street, casts a shadow over the tenuous position of those in the “leisure class” and offers a peek at the ascendancy of the self-supporting career woman. Continue reading →.

The first novel by Fanny Fern, otherwise known as Sara Payson Willis, is a semi-autobiographical tale of a talented writer who loses her husband and is forced to support herself and two young children in the mid-1800s. She states in her preface that Ruth Hall is not a novel, preferring the term “continuous story”. She wrote at variance with the traditional themes and styles of the time and therefore received her share of criticism for it. However she also had supporters. Notably, Nathaniel Hawthorne hoped that Fern’s writing would encourage her female contemporaries to follow her example and “throw off the constraints of decency…then their books are sure to possess character and value.” Continue reading →.

To Have and To Hold was the bestselling book in the United States in 1900. The story is set in the early years of the Virginia colony and follows the fortunes of Captain Ralph Percy. Percy, somewhat unwillingly, takes part in a bride arrangement and ends up married to a young woman who is clearly more than she professes herself to be. Some weeks later Lord Carnal, the King’s favorite, arrives to reveal that she is Lady Jocelyn Leigh, a ward of the King who wanted her to marry Lord Carnal himself. Pirates, sword fights, and adventures ensue. Continue reading →.

Helen was born in June of 1880 in a tiny town in northern Alabama. She was nineteen months old and had just begun to talk when she contracted an unnamed disease, described by her doctor only as “acute congestion of the stomach and brain.” The doctor’s prognosis was that Helen would not live. She pulled through, but not before the disease had robbed her of her sight and hearing. Continue reading →.

First published in 1909, the story concerns Elnora Comstock who lives a reclusive life with her mother in the swamps of Indiana called the Limberlost. One day she discovers that a hobby she has cultivated all her life, collecting moth and other insect specimens from the swamps near her home, can actually finance the education she longs for. The first part is a family tale, where Elnora grapples with her mother’s moody ways while pursuing her educational goals. The second part is a romance. Continue reading →.

First published in 1915, Dear Enemy is a sequel to Daddy Long Legs. Judy Abbott, whose letters to her anonymous benefactor made up the first novel, hardly makes an appearance in this one. The main character is Judy’s pal from college, Sallie McBride, who Judy recruits from her frivolous life to run the John Grier orphan asylum. Sallie’s letters are mostly to Judy, but letters to others including to the home’s moody Scottish doctor–her “enemy”–add some variation. Continue reading →.

Roast Beef, Medium: The Business Adventures of Emma McChesney was first published in 1913. It chronicles the adventures of perhaps the only a successful traveling saleswoman in literary history, a stellar employee of T. A. Buck’s Featherloom Petticoats. Edna Ferber is known for big old-fashioned novels like So Big and Giant . I always thought they were supposed to be bad novels – not read anymore, anyway – but these stories are superb. Continue reading →.

A sequel to Eight Cousins and first published in 1876, this novel begins when Rose returns from two years in Europe. Her seven male cousins have grown up and are looked upon as possible mates for Rose. The winner would be fortunate, since Rose is a rich orphan. With all the conflict and reversals that never happened in Eight Cousins, Rose in Bloom is a more adult novel than its predecessor. However it is vintage Alcott, echoing some of the sentiments from Little Women. Continue reading →.

Jo’s Boys, and How They Turned Out: A Sequel to “Little Men” was first published in 1886. This final book in the unofficial Little Women trilogy follows Jo’s children into adulthood. Franz and Emil, Tommy Bangs, Dolly, Stuffy, Nat, Dan and Daisy appear, along with the almost-grown-up Bess, Josie, Rob and Teddy. If Little Men was a wonderful fantasy of childhood, Jo’s Boys is a lesson in the cold, hard realities of adulthood. Continue reading →.

First published in 1871, Little Men the sequel to Little Women. It continues where Little Women left off set at the school established by Jo and her professor husband, Fritz Bhaer. Jo is the catalyst moving the education process along, the glue holding the school together and the engineer studying and solving the human problems that surface when a multitude of students with widely divergent backgrounds come together. Continue reading →.