Classic "Girly" Lit titles for a 13yo

[mooooom]

Hi,

 

I'm making up a lit year for my dd in 9th. She does a classic -modern rotation. So far, her classics have been "A Tree Grows In Brooklyn", "Pride and Prejudice" and "Jane Eyre". I'm looking for a few more suggestions to finish up the year - personal violence upsets her (the attempted r*pe in "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" caused a few sleepless nights).

 

Thanks for suggestions

[Liza Q]

A Room with a View - love this one!

Rebecca - some violence when he shoots his wife but it is told in a flashback, sort of muted way

Washington Square - sad

Daisy Miller - should be sad but so melodramatic we laughed

The House of Mirth - very sad!

My Antonia - beautiful book

The Glass Menagerie, Our Town The Importance of Being Earnest, Pygmalion - I think these are all *girly*

Vanity Fair - intimidating (the first really long book my oldest read!) but a good read

 

More Jane Austen - Northanger Abbey is quite hysterical. Mansfield Park annoys us as we don't like perfect Fanny but it is a good story. Sense and Sensibility is great, though my girls can't get over how Marianne marries Captain Brandon! Persuasion is my favorite but my girls were just *eh* - I think that they are too young to appreciate it!

 

I Capture the Castle, Gone with Wind, Mrs. Mike - maybe not classics, but worth reading!

 

There are a lot of classics that look appealing but these are the only girly ones we've read - hth!

[Staci in MO]

I really like Elizabeth Gaskell, but she's not as well known as Austen and the Brontes. Wives and Daughters and Cranford are good.

 

The other poster mentioned Room with a View by Forster. I liked Howards End as well.

 

She's probably already read Little Women, but if not, she should. I'm re-reading it in preparation for my dd 5th grade year, and I just adore this book. It's one of those that every girl should read.

[Nissi]

Gene Stratton Porter's books like Girl of Limberlost, Harvester, Keeper of Bees

Louisa May Alcott's Books like Little Women, Jo's Boys, Rose in Bloom, Inheritance, An Old Fashioned Girl,Eight Cousins

Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm

[Chris in VA]

Has she read all the Green Gables books? Montgomery wrote the Rilla series, too.

How about Burnett's Little Princess? (Anne... and LP were earlier reads for my dd, but I didn't know if yours had read them yet.)

The original Heidi is quite good, a little heavy, but a lovely read. I think it's a different experience to read the original.

[Mandy in TN]

Alice in Wonderland!!!

 

Emma

 

This were even two of my oldest ds's favorite books!

Mandy

[Jane Elliot]

Great suggestions here. I'll add The Scarlet Pimpernel.

[Storm Bay]

Anne Bronte wrote 2 novels that are a lot closer to what real life was like, called Agnes Grey and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall. No violence, but a real eye opener as to the helplessness of the governess (the first book) and a less romanticized version of marriage, etc in the other one.

 

Others have mentioned most of what I would have suggested that I can remember from the nineteenth century. A lot of what I read at that age was Canadian lit, and I wouldn't suggest it (some of it that I liked at the time was rather dark, such as Margaret Laurence.)

 

The Tin Flute by Gabriel Roy (sp?) was something I read in hs, and it's about a French Canadian young woman. I don't remember much of it, but I don't think it was violent.

 

Enemy Women by Paulette Giles takes place in Missouri during the civil war, but there is some violence. However, historically it has many good points. I read it as an adult, though.

[Guest Jason]

Throw in some Thomas Hardy! I'd suggest 'Tess of the d'Urbervilles', - should shake up all the lovey-dubbyness of other Classics. Would also recommend 'North and South' by Elizabeth Gasket.

 

Edit: Ah, you may want to overlook 'Tess' as it has suggestive rape and murder.

Edited April 13, 2009 by Jason

[stripe]

This may be taken as being a "PC" suggestion, but another alternative to the finding-a-man type of modern classics, consider some literature written by African Americans in the twentieth century. There are some like "Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry" that a lot of young adults read, but there are other potentially "meatier" options like Zora Neale Hurston's "Their Eyes Were Watching God." Ernest J. Gaines' "The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman" is also quite famous.

 

From this website, I found some stories I didn't know about by authors I did -- Zora Neale Hurston's "Seraph on the Suwanne," in which the characters are poor white Southerners (this is actually a short story, so you may have to look in a collection; I see it appears in 1995's "Selections"), and Ntozake Shange's "Betsey Brown," in which the main character is a 13 year old girl, the time is the 1950s, and the plot revolves around racial integration of schools. I am not sure that these will be devoid of violence, however, they are probably better choices than, say, Toni Morrison's "Beloved" or "The Bluest Eye."

 

 

.....

I recently read Charlotte Bronte's "Villette;" it's somewhat obscure but interesting in a very unusual sort of way; there's no violence.

 

The book "Understood Betsy" by Dorothy Canfield is a fun read.

Edited April 13, 2009 by stripe

[jellogirl]

Throw in some Thomas Hardy! I'd suggest 'Tess of the d'Urbervilles', - should shake up all the lovey-dubbyness of other Classics. Would also recommend 'North and South' by Elizabeth Gasket.

 

Edit: Ah, you may want to overlook 'Tess' as it has suggestive rape and murder.

 

Tess is great, but save until she's at least 16.

 

Kathleen Norris- Mother

Louisa May Alcott (Jack and Jill is always overlooked)

Isabella Alden (try Ester Ried)

Martha Finney - Elsie Dinsmore

The Scarlet Letter

Elizabeth George Speare

Christy