3. The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton
I’ve decided that I’ll only read free e-books at first on my Nook, thus allowing me to continue to buy real books guilt-free. Most of the free books are either erotica or classics, so I can finally get around to reading the books I avoided in high school. This book left me extremely frustrated. I should’ve remembered that in every book that pits its protagonists against society, society always wins. At least in this case, it was old New York society, which was extremely nitpicky and entertaining. People wore dancing gloves and kissed each others shoes. But other than that, I kind of hated this book.
2. Daisy Miller by Henry James
Again, this was kind of a society cautionary tale. The moral of this story: don’t gallivant around with men at night unless you want to die of malaria. This is especially true if you aren’t in the top tier of society. In reading these sort of books, I’ve found myself intrigued by a particular stock character — the old lady who can’t bear to see her relative associate with anyone with some sort of social stigma. In Age of Innocence, it was Mrs. Welland, and in Daisy Miller, it’s Mrs. Costello. As disagreeable and obnoxious as they are, the fact that they find the idea of divorce or staying out past ten so appalling almost makes them endearing.
1. Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
This book made me question whether I will be able to keep the whole only-reading-classics thing up. Many things happen in this book, but they happen at a glacial pace. This seems to be the case with lots of “classics.” A nice thing about reading on a Nook, though, is you can see how many pages you have left, so you can have a little countdown as you reach the end. Anyway, in the great debate over this book versus Jane Eyre, though, I would have to choose Wuthering Heights. Although it has yet another sad-sack ending (sort of), I liked its structure and Ellen as a narrator. However, both books dealt with the mentally ill by sticking them in attics. Not cool.
