Classic Gentle Reads

Little Women  by Louisa May Alcott
Chronicles the joys and sorrows of the four March sisters as they grow into young women in 19th-century New England.

Emma  by Jane Austen
Emma tries to impose her matchmaking ideas on everyone and finds that sometimes she should desist.

My Antonia  by Willa Cather
Antonia works as a servant for her neighbors after her father's death, elopes and then returns to marry a Bohemian farmer.

Wives and Daughters  by Elizabeth Gaskell
Set in English society before the 1832 Reform Bill, Wives and Daughters centers on the story of youthful Molly Gibson, brought up from childhood by her father. When he remarries, a new stepsister enters Molly's quiet life – lovable, but worldly and troubling, Cynthia.

The Portrait of a Lady  by Henry James
When Isabel Archer, a young American woman with looks, wit and imagination, arrives in Europe, she sees the world as "a place of brightness, of free expression, of irresistible action." She turns aside from suitors who offer her their wealth and devotion to follow her own path. But that way leads to disillusionment and a future as constricted as "a dark, narrow alley with a dead wall at the end." In a conclusion that is one of the most moving in modern fiction, Isabel makes her final choice.

Excellent Women by Barbara Pym
A subtle comedy about life and its complications for a spinster who tends to become involved in other people's affairs, set in England during the 1950s.

I Capture the Castle  by Dodie Smith
The journal of 17-year-old Cassandra Mortmain reveals her perspective on six stormy months in the eccentric and poverty-stricken life of her family in a ruined Suffolk castle, ending with the revelation that Cassandra is deeply in love.

Barchester Towers by Anthony Trollope
This 19th-century novel about clerical politics, read by Flo Gibson in her 19th-century voice, is a joy. Keeping the deans, archbishops and prebendaries straight while reading, may encourage dozing off, but no difficulty occurs during this expert telling. Whether the cleric you dislike the most gets his comeuppance or the right cleric gets his just rewards, you can't wait to hear the resolution.

Delta Wedding by Eudora Welty
The Fairchild family, living on their Mississippi delta plantation, plans for the wedding of Dabney, a favorite child.