Classic books for post-partum time (like Jane Austen)?

[atpeace]

Jane Austen was my life-saver during the last part of my last pregnancy and early post-partum months. I read all her books, and they helped me feel like the early post-partum period (when you think nothing will ever be the same, and wonder if you made the biggest mistake of your life!) was going to get better.

Now I am pregnant again, due in July, and need to find a bunch of similar lovable books to read. I have yet to find an author and books as wonderful at Jane Austen. Does anyone have any suggestions of similar authors/books?

What did you read post-partum? I like classics, but nothing too heavy. Would Wuthering Heights be too dark? Anyone read A Doll's House? Or Tess of the D'Urbervilles?

Any others? I'm in a reading slump lately...

[Smokering]

Tess of the D'Urbervilles is hideously depressing in a fun sort of way. I found myself reading to the end just to see how many more misfortunes the author could throw at the poor girl. A lot, it turned out. Might be a bit bleak for the hormal PP period! Same with Wuthering Heights...

Wives and Daughters by Elizabeth Gaskell is quite nice. It's more upbeat and Jane Austeny than her other books. I liked Cranford as well, but I know a fair few people who hated it.

Also check out Elizabeth Goudge (A City of Bells, Green Dolphin Country, The Eliots of Damerosehay and The Herb of Grace, The Dean's Watch, Towers in the Mist). I love her - she's very witty and tends to write about quirky characters in interesting periods of history. Definite Austeny vibe.

*squints at bookshelf*

I don't know how Austeny these are per se, but I love To Kill a Mockingbird, Watership Down, Their Eyes Were Watching God and the Narnia books. Plus LOTR and The Hobbit of course...

[LemonPie]

I was just coming to recommend Elizabeth Gaskell. Wives and Daughters is my favorite, and I enjoyed Cranford and Ruth quite a bit, but Mary Barton was really dark and depressing.

Thomas Hardy. . . eh, the guy's a bit too depressing for me for postpartum, but some of his books might be okay. The Mayor of Casterbridge is a good one. Avoid Jude the Obscure. I can't read that one now that I have kids.

George Eliot might be another good bet for you. Currently working through her Daniel Deronda and I enjoyed Mill on the Floss, Middlemarch and Silas Marner. I think she's a slightly different time period than Austen, but very similar.

You might also enjoy Wilkie Collins. The Moonstone and The Woman in White are good starters. Several of his books are sort of Victorian murder mysteries, but they're not nearly so horrific or dark as some of Hardy's works.

The Bronte sisters are another good bet for you. Jane Eyre, Villette, Agnes Grey. I've been wanting to read The Tenant of Wildfell Hall but haven't gotten to it yet. And I think I'm one of the few people on the planet who hated Wuthering Heights.

A little later time-period-wise, but Lucy Maud Montgomery's Anne of Green Gables is a sweet little series.

HTH!

[St. Margaret]

I hear what you're saying about needing the right books for that time. Jane Austen is a great idea. Some that aren't classics but that are very comforting come to mind: The Number One Ladies' Detective Agency series, Barbara Kingsolver books, especially her essays (so positive, like Small Wonder) and this book called Passion, about the women in great male Romantic writers' lives (although there is bad stuff connected with birth and babies too, so not TOO close to PP. I read it a few months out from DD's birth and that was a good time). I think I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith would be great, too.

Classics... Middlemarch would be good. But too "hard" (huge book and pretty dry) for me personally in a brain-dead PP sleepy time. I did read it while pregnant, though. For pretty much the whole year! I'd pick it up every other month I think. Tom Jones is fun. Orlando by Virginia Woolf might be good. Jane Eyre of course! Oh and that makes me think of Jasper Fforde's silly series that starts with The Eyre Affair. Light, very funny, and totally for literary nerds. Same thing for Connie Willis' To Say Nothing of the Dog. And Anne Fadiman's essays, especially Ex Libris. Like a cup of tea in book form.

[atpeace]

Beautiful! There are some fabulous ideas here, ladies, thank you so much! I'm excited to start putting them on hold at the library!

LemonPie - I recently finished the entire Anne of Green Gables series, and enjoyed it tremendously. Wonderful!

[ollyoxenfree]

What in particular do you like about Austen? For me, it isn't just the plots, it's her light touch and wry humour and penetrating insight about the culture she was writing about.

I like the Brontes (during my teens and into my 20s, Jane Eyre was my favourite book) and Thomas Hardy, but the drama and angst would make them the wrong choice for post-partum for me.

The author who writes about her community with the same kind of light touch and affection as Austen is....L.M. Montgomery. Not just the Anne of Green Gables or Emily of New Moon series, although those would keep you reading for a little while. I enjoy her characterizations and insights in her stand alone books like The Tangled Web and The Blue Castle.

If you like something weightier in the classics, perhaps Henry James. I find his books a little depressing too, but without the intense emotional drama of the Brontes and Hardy. I like the measured way he tells his stories - but many find it boring.

[ollyoxenfree]

LOL - I just read the other replies, and see you've already had recommendations for Montgomery.

How about Louisa May Alcott then too? Little Women, Little Men, A Rose in Bloom...they are sweet stories too. I think Montgomery is a little more realistic and slightly less moralistic than Alcott - when you are post-partum, you may not want to read about a saintly maternal paragon like Marmee. That's a standard no one could live up to. If you don't mind Marmee though, they are nice light entertainment.

Following up my Henry James suggestions, what about Edith Wharton? The Age of Innocence is an excellent study of manners and a good period piece.

[Smokering]

Ooh. It's not exactly a classic, but if you like Jane Austen and want a fun, quick read? Bridget Jones' Diary. And the sequel, The Edge of Reason. They're VASTLY smarter, wittier and better than the movies, and the first book follows the plot of Pride and Prejudice (kindasorta), while the second was inspired by Persuasion. Plus there are a lot of more blatant references to P&P, including in the second book a HILARIOUS interview with Colin Firth. They'd be a really fun PP read, I think.

ollyoxenfree: I remember reading Rose in Bloom as a young thing and being totally confused by the scene in which Charlie gets drunk. Dear Louisa May never comes out and says it - the closest she gets is having Rose "unable to form the ugly word" when asked to describe his condition. Blindingly obvious now, of course, but at the age of eight I was like "Wha-? What's wrong with him? Did he hit his head? What's the word?".

[annethcz]

I was also going to suggest Edith Wharton. Although she was writing 80 years after Austen, and in America, there are some parallels between the two writers. They both wrote novels that are a bit witty and often tackle the issues of class disparity and social standing. Wharton doesn't have the same happily-ever-after endings that Austen includes, but I find her writing very good and the stories interesting.

[ollyoxenfree]

Originally Posted by Smokering

Ooh. It's not exactly a classic, but if you like Jane Austen and want a fun, quick read? Bridget Jones' Diary. And the sequel, The Edge of Reason. They're VASTLY smarter, wittier and better than the movies, and the first book follows the plot of Pride and Prejudice (kindasorta), while the second was inspired by Persuasion. Plus there are a lot of more blatant references to P&P, including in the second book a HILARIOUS interview with Colin Firth. They'd be a really fun PP read, I think.

ollyoxenfree: I remember reading Rose in Bloom as a young thing and being totally confused by the scene in which Charlie gets drunk. Dear Louisa May never comes out and says it - the closest she gets is having Rose "unable to form the ugly word" when asked to describe his condition. Blindingly obvious now, of course, but at the age of eight I was like "Wha-? What's wrong with him? Did he hit his head? What's the word?".

The Bridget Jones books are fun, and better than so much of the chick lit that followed - Shopaholic, I'm looking at you!

My vivid memory about Rose is the scene where she gets her ears pierced. That might be in Eight Cousins actually. It scared me from piercing my own for a few years - which is exactly what Alcott intended, I'm sure, LOL.

[christinar]

Originally Posted by annethcz

I was also going to suggest Edith Wharton.

Yes, maybe Age of Innocence? I loved Room with a View too.

[zipworth]

O.k., not a classic, but an easy read with some relevant subject matter is 'The Red Tent.' I read it pp after my daughter was born and it felt so appropriate at the time.

[KiwiZ]

Yes, I agree with "Jane Eyre" (happy ending, woman (eventually) has control of her own life instead of having to rely on men), not "Wuthering Heights" (I was told it was searingly romantic but I found it really heavy and depressing).

Its been "done to death" in movies etc but I never get tired of "A Christmas Carol", so uplifting. I liked "The Scarlet Pimpernel" (previously I had only seen the Daffy Duck parody "the Scarlet Pumpernickel" ROFL). I also loved "Room with a View" (the movie does a great job of paralleling the book)

Glad you are finding some great suggestions here!

[KiwiZ]

Oh, I also really liked Pamela Aidan's "These Three Remain, A novel of Fitzwilliam Darcy, Gentleman" (the 3rd of a trilogy about him). I haven't read the first two yet, but I really liked this one. It shows Darcy's POV and I thought it "fit his character" very well

[Trinitty]

Loved Jane Eyre.

Disliked Wuthering Heights - unbelievable and grim.

I read another Bronte book but for the life of me can't remember it!

Anne of Green Gables and beyond would really do you well.... a little later time period, but still proper and classic.

I'll try to think...

Trin.

[atpeace]

Jane Austen - loved the lightness of it, but at the same time it kept my mind working by trying to figure out the language and expressions. It was just enough challenge, and nothing depressing or horrible. That's why I liked the Anne of Green Gables series, and I especially enjoyed all the little vignettes and gossip in it (Mrs. So and So did this, and Mr. XYZ did this). Interesting simple characters with just enough details about them.

The Red Tent - fantastic! I read it on vacation a few years ago. One of my favourites.

I've just started Edith Wharton as some of you suggested. I'm reading "House of Mirth"...ok so far, but I'm only on the third page or so. How does Elizabeth Gaskell compare?

I read Little Women a few years ago as well, and loved it, but didn't enjoy Jo's Boys and didn't finish it. What is her best one, after Little Women? I'll put that on my list.

[ollyoxenfree]

For Alcott, I would say Eight Cousins and its sequel A Rose in Bloom, but it's many years since I read them. Ouch, I just realized it's actually been decades!

If you like the gossipy vignettes by Montgomery, try A Tangled Web. An old lady has died, and she left a priceless family heirloom to someone from two interconnected clans, but they won't know who inherits for a year. The book relates a bunch of intertwined stories about characters from both families. She wrote it for adults, so it's a little less juvenile than her other books.

I have never read the Barsetshire Chronicles (The Warden, Barchester Towers etc.) by Anthony Trollope, but I wonder if they would suit? I believe they are all about the social and political machinations in an English village in Victorian times.

[enfpintj]

after my 2nd I read Kristenlavrensdatter by Sigrid Undset http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kristin_Lavransdatter. 1928 nobel prize winner

http://books.google.com/books?id=sou...age&q=&f=false


Try to get the 3 books separate, combine are too heavy. Such beautiful writing.

[daisymama12]

Originally Posted by KiwiZ

Oh, I also really liked Pamela Aidan's "These Three Remain, A novel of Fitzwilliam Darcy, Gentleman" (the 3rd of a trilogy about him). I haven't read the first two yet, but I really liked this one. It shows Darcy's POV and I thought it "fit his character" very well

These books would be perfect for after baby is born. They are really easy to read, but very compelling. Never in a million years would I think I would read "fan fiction" but it's really good!

This thread is definitely being bookmarked, so many good books to read or re-visit.

Something else comes to mind; not classic in the true sense, but the Adrian Mole diary books are great for pp too

[lobster_mom]

Originally Posted by enfpintj

after my 2nd I read Kristenlavrensdatter by Sigrid Undset http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kristin_Lavransdatter. 1928 nobel prize winner

http://books.google.com/books?id=sou...age&q=&f=false


Try to get the 3 books separate, combine are too heavy. Such beautiful writing.

I just read the wiki- which, in your opinion, would be the better translation for me to get. I read (speak) Norwegian and according to the wiki page

This guy's:

The original translation into English was made in the 1920s by Charles Archer. His choice of archaic and stilted English phrasing ("thee", "I trow", "methinks" etc.) is considered by critics today to cloud Undset's clear prose and make it unnecessarily formal and clumsy. However, to those with some knowledge of Norwegian, who realise that many of Archer's choices deliberately reflect back on the original language (for example 'I trow' from the Norwegian 'tror' meaning "to believe" etc), the language seems more genuine and resonant rather than archaic

or the one critics consider superior:

A new and complete translation by Tiina Nunnally was released by Penguin Classics in 2005, and this translation is considered by many critics to be the superior of the two.

if you have any idea/opinion, that it.