Catharine

1792
Jane Austen
Catharine, or The Bower
B

This relatively long (about 50 pages in this edition) chapterless story shows Austen further coming into her own.  Catharine is a good heroine, and the supporting characters of her relatives are well done.  Also, the plights of the orphaned Wynne sisters (one shipped out to the East Indies to get a husband, who is ill-suited to her; the other an unpaid companion of a condescending rich relation) are sensitively suggested.  This is not as serious as Wollstonecraft by any means, and the flirtation with young Mr. Stanley verges on farce.  Again, this is a work that I wish Austen had continued.