19th Century Women Writers Challenge

I am so glad I visited over at Framed and Booked today, otherwise I wouldn't have known about this reading challenge. I know, I said I was going to do less challenges this year but this one suits some of my reading plans for this year anyway so why not join the crowd and get a little encouragement along the way?

You can read all about it over at Becky's Book Reviews but the main idea is to read female authors published in the 19th century. Six is the recommended number of books but Becky is being very flexible with the details. The challenge runs through all of 2008 so it's more than doable. Here are my selections:

• Persuasion by Jane Austen (1818) (reread)
• Villette by Charlotte Bronte (1852)
• Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell (1853)
• Little Women by Louisa May Alcott (1868) (reread)
• Daniel Deronda by George Eliot (1877)
• The Collected Poems of Emily Dickinson (1886)
• The Awakening by Kate Chopin (1899)