**Clueless

I still hate that movie.

No, actually, change of heart. I just hate Jane Austen and variations thereof in general.

Well-written stories? Yes.
Well-though-out stories? Yes.
Good plots? Hella no.

I’m not reading the 19th Century equivalent of Jodi Picoult. Just because a book is old, it is NOT high literature! THIS IS A MISTAKE MADE BY MANY PEOPLE - AGE DOES NOT GIVE YOU OR ANY PUBLISHED WORKS ANY MORE CREDIT! True, some books (Orwell, Tolkien etc) age particularly well and become more respected and revered, but that is the making of classics. Ths Sleepover club won't be high-society literature in a hundred years because of its age, it will still be what it is - young girls' inspiration to have non-sleepovers and do generally nothing with their lives.

The only reason Shakespeare is considered high literature is because of his choice of words, phrases and the sheer number of works he created in his short life and with minimal resources. They’re plays written for the masses with very simple storylines. If it hadn’t been Shakespeare who wrote A Midsummer Night’s Dream, it would be crap for the utter hecticity and randomness of the plotline.

And even then, we’re not entirely sure if Shakespeare wrote what we think he did. It’s been speculated that some other playwrights at the time wrote many of his plays (Marlow etc), as well as that he’s gay and many of his sonnets are to a young boy.

Chortle.