![]() ![]() ![]() The book’s broader message asks (or implies?) that women who break boundaries can expect dire consequences – from pregnancy to murder.Īnd, as the Stepford wives and Rosemary Woodhouse (Rosemary’s Baby) learn, there’s no easy resolution or agency for women in a man’s world.Ī kiss Before Dying is short, salacious and very readable, with the pace picking up considerably after a measured start: There are also broader expectations about good girls versus good-time girls. Most obviously, sex and pregnancy outside marriage is a big no-no. The Kingship sisters are a new breed of women growing up in 1950s America with all the trappings of independence, yet still tied to family and social expectations. Here it’s rich-but-loveless Dorothy Kingship, then later her sisters Ellen and Marion. Like Levin’s The Stepford Wives and Rosemary’s Baby, A Kiss before Dying (1953) is about women in peril. Unfortunately her gold-digger boyfriend thinks murder is a better option. ![]() When college student Dorothy Kingship discovers she’s pregnant, marriage seems like the perfect solution. Boy meets girl but falls in love with her bank account in Ira Levin’s first novel, a Kiss Before Dying. ![]()
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