![]() ![]() 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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