Short text for 'Love through the ages'

[dyslexichelpneeded]

Can any of you well-read souls out there help with a suggestion? My daughter needs an additional text for her coursework for A2 English. The general topic is 'Love through the ages' and she is thinking on focusing on something on gender identity. She is going to use As You Like It, A Streetcar Named Desire and Persuasion. Can anyone suggest something short that she could add to this list?

Thanks!

[Amber]

One of Chaucer's tales perhaps- all about courtly love. Ok so they are in old English but translations are available. And they are all short. She would get points for choosing something 'hard'. The gender identity thing would come in because of the knight/lady stereotypes.

Could she choose a poem - they would be short? Keats maybe, plenty of love in that, though not so sure on the gender angle.

[asdguest]

Virginia Woolf's 'Orlando'?

[dyslexichelpneeded]

Thanks, Amber, knew I could rely on you!

But I have got it a bit wrong! It seems that the coursework doesn't have to be about love, and she's thinking of doing something on gender or identity, or some combination of the two! Whoops! She's rejected Chaucer out of hand, but likes the idea of a poem. If anyone has any further ideas, please keep them coming.

[dyslexichelpneeded]

I've just looked up 'Orlando'. That would have been ideal if I'd got the topic right!

[dyslexichelpneeded]

Oh, and I got the texts mixed up, too. She's doing As You Like It (I got that bit right, at least) and The Handmaid's Tale. Streetcar is for some other part of the course. Not sure where Persuasion comes into this at all....

[Amber]

The very best book ever on identity is Max Frisch's 'Stiller'. Sadly this is neither English (though is available in translation as 'I'm not Stiller') nor short. Well worth a read though. As is 'Metamorphosis' by Kafka, which is short, deals with identity, but is still not English. Sorry not being very helpful am I?

[Yamin151]

How about Washington Square? Henry James. Short and very gender based.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington_Square_(novel" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;)

[dyslexichelpneeded]

I'm not sure about the status of translations for the modules my DD is doing, but the A level does include translations in the suggested wider reading for one of the options. The Henry James might be useful for the wider reading, even if she doesn't fancy it for the coursework.

[pheasantchick]

What about a biography?