WATCHED POTBOILERS

The genre—call it “Young Women on Life’s Threshold” is as old as the hills and goes hack to Samuel Richardson s Clarissa, of 1748, cited as the first modern novel in English. An anti-romance with a prowling sexual engine, Clarissa sent a reverberation through the culture—to this day novels about women that become social signifiers tend to he just as raw. A few classics beyond The Group:

MARJORIE MORNINGSTAR

The heroine of Herman Wouk's best-selling novel of 1955 was born Marjorie Morgenstern, a nice Jewish girl. Marjorie pursues her Broadway dream and the bohemian life— pre-marital sex!— that comes with it. She's vibrant and desirable, but she's not a star, she's a "Shirley"—Wouk's term for the gal who marries and moves to the burbs. Wouk defended this comedown ending as true to life.

VALLEY OF THE DOLLS

Published in 1966, Jacqueline Susann's three-girls-in-the-city potboiler was the go-to novel for 60s slumber parties. Though less sexually explicit than The Group, Susann's book was now! Her title coined a slang term for the new demon lover on the scene: "dolls" were downers, and her troubled girls ate 'em by the handful, like Good & Plentys.

A summer place

Sloan Wilson is known for 1955's The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit, but A Summer Place, published in 1958, is a better, deeper book, with tour de force passages on sex, women, repression, and desire as not one but two generations of teen lovers get their stars crossed.

THE BEST OF EVERYTHING

Producer Jerry Wald, fresh from Peyton Place, wanted a woman's movie based on a woman's book, and he urged young Rona Jaffe to write it. Published in 1958, The Best of Everything is a good, honest, middlebrow read about five career girls and the rakes, cads, and climbers they try to love.

FEAR OF FLYING

Erica Jong emptied her purse and pockets on the table, spilling out one taboo after another, which made for a mesmerizing read. If you remember one thing about this novel of 1973, it's the phrase "zipless fuck"—a holy grail of hot sex without power plays, shame, love, or clumsiness. Dream on.

LOOKING FOR MR. GOODBAR

The horrible flip side of Fear of Flying, Judith Rossner's novel of 1975—the story of a lonely schoolteacher, Theresa, who cruises bars by night—is a Danteesque spiral into ever edgier one-night stands. Eventually "Terry" brings home the Grim Reaper. Mr. Goodbar is the name of a pickup bar Terry frequents (as well as a Hershey's chocolate bar with roasted peanuts). Diane Keaton played Theresa in the movie of 1977.

LAURA JACOBS