This one was for class, and it was insane. First of all, it's over 900 pages, so it goes on for a while. Second of all, this is a soap opera in the form of an 18th-century novel. It's got children out of wedlock, a romance between people of different classes, a secret birthright, and lots of sex. Yes, sex, in a book from the 1700s. This book is notably a satire, and it pokes a lot of fun at the sanitized public image of the time. Also, it's getting a miniseries adaptation at the end of the month that looks really good.