Little Women / Good Wives - do you think Laurie still loved Jo, or Jo loved Laurie, when they married other people?

tribpot
your last post made me laugh

I so fancied Dan as a teenager - his is the saddest story in the series, I think. Forget Beth - she's just too bloody perfect and I never cry a bit when she dies.

I think LMA had a penchant for killing off characters if their real-life inspiration had died? Which might explain why John B was sent for an early bath when he clearly had more pontificating to do about the cost of silk :)

Absolutely must buy and read Little Men and Jo's Boys

yes, you must, and so mush JerichoStar if she thinks 'The Prof is a minor character who only comes into his own late on -'

Harking back to the question of racism at the time, at the end of Good Wives when they've set up the school, there is mention that 'they even have a merry quadroon' or words to that effect - despite warnings that his presence will cause the school to fail or somesuch. So the general racism is acknowledged and explicitly rejected - although couched in terms which don't quite sit right with our 21st century sensibilities.

My Little Women is an old Collins hardback from 1956 and has a coloured frontispiece of Jo and Laurie dancing in the hall, her with one glove in her hand. Jo is an absolute beauty in a dark red ballgown. "They had a grand polka"

On John Brooke, I do agree he was largely a pain but he did utter this when someone slights Meg:
"Young ladies in America love independence as much as their ancestors did, and are admired and respected for supporting themselves."
And for that he is getting a red tick and V.G. in his exercise book.

Apparently it should be 'mommy' but the film versions always ignore this and say 'mar-mee'.

Marmee's chair!! Oh God.

Is "Marmee" pronounced like "Mommy" with a drawled "o" or is it more... rhotic? She is always Marrrrmee in my head.

Oh yes, he was, but Meg as a dreary widow with nothing in her life except her children was even worse.

John Brooke was always so fucking annoying though...

I was very annoyed with LMA for killing off John Brooke - it was as if she couldn't think of anything else interesting to do with Meg as a character so she had to become a saintly widow, she couldn't just be happy and married. Surely she could have gone off and become a nurse or done Good Works of some sort, once her children were older?

I need time to reread these books - too busy working....................at the moment

Touché!

You can't remember that Jo goes to wake them up and can't maintain her composure when she says they are going to say good bye to father?

'Wake up, Demi, dear! I want you."

"Why, I've just gone to bed; it can't be morning yet;" and Demi blinked like a little owl as he waked from his first sound sleep.

"It's only ten, but your father is ill, and we must go to him. O my little John! my poor little John!" and Aunt Jo laid her head down on the pillow with a sob that scared sleep from Demi's eyes and filled his heart with fear and wonder; for he dimly felt why Aunt Jo called him "John," and wept over him as if some loss had come that left him poor. He clung to her without a word, and in a minute she was quite steady again, and said, with a tender kiss as she saw his troubled face,

"We are going to say good-by to him, my darling, and there is no time to lose; so dress quickly and come to me in my room. I must go to Daisy."

"Yes, I will;" and when Aunt Jo was gone, little Demi got up quietly, dressed as if in a dream, and leaving Tommy fast asleep went away through the silent house, feeling that something new and sorrowful was going to happen something that set him apart from the other boys for a time, and made the world seem as dark and still and strange as those familiar rooms did in the night. A carriage sent by Mr. Laurie stood before the door. Daisy was soon ready, and the brother and sister held each other by the hand all the way into town, as they drove swiftly and silently with aunt and uncle through the shadowy roads to say good-by to father.

Total masochism googling that!

He did die in the middle of the night- Daisy and Demi were oken up to say good bye.

Can't remember a harrowing quote- you'll be glad to know!

Absolutely must buy and read Little Men and Jo's Boys.

Not sure it's ever actually said how John Brooke dies - he seems to come down with a sudden fever (typhoid or similar?).

Bronson Alcott was an absolute twat, useless with money and utterly feckless with a new bonkers scheme every week. His wife Abigail was always having to pick up the pieces.

Mr March is clearly a rewriting of how Louisa would have liked her father to be - sensible, settled and loving.

Yes, Meg and John's marriage is the bit where you can really feel the age of the book, isn't it? We'd have a field day with them on AIBU.

How does John Brooke die? Am having a complete mental blank.

And don't forget the throw away but heartbreaking line "For Marmee's chair was empty now"

God she was good at schmaltz, that woman!

Oh God Grimma, I'd forgotten about John Brooke's death - I never liked him much but that scene is heartbreaking! For me it's only matched by Matthew's death in Anne of Green Gables, I can never read that without blubbing either!

And Dan is dark, dark enough Jo thinks he might be part Indian, and I suspect he's her second stab at writing a Laurie character.

Ahh, yes, trib, hadn't thought that one through but you're right.

It just seems awful that a father would say that sort of thing, and it seems she idolized him in spite of it.

And Bess is perfect and blonde whereas the much more interesting and feisty Josie is dark.........

Mmm. And Jo cuts off her hair (her 'one true beauty' to quote Amy) ... and Laurie (who surely is also dark-haired, wot with being Italian and all that) goes off with the blonde ...