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Original poster

So I finally read Little Women (with spoilers)

62 replies

Flamebat · 06/10/2008 18:38

hell of a struggle I might add - please someone who loves it tell me why?!

Anyway, googled Good Wives to see the outcome - and how did Jo NOT marry him eventually????

OP posts:
phdlife · 06/10/2008 21:04

or did I make that up?

I didn't make it up, did I?

[worried]

phdlife · 06/10/2008 21:04

oh yes, had forgotten GB was the prof. still stuck with awful image of william shatner

georgimama · 06/10/2008 20:58

The bit under the brollie with Gabriel Byrne is probably the most romantic thing ever

"I have nothing to offer you, my hands are empty."

(Jo puts her hand in his)

"Not empty now."

If Professor Bhear looked like Gabriel Byrne, I really don't blame her.

NorthernLurker · 06/10/2008 20:56

I do think the bit with Jo and the Prof under the umbrella is terribly sweet.

phdlife · 06/10/2008 20:53

oh for heaven's sake people, Jo couldn't have married Laurie! He was a boy, she needed a MAN!

NorthernLurker · 06/10/2008 20:50

Did she need 'calming'?

Original poster
Flamebat · 06/10/2008 20:15

She would have helped him to remember his wild side, and he could have calmed her a bit.

OP posts:
georgimama · 06/10/2008 20:14

I don't think they were really that suited, though. They wouldn't have made each other happy, in the long run. Laurie is basically a posh boy who needed a pretty wife. Jo is a free spirit before they had free spirits, she's much better off with the person she married.

It's a bit like "The Way We Were" if anyone has seen that. In love but completely incompatible.

tribpot · 06/10/2008 20:12

It is one of the great crimes of literature that Jo and Laurie don't end up together. Keep googling and you will prob discover there are various theories that LMA didn't feel she was sufficiently feminine to deserve to cop off with the hero (I imagine in her mind it was not expressed this way). When they laugh about it in subsequent books - oh how unsuited we were to marry - errr, no people, you missed the opportunity of a lifetime, GET WITH IT.

I love these books but agree you probably have to have read them as a child to really appreciate why. Ditto Narnia?

georgimama · 06/10/2008 20:10

Has anyone read "What Katy Did" lately? I really want to but I read it when I was about 7 and if I loved it then it might actually be a bit pants. I loved Jo but I wanted to be Katy.

Original poster
Flamebat · 06/10/2008 20:07

Feel like I should have started this thread first - I am now looking back on it all warm and fuzzy

OP posts:
emskaboo · 06/10/2008 20:06

Feenie, I'm pleased I'm not the only one! I know what you mean about runining it, I felt like I'd analysed it to death and couldn't look at it for about ten years, but it is now back on the comfort reading pile

Original poster
Flamebat · 06/10/2008 19:26

That's what I meant too - re-reading as an adult you have the love as a child, but an adult coming to them fresh probably wouldn't "get" it

OP posts:
Feenie · 06/10/2008 19:21

emskaboo

Feenie · 06/10/2008 19:21

Omg, emskaboo, I did Little Women for my dissertation!! I only got a 2ii for it, which put me in a huff and ruined the book for me for about 14 years and counting. This thread has cured me though, I reckon, I really want to read them all again - can remember every word anyway!

So you aren't the only loon, emskabo!

ditheringdora · 06/10/2008 19:18

I lurve LW and Good Wives, I always love any domestic details. I thought John Brooke was a bit of a sap, and hated how everyone wanted to be Jo (I liked Meg). I hated the doglike devotion to their dad despite him losing their money but apart from that, it's wonderful. Apparently, Louisa Alcott wrote a bonkbuster after that!

Lauriefairycake · 06/10/2008 19:17

I erm....meant re-reading it now

I read them every year. Along with the St Clare's series.

VintageGardenia · 06/10/2008 19:16

"Christmas won't be Christmas without any presents," grumbled Jo, lying on the rug.

I loved this from the off because in all the other "period" things I read (Katy, Jane Eyre, what have you) the girls, even the tomboyish ones, never did anything as graceless and normal as lying on a rug.

NorthernLurker · 06/10/2008 19:15

Phew that's a relief about the spoilers! Lovely mumsnet towers have removed my post anyway - so now it looks like I've said something v rude about Louisa May Alcott and then thought better of it...

Do you not find 'Teddy' a bit neeedy though? rich but needy? That's why he can marry amy - because she needs him and they can form an equal parternship. He would never have had that with Jo -as Marmee points out repeatedly as I recall.

emskaboo · 06/10/2008 19:09

I loved it, soo much wanted to be Jo. In my family my mum always read us the Chrstmas bit when they give their Christmas stuff to the poor German family every Christmas Eve. I also wrote an extended essay at University on Little Women and Good Wives as the first popular feminist novels. Think I may have revealed too much about my devotion.

Original poster
Flamebat · 06/10/2008 19:08

It is meant to be schlock - hence the surprise at lack of marrying

Spoler warning in the title was for all of the books.

Malory towers I meant starting as an adult, not re-reading now

I can the problem though - money, great friendship - crappy basis for a marriage

OP posts:
NorthernLurker · 06/10/2008 18:58

STOP
DO NOT READ MY POST TWO POSTS DOWN _ IT'S A SPOILER FOR GW AND I wasn't thinking. Have asked for it to be removed

[b lush]

TheConfusedofthedeadOne · 06/10/2008 18:56

I loved it, Mom bought it for me in hardback when I was about 10, I in turn gave it to DGD when she was 10, she has handed it back ready for the next girl in the family.

NorthernLurker · 06/10/2008 18:55

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

VintageGardenia · 06/10/2008 18:55

Maybe they have an affair in unpublished Book 5