to get totally irritated at the scene in Little Women where Wynona Ryder plays Jo where she cuts off her hair and they're all shocked and say "Jo, your one beauty!"

[LittleBellatrixLeBoot]

Being as how Winona Ryder would have looked beatiful with a Sinead O'Connor hairdo?

Should I just accept that Hollywood can't deal with casting less than stunningly beautiful women in parts which explicitly call for plain ones?

Well, okay I will concede heart failure to Beth. Cousin Helen fell off a horse. She was a very wild child.
Did L M Alcott really hate little girls? She adored her adopted niece, I read.

A neighbour said Cousin Helen was worldly because she had nice clothes even though she was ill

So what did John Brooke die of then ? (no great loss imo)

But it's not about Hollywood. It's about the book. Jo was never plain; she was a tomboy, which is different.

It's true that Winona might have looked beautiful with a crew-cut, but by the standards of the time, women just didn't cut their hair short. They just didn't. Beautiful, plain or middling.

Winona could have just gone out and stolen the money .

Her best performance was that CCTV footage of her in Bloomingdale's nicking all that stuff .

Thank you for your literary input, expat

Stunning. Fucking stunning.

OK, so Jo might not have been plain, but she was decidedly not a beauty. "She had a decided mouth, a comical nose, and sharp, gray eyes, which appeared to see everything, and were by turns fierce, funny, or thoughtful. Her long, thick hair was her one beauty".

She's not supposed to be conventionally beautiful the way Winona Ryder is, so it doesn't make any difference how she does her hair.

Ex pat I think all books are written for money

I disagree, slow.

JK's writing another book.

She doesn't need the money, that's for sure!

Is she writing another?
She must be mad.

That's interesting, LB.

You see, I don't see Winona Ryder as being conventionally pretty. I think she's rather plain.

But she was certainly miscast as Jo. Jo begs for a squarer jaw, at the very least!

Katherine Hepburn would have made a good Jo.

Oh yes, Katherine Hepburn would have been a perfect Jo!

I always found that bit about Cousin Helen's ex's daughter Helen a bit yucky. Too Pollyanna-ish (let's add another book to the mix, just to confuse the thread even more ).

I think you're right that Cousin Helen fell off a horse!

I'm sure Louisa ended up raising May (Amy)'s daughter after May died - bummer if you hate little girls!

I'm going to have to re-read all these now . I do remember cousin Helen helping Katy come to terms with being 'bedridden' but Katy wasn't permanantly disabled. She'd hurt her back as she wouldn't wait for her father to check the swing was safe .

Little Women gives a lot odf the same messages as Katy Didd and Pollyana but in a much less saccharine manner.