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

163 replies

silverbay · 31/01/2012 08:26

I'm just not convenced by the whole 'Oh, I'll just marry her sister' approach, especially as Amy was so different to Jo.

and I wonder if Jo 'settled' on Professor Bhaer ?

OP posts:
Northernlurker · 01/02/2012 11:25

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!

seeker · 01/02/2012 11:44

Touché!

ProfessorFiggyMoriarty · 01/02/2012 12:17

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

marshmallowpies · 01/02/2012 14:20

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?

JoantheFennel · 01/02/2012 14:30

John Brooke was always so fucking annoying though...

marshmallowpies · 01/02/2012 14:55

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

MeSugar · 01/02/2012 15:03

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.

JerichoStarQuilt · 01/02/2012 15:05

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

MeSugar · 01/02/2012 15:11

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.

GrimmaTheNome · 01/02/2012 15:27

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.

tribpot · 01/02/2012 15:44

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 :)

RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie · 01/02/2012 18:10

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.

Greythorne · 01/02/2012 21:21

tribpot
your last post made me laugh

saffronwblue · 02/02/2012 10:18

I still feel sad that Jo and Laurie did not marry - can remember my childhood shock that two people who seemed so right for each other did not end up together. Hated it when he went off with Amy. Always found the prof boring and patronising and old.
Time to read it again and see if Laurie really was shallow and immature ( and in the closet)..

AbsofCroissant · 02/02/2012 11:10

I point blank refused to read past Little Women, knowing that Jo and Laurie didn't end up together but then saw it in the movie

Maybe I should get the other books and read them. I do love Little Women. It's amazing.

GrimmaTheNome · 02/02/2012 11:56

I reckon anyone who doesn't realise Jo got the right man for her is a bit, well, immature Grin. Abs, you really should read the rest.

HappyHoppyHippy · 02/02/2012 13:10

Ironically Alcott never even liked little women! She wrote it because her publisher asked her too. She felt it was bad for children to read. Can you tell I just wrote an essay on her and little women?....Grin

GrimmaTheNome · 02/02/2012 13:15

I think the series is more apt for older (secondary age) kids than younger ones, except for Little Men which is more about Jo's tribe of boys and their goings-on - not all the 'lovering' !

Fennel · 02/02/2012 13:21

I don't agree Grimma, I just re-read Good Wives after many years (as part of my so far unsuccessful attempts to get my dds interested in the series). And while as a teenager I accepted Jo and Prof Bhaer as a reasonable match, now I read it and find it quite distasteful that Jo is discouraged (by Marmee etc) from pairing up with her friend and peer, Laurie, and instead she ends up with a bossy, dictatorial father figure who disapproves of her wilder side and encourages her to tone down into conventional wife-hood. I really didn't like Prof Bhaer this time.

Not at all convinced that Jo and Laurie arguing is a problem, I see arguing as a sign of a healthy egalitarian relationship :-). better than the women submitting dutifully to the older wiser man.

Francagoestohollywood · 02/02/2012 13:32

I agree with Fennel that Jo and Laurie's taste for arguments would have been irrelevant to the success of their marriage. They would have made a great couple.
And as a child I was spooked by the fact that she married an older man, also because I used to watch the 1949 movie and Rossano Brazzi was quite wooden in that role!

GrimmaTheNome · 02/02/2012 14:05

bossy, dictatorial father figure who disapproves of her wilder side and encourages her to tone down into conventional wife-hood

I don't read it like that at all! He's not a 'father figure' - Jo doesn't need one, she's got an exemplary father of her own. I can't remember any instance of 'bossy , dictatorial' either. He tactfully discourages her from writing trash - good for him! As to 'conventional wife-hood' - setting up an unconventional school and developing a successful literary career - hardly!

Northey · 02/02/2012 14:07

I just don't get any sense of Jo fancying Laurie, whereas I can actually imagine her and Prof B in an enjoyable sexual relationship.

AbsofCroissant · 02/02/2012 21:43

"bossy, dictatorial father figure who disapproves of her wilder side and encourages her to tone down into conventional wife-hood"

DISCLAIMER this is based on me having seen the movie, rather than reading the book so I may be way off

but I didn't get that either. I thought that he disapproved of her writing novels that weren't worthy of her, trashy vampire shhlock horrors (though, now she'd probably be minted: see Twilight) and encouraged her instead to find her true voice and be a better writer. Laurie would probably have been all "whatevs love" and she would have continued writing books that were aimed at pleasing editors, rather than showcasing her true talent. That's what makes a good partner - someone who helps and encourages you to reach your full potential.

And in the movie, Gabriel Byrne is HOT.

tribpot · 03/02/2012 00:39

This is the problem - Gabriel is ridiculously hot and the Prof is resolutely not meant to be. So you have no trouble imagining anyone frankly preferring him to Christian Bale, even if he doesn't come off as quite such a twonk as he does in real life. But Laurie in the book would definitely not have supported Jo in writing trash, he was very artistic - if not quite as moralistic (or overtly Christian, perhaps?) as the Ole Prof.

Northey · 03/02/2012 08:19

Even if Laurie didn't like the schlocky stuff, I can't imagine Jo taking the reproof/guidance from him. I think she would have fought him over it, rather than thinking it soberly over, like she did after Prof B's words.