to think that Amy March is one of the most irritating literary characters ever.

[squoosh]

God she annoys me, throwing Jo's book in the fire, being a general brat and then sin of sins marrying Laurie when she had no business do any such thing.

I don't care what the subsequent books may say the Amy/Laurie union was a stupid idea.

They should have left her to drown in the icy river.

Little Women is one of my favourite books, but they all annoy me calling their mum 'Marmee'.

I much prefer the professor to Laurie. Laurie is a bit of a drip.

Mmm.

I think I sort of get it, Jo is not especially nice to Amy and I really dislike the way Alcott talks snobbily about how Amy is 'only' talented at drawing while Jo is a 'genius'.

Frankly it's Meg who really pisses me off.

I can totally see why Jo goes for Bhaer over Laurie, though. Laurie, in my head, is probably played by Rupert Everett.

Happy days, have found them all online :-)

But I always felt that Jo made Laurie nicer, and that he genuinely was in love with her...just for who she is, which I always liked.

I think Amy and Laurie were right for each other. Both were quite superficial: liking 'culture' etc but not thinking deeply about much. Jo may have started out 'spirited' but by the time she had seen Beth through her illness and death she was much deeper that that. Still lively but much more given to thinking. I'm not entirely convinced by the Prof but I do think she'd have been unhappy with Laurie.

I think Laurie wanted Jo to spoil him, and she wouldn't. If she'd married him she'd constantly have had sour-faced relatives going on about what a bad wife she was, and Laurie would have stopped finding it charming that she had her own life and didn't always agree with him.

I agree that Amy was just a consolation prize and that Laurie never really stopped loving Jo. However, I don't think Laurie and Jo would have lasted and I do love the prof too.

Helen Burns in Jane Eyre is much more irritating. And the saintly Cousin Helen in What Katy Did needs a good slap.

Why does Meg piss you off LRD? I always remember her deep, deep shame at being 'done up like a fashion plate' at some dance, you'd swear she'd taken part in a Roman orgy or something. It's been so many years since I've read the books, I may need to give them another whirl.

Confident I'll still dislike Amy though.

I can cope with Beth in the book (just) but I detest the film version of her in the Winona film (I think it's Claire Danes - she is truly terrible and was horribly miscast).

Meg was too "proper" wasn't she?

Yes but Laurie and Jo had passion and sparks, and they could have made it work, probably somewhere abroad and sunny...

Ugh, Helen Burns! Was glad to see her croak it. Morally flawless angels were quite the rage in Victorian writing.

Cousin Helen makes me want to vomit though - I like naughty Katy!

Agree Remus CD was totally WRONG as Beth (but then my hear was on June Allyson in the 1949 movie(

the professor is much nicer than laurie

Oh, I love the chapter where Meg gets done up.

Oh, I feel sorry for Meg too squoosh. Especially with the dance. I love how Alcott writes that, who can't sympathize with her there? I know the 'fashion plate' dress (and the 'soupcon of rouge'! ) aren't that shocking but it's the exact same emotion I bet every teenage girl has had at some point.

But she pisses me off because she goes and plays house for 'John' and gets all the credit for being properly 'womanly', but John is clearly more or less a total wanker. He really is. He has very, very few positive qualities.

And she just takes it as a sign she's not a good wife and resolves to be better.

I want to shake her and get her posting on MN.

I agree, Chandon. I think Laurie appreciated Jo for herself. It makes me so uncomfortable to see her tamed, domesticated, turned into a proper hausfrau in the later books. If she and Laurie had married, I could imagine her living a much different sort of life, with her spirit still free and a bit wild, writing interesting books, travelling, making use of her considerable creativity.

gymboy - yay, another professor fan!

Seriously, you people ... she meets a fat, beardy bloke with a foreign accent who is sensibly middle-aged in his ways but also buys her flowers and presents? What's not to love?

I don't think John is a wanker at all. He's a poor man who feels socially obliged to still have his house in order and a trophy wife, but can't afford to give her the fripperies she wants. He really does love Meg, I think.

MissMogwi - I read somewhere that Marmee is not pronounced mar-mee is is just a phonetic representation of the way Alcott would have pronounced Mommy with a Boston accent. So really they're just calling her Mommy, like most Americans? Might make them less annoying?

I want a fat, beardy, penniless professor of my own!

"?As Beth had hoped, the tide went out easily,and in the dark hour before dawn, on the bosom where she had drawn her first breath, she quietly drew her last, with no farewell but one loving look, one little sigh.".

I'm going to have to re-read, I have no recollection of John at all.