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.

OrangeFootedScrubfowl yes, and then one about Clover and Elsie and their families....

Ooooh.

Amy does tell Laurie off pretty severely for being a wuss and sighing around being a gentleman of leisure. She calls him Lazy Laurence and he's so impressed he goes off and makes something of himself. I still want Jo to marry him, though - although it is a highly unusual (and feminist) storyline for the girl to say kindly but firmly that she doesn't love the rich boy, without anyone else in sight.

And I beg to differ about Jo's future. She doesn't become a traditional hausfrau at all, she opens a progressive school for boys and then becomes a famous writer in later life.

What really annoys me is that everyone, including Jo, goes on about how Dan isn't good enough for Bess, and it is just accepted.

I always wanted to be Meg. She doesn't seem to be anyone's favourite character though! She was always the one I could relate to.

Agree that ET is far too old but I love Kate Winslet as Marianne: in fact, I love Marianne full stop.

Magdalen in Collins' 'No Name' is my new favourite heroine. And if we're talking literary females who need a good slapping, Emma Bovary and Susan in Jude The Obscure are top of my list please.

Oh and Dan is my v favourite 'boy' and I don't like Jo steering him away from Bess at all: that is the moment I lose my love for Jo - until then I think she remains entirely her own self.

Jo does NOT tell Dan that he's not good enough for Bess - she tells him that Laurie and Amy will never accept it.

And yes - poor Daisy and Demi being taken off in their nightclothes to 'say goodbye to papa'....

Always loved Katy sitting up in bed to fill the little ones' stockings.

No I know - but she condones that.

Mmm. I think she kinda does tell him, really. She tells him 'if you can't have her, you can have her as a friend', as if it's a foregone conclusion.

I agree with remus that it's sad and I don't like Jo not giving him the chance. I like to think Amy would have said yes (mainly cos Dan is rather sexy, isn't he?).

HintofBream, yes - I read 7 Little Australians, too. Loved it as a child.

It does have one of the most tear-jerking endings ever, though. When Judy tells Meg she's frightened and doesn't want to die - so much more believable than those sweetly sad smiles of bravery from other heroines of the time.

I believe Jo March was modelled on Louisa herself, and the four sisters are Louisa's own.
Helen Burns was also modelled on the author's sister Maria, who died at their awful school.

I find the Dan story quite believable, and I'm pretty sympathetic to Jo. There's no sign that Bess loves Dan back, or that they have a really strong relationship - really he just develops a massive crush on her because she's pretty and has been kind to him when he was ill, and because he hasn't met many other girls. I think a lot of parents even now would be concerned about their daughter marrying a man who had been in prison for manslaughter.

In contrast, Nat is pretty weak and it's obvious that Daisy could do better... but she really loves him, and so Jo supports their relationship and (as I recall) intercedes with Meg on his behalf.

Little Women has one of the most romantic scenes EVER in a book when Jo's Professor sees her head being turned by some clever unGodly types who make her head spin about creationism at a gathering and he steps in and argues them down....in an academic way that God DOES exist and Jo's faith is saved.

Yes I know I know...it just GETS me every time.

King ah yes! Katy sitting up in bed and filling up the stockings! And in the morning the little tree in a pot left for her with black stars gummed onto the pot! That always got me for some reason!

What about the bit when Jo takes Laurie outside and shows him the 'tableaux' in the windows - Dan as Othello telliing his exploits to Bess as Desdemona? I always thought that Bess was starting to fancy him then - and so did Laurie - the very next chapter he is coming up with that opportunity for Dan to take a job a very long way away!

Now then the thing that confused me for YEARS in Katy was the valentines gift for Elsie - a seal with her name on it. A seal? A pet seal?

I remember being very puzzled at what on earth India rubber was.

Kings you know Elsie is the old word for Seal? I know the seal would have been the type used in letter writing but it's a double meaning too I thought.

I too was confused about India Rubber. In fact I still am.

I'd forgotten about Jo's eventual writing career, which is recounted in Jo's Boys. But she only returns to writing as a money-making venture, not as the true passion she seemed to experience as a young girl. And her role at Plumfield in Little Men seems mostly to consist of moralising chats with the boys.

I maintain she would have had a much different, more independent, creative life if she had married Laurie or remained single.

I think Jo finds the passion after turning to writing again to make money. LMA clearly links the passion for writing with her eventual massive success. She gets very famous, doesn't she? With people collecting crickets from her lawn as keepsakes

Es, but she was quite disdainful about Little Women, it was her publisher's idea, and she was like FFS, o.k. Then.

Then that became her biggest succcess! To her chagrin

Oh yes, I love the scene where the bonkers fans appear and want to see the desk where the great works are written. Clearly drawn from life!

Plumstead is drawn from the (humiliatingly unsuccessful) educational ventures of Louisa's father, Bronson, who was away with the fairies a lot of the time but had ideas about educating children that were decades ahead of his time (he got in trouble for having a black child in his class and briefly explaining where babies came from). Louisa adored him and I think wanted to show his theories being vindicated.

I'm reading What Katy Did to DD and India Rubber is one of the many things I've had to explain along with sassafras tea and alpaca travelling dresses.

John Brooke's death always has me in floods, I think he comes across better in death (a poor man but a good man) than in life (a pompous git) :)

Eight Cousins is another book where LMA deals with education of girls. First thing is to stop 10 year girls drinking coffee and wearing corsets!

neo - oooh, yes, I love that bit.

I love the way you get the impression they were doing (basically) academic mansplaining on Jo and showing off.