[HPforGrownups] SHIP: Re: Little Women

[Dave Hardenbrook]

No: HPFGUIDX 12696

At 11:03 PM 2/19/01 +0000, Trina wrote:
>  Cassie is the third H/H-type that I've seen make this comment re:
>LMA within the past two days.  I'd be interested to see what R/Hers
>thought of the ending of *Little Women*.

Put this R/H - H/G -er down as thinking Jo belongs with the Professor,
but agreeing that Laurie shouldn't have married Amy.  Looking at how he
is in _Little Men_ and _Jo's Boys_, it looks like Amy's influnces turned him
into a stuffed-shirt.  And their highly annoying daughter Bess seems hardly
someone free-spirited Dan would ever fall for... (There's only one man in the
world for Bess -- Dudley Dursley!)

I still don't know what you all have against Professor Bhaer, though.

>Laurie winds up with spoiled-brat Amy, Meg
>is continuously holier-than-thou, Jo gets stuck with the Professor,
>and Beth, whom I actually liked (other than obvious Jo) dies!  *This*
>is a classic?

Beth dies because her real-life counterpart did.  I tend to think LMA
carried the principle of "Write what you know" too far.

>I will admit to reading Little Men out of sheer
>curiosity, but haven't touched any other LMA since!

I love _Little Men_, but I have my pet peeves about it too: The way
she goes on about Nat being "amiable but weak" (would she say the
same about Harry?), while Dan is a "wild boy".  And then her endless
praise of Bess, especially how she "tames" strong-minded Nan (as
if Hermione turned into a stuffy Barbie Doll through the guiding influence
of Fleur).

_Jo's Boys_ is by far LMA's worst book, at least in the "Big Five" (the
three "Little Women/Little Men" volumes and the two "Rose" books).
She obviously has nothing left to write about, and so spends much of the
time preaching.  Then there's what she does to poor Dan -- throwing him
to the Dementors, so to speak.  I'm hoping that JKR is much kinder to
Sirius!

The two "Rose" books (_Eight Cousins_ and _Rose in Bloom_) are good too,
though Rose suffers from not having any of the little quirks that make Jo,
Nan, and other of her characters so endearing.  To use Trina's terminology,
she's another "holier-than-thou" type.  But Mac is like a male Hermione,
and Phoebe is the one Alcott heroine who is in any way sensual.  So these
books have elements that make me like them.  But in general I prefer
Jane Austen (and JKR) for vivid characters and a lack of Victorian
ambivalence.



                                                 -- Dave