Good Wives - A Sequel to Little Women

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George Cukor directed the first sound adaptation of Little Women, starring Katharine Hepburn as Jo, Joan Bennett as Amy, Frances Dee as Meg, and Jean Parker as Beth. The film was released in 1933 and was followed by an adaptation of Little Men the following year. [ citation needed] After reading Little Women, some women felt the need to "acquire new and more public identities", however dependent on other factors such as financial resources. [19] :55 While Little Women showed regular lives of American middle-class girls, it also "legitimized" their dreams to do something different and allowed them to consider the possibilities. [19] :36 More young women started writing stories that had adventurous plots and "stories of individual achievement—traditionally coded male—challenged women's socialization into domesticity." [19] :55 Little Women also influenced contemporary European immigrants to the United States who wanted to assimilate into middle-class culture. a b c Keyser, Elizabeth Lennox (2000). Little Women: A Family Romance. University of Georgia Press. ISBN 0-8203-2280-6. 'I am Jo, in the principal characteristics, not the good ones.'

And yet I can’t let Little Women go. Despite their depressing endings, there is something so alive about the story of four sisters up against the world, and Jo is such a bold, enchanting heroine. No one has quite managed to solve the problem of Little Women – not even Alcott – but maybe this new adaptation might find a way. Alcott, Louisa May (1880). Little Women: or, Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy. Cambridge, Massachusetts: John Wilson and Son . Retrieved May 31, 2010. Cullen Sizer, Lyde (2000). The Political Work of Northern Women Writers and the Civil War, 1850–1872. Univ of North Carolina Press. p.45. ISBN 0-8078-6098-0. Unlike her genteel sister Meg, Jo pushes against the strictures imposed on women of her time (“I like boys’ games and work and manners”) but also against the heroine’s typical journey – one defined by the pursuit of love and marriage. Jo was not only an outsider (and many readers believe, with good reason, coded queer) but an artist. She’s often the first one many girls encounter in print. In short, Alcott needed to marry Jo off to complete her transition from “little woman” to “good wife,” and satisfy the era’s narrative expectations. However, Alcott refused to give in to the wedding industrial complex completely, thwarting readers’ expectations with a mischievous twist: She gave them a marriage, but not the one they wanted.Laurie graduates from college, having put in the effort to do well in his last year with Jo's prompting. Amy is chosen over Jo to go on a European tour with her aunt. Beth's health is weak due to complications from scarlet fever and her spirits are down. While trying to uncover the reason for Beth's sadness, Jo realizes that Laurie has fallen in love. At first she believes it's with Beth, but soon senses it's with herself. Jo confides in Marmee, telling her that she loves Laurie like a brother and that she could not love him in a romantic way.

And then, there’s the actual ending: Jo, watching her book get printed. It's safe to assume that Jo’s Little Women, like Alcott’s, will be a massive success: In real life, Little Women has never gone out of print. Eleanor Everest Freer adapted Little Women as an opera, writing both the score and libretto. [69] Freer's opera, a two-act work in English, debuted in Chicago at the Musician's Club of Women on April 2, 1934. [70] Gillian Armstrong directed a 1994 adaptation, starring Winona Ryder as Jo, Trini Alvarado as Meg, Samantha Mathis and Kirsten Dunst as Amy, and Claire Danes as Beth. The film received three Academy Award nominations, including Best Actress for Ryder. [ citation needed]This graphic novel is a modern retelling of 'Little Women' and features a blended family". NBC News . Retrieved November 28, 2020. Cornell, Katharine (September 1938). "I Wanted to Be an Actress". Stage. New York City: Stage Magazine Company, Inc. p.13 . Retrieved December 28, 2018.

Find sources: "Little Women"– news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR ( September 2021) ( Learn how and when to remove this template message) Bird, Elizabeth (July 7, 2012). "Top 100 Chapter Book Poll Results". School Library Journal "A Fuse No. 8 Production" blog. Archived from the original on July 13, 2012 . Retrieved August 22, 2012. Caspi, Jonathan (2010). Sibling Development: Implications for Mental Health Practitioners. Springer Publishing Company. p.147. ISBN 978-0-8261-1753-3. a b Mallon, Thomas (March 27, 2005). " 'March': Pictures From a Peculiar Institution (Published 2005)". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331 . Retrieved November 28, 2020.Alcott, Louisa May (2010). "Foreword". Little Women. Collins Classics. HarperCollins UK. p.vi. ISBN 978-0-00-738264-4. The Hummels – A poor German family consisting of a widowed mother and six children. Marmee and the girls help them by bringing food, firewood, blankets, and other comforts. They help with minor repairs to their small dwelling. Three of the children die of scarlet fever and Beth contracts the disease while caring for them. The eldest daughter, Lottchen "Lotty" Hummel, later works as a matron at Jo's school at Plumfield Little Women is a coming-of-age novel written by American novelist Louisa May Alcott, originally published in two volumes in 1868 and 1869 at the request of her publisher. [1] [2] The story follows the lives of the four March sisters—Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy—and details their passage from childhood to womanhood. Loosely based on the lives of the author and her three sisters, [3] [4] :202 it is classified as an autobiographical or semi-autobiographical novel. [5] [6] :12 That marriage “felt like an enormous betrayal as a reader”, is how the writer Jennifer Weiner put it recently, a “capitulation”, more than a coupling.

She is chosen by her aunt to travel in Europe with her, where she grows and makes a decision about the level of her artistic talent and how to direct her adult life. She encounters "Laurie" Laurence and his grandfather during the extended visit. Amy is the least inclined of the sisters to sacrifice and self-denial. She behaves well in good society, at ease with herself. Critic Martha Saxton observes the author was never fully at ease with Amy's moral development and her success in life seemed relatively accidental. [23] However, Amy's morality does appear to develop throughout her adolescence and early adulthood, and she is able to confidently and justly put Laurie in his place when she believes he is wasting his life on pleasurable activities. Ultimately, Amy is shown to work very hard to gain what she wants in life and to make the most of her success while she has it. Little Women was well received upon first publication. According to 21st-century critic Barbara Sicherman there was, during the 19th century, a "scarcity of models for nontraditional womanhood", which led more women to look toward "literature for self-authorization. This is especially true during adolescence." [19] :2 Little Women became "the paradigmatic text for young women of the era and one in which family literary culture is prominently featured." [19] :3 Adult elements of women's fiction in Little Women included "a change of heart necessary" for the female protagonist to evolve in the story. [7] :199Meg and Jo must work to support the family: Meg tutors a nearby family of four children; Jo assists her aged great-aunt March, a wealthy widow living in a mansion, Plumfield. Beth, too timid for school, is content to stay at home and help with housework; and Amy is still at school. Meg is beautiful and traditional, Jo is a tomboy who writes, Beth is a peacemaker and a pianist, and Amy is an artist who longs for elegance and fine society. The sisters strive to help their family and improve their characters as Meg is vain, Jo is hotheaded, Beth is cripplingly shy, and Amy is materialistic. The neighbor boy Laurie, orphaned grandson of Mr. Laurence, becomes close friends with the sisters, particularly the tomboyish Jo. Josephine Brooke ("Josy" or "Josie") – Meg's youngest child, named after Jo. She develops a passion for acting as she grows up.