Louisa May Alcott

[Katharine]

So I wonder what the book meant then?

[Boatbuilder]

Being an American author and as refrigeration was in existence there, although not domestically, maybe she used 'poetic licence'.

[Rob Houghton]

Amy was the youngest, Meg the eldest.

I was obviously influenced by the film version with Margaret O'Brien and Elizabeth Tailor and June Allyson etc. Beth was definitely depicted as the youngest in that version - or she came across as the youngest! She was played by Margaret O'Brien, while Amy was played by Elizabeth Tailor.

[Domino]

I think it has long been a criticism of that film, that June Allyson and Elizabeth Taylor were mis-cast.

I think the refrigerator referred to was probably what was popularly called an ice box. (i.e. blocks of ice were used to lower the temperature and keep milk and food reasonably fresh.)

Dave

[Rob Houghton]

I think it has long been a criticism of that film, that June Allyson and Elizabeth Taylor were mis-cast.

I've never heard that, but I guess that's what people might say. personally, I think they are quite well cast - especially June Allyson. In some ways I prefer the older version, with Catherine Hepburn as Jo, or the later version made in the 1990's, with Winona Ryder, which is closer to the book.

[Anita Bensoussane]

I can't help wondering if Enid Blyton ever read it, as I keep making comparisons between Jo from Little Women and George from the Famous Five.

Yes, Enid Blyton read Little Women many times. She says in The Story of My Life that she read Little Women "again and again. Those children were real children. I am sure you like that book too. 'When I grow up I will write books about real children,' I thought. 'That's the kind of book I like best. That's the kind of book I would know how to write.'"

[KEVP]

In the book, Amy is the youngest March sister. But I have seen at least one movie where they switched her around with Beth, and made Beth the youngest sister. I can't tell you why they did this without giving away a major spoiler--so major and well known that you may already know it.

The March sisters are based on Louisa May Alcott and her three sisters. Jo is based on Louisa herself.

The first volume of the book was published in 1868, and is set just a few years earlier, during the American Civil War. The OED lists the first time the word "refrigerator" was used with its modern meaning in 1803. The 1803 quote describes it as a "newly invented machine". But I am baffled by the fact that Wikipedia insists that the first home refrigerator wasn't invented in 1913, although commercial refrigeration existed earlier. If this is correct, Alcott wouldn't have had a home refrigerator. This can't be some hi-tech thing that the Marches would have had but not their neighbors, because the Marches, like the Alcott family they are based on, are a poor family. The Marches would not have electricity at that time, and I think they don't even have gas. In the same chapter as the refrigerator Jo has to deal with the "cinders" in the stove, and rekindle the fire.

I know there is an "annotated" edition of Little Women, if I can track that down it may shed some light on this question.

[Rob Houghton]

Jo is based on Louisa May Alcott.

[Machupicchu14]

I must say after George Kirrin, Jo is one of young female characters I deeply admire..

[Judith Crabb]

At the moment I'm reading 'Meg, Jo, Beth, Amy. The story of "Little Women" and why it still matters' by Anne Boyd Rioux. Well illustrated and meticulously detailed, it covers just about ever aspect from its creation and creator to stage and film versions, to its importance in the lives of many famous women, ending on the rather sad note that it is read by few young women today, most of whom prefer 'wonder women-type fantasy' rather than stories of girls growing up in domestic settings and coming to terms with the complexities of relationships in the real world and their places in it. Rioux points out that the novel is about women and should be read by boys and men.

[Anita Bensoussane]

Your last comment made me think about the classics my own children read while growing up.

My daughter read classics with girls or women as the main characters (Little Women, Pippi Longstocking, Milly-Molly-Mandy Stories, Heidi, Anne of Green Gables, What Katy Did, Jane Eyre, the Little House on the Prairie series, etc.) but she also read classics with boys or men as the main characters (Just - William, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Treasure Island, Robinson Crusoe, Frankenstein, Great Expectations, A Christmas Carol, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, etc.)

My son only read the books in the second list and wasn't drawn to titles with girls or women as the main characters. When he was very young he did read/listen to me reading Little Old Mrs. Pepperpot, My Naughty Little Sister and some of the Wizard of Oz series, but once he was reading for himself he tended not to pick books that looked as though they were chiefly or wholly about female characters. An exception was The Naughtiest Girl in the School, which is about a co-educational school but sounds from title as though it's mainly about a girl.

[Judith Crabb]

Your observation is reflected in the world at large. As Rioux points out, 'Tom Sawyer' is an all-American classic, 'Little Women' is a classic for girls. To find a boy or man who admits to reading 'Anne of Green Gables', and liking it, is very rare. But Mark Twain himself was one of those exceptions.

[Anita Bensoussane]

It would be interesting to know whether any male members of the forums read "girls'" classics like Anne of Green Gables, Little Women or What Katy Did as children. If you did, did you read them openly or in secret? Did anyone react negatively on seeing you reading them?

I know we've had a few male members saying that they didn't read the Malory Towers or St. Clare's series as children even though they were avid Enid Blyton fans, because they were "girls' books". Others did read them, but only in secret. I can't remember whether we've had any male members who read the Malory Towers and St. Clare's books quite openly and naturally as children, without thinking twice about it. I'd be interested to hear.

Tim Rice came to an Enid Blyton Day some years ago to give a talk with his daughter Eva Rice, who wrote the book Who's Who in Enid Blyton. He said that he was mad about the St. Clare's books as a boy, and read them repeatedly. His parents bought him lots of books about boys' boarding schools as they felt they'd be more appropriate, but nothing could tear him away from Claudine and co!