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A review by daumari
Good Wives by Louisa May Alcott
3.0
Copying what I wrote into the Kindle review section last night when I finished:
Good Wives is a bit more aesoppy, as they are now adults (or near enough) and learning how to run their own households/find happiness. I also think it interesting that Jo is more of an author avatar here than ever, making money writing "sensation stories" only to stop when convinced they're vulgar, to not want to get married (until she does because it'd probably be scandalous for your ostensible lead to be a spinster). More time passes- we open with Meg and John's wedding (they waited until Meg turned 20, as is apparent from LMA checking in on each girl), and we end with Jo in her late 20s (she is 25 when Amy and Laurie return from Europe, thinking about how old she is, and the last chapter is a harvest at the school).
Still, despite the moralizing LW/GW can be funny and sweet, and all the characters have such distinct personalities that they feel lived in (though I still think Beth is the perfect baby angel whose only failing is her physical health.) I still chuckle a little bit about how Laurie is perceived as "dark" because he's half Italian, only for Hannah to be *right there* with a noticeable dialect and one of the boys in the last chapter described as "a quadroon" yikes.
I also think it's fun where this is one of the earlier examples of fans upset at the author for disrupting their preferred ship (Jo/Laurie are SO suited for one another, but maybe like Marmee suggested their temperaments are too similar).
Good Wives is a bit more aesoppy, as they are now adults (or near enough) and learning how to run their own households/find happiness. I also think it interesting that Jo is more of an author avatar here than ever, making money writing "sensation stories" only to stop when convinced they're vulgar, to not want to get married (until she does because it'd probably be scandalous for your ostensible lead to be a spinster). More time passes- we open with Meg and John's wedding (they waited until Meg turned 20, as is apparent from LMA checking in on each girl), and we end with Jo in her late 20s (she is 25 when Amy and Laurie return from Europe, thinking about how old she is, and the last chapter is a harvest at the school).
Still, despite the moralizing LW/GW can be funny and sweet, and all the characters have such distinct personalities that they feel lived in (though I still think Beth is the perfect baby angel whose only failing is her physical health.) I still chuckle a little bit about how Laurie is perceived as "dark" because he's half Italian, only for Hannah to be *right there* with a noticeable dialect and one of the boys in the last chapter described as "a quadroon" yikes.
I also think it's fun where this is one of the earlier examples of fans upset at the author for disrupting their preferred ship (Jo/Laurie are SO suited for one another, but maybe like Marmee suggested their temperaments are too similar).