Okay, that's it -- THIS is my favorite chapter! It's delicious from beginning to end.
From Jo imagining there's no reason for her to not take evening walks just because she runs into Professor Bhaer astonishingly often to her wandering around the counting houses and banks, it's funny and sweet and believable.
Honestly, this is one of the best proposals ever, with both of them muddy, the rain, the ruined bonnet and limp hatbrim... it's one of the most ceaselessly unromantic proposal situations ever, and I love it. Especially since "[p]assers-by probably thought them a pair of harmless lunatics" (p. 424), which I find adorable.
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| From the 1978 version |
Favorite Lines:
...she felt that, though it was too late to save her heart, she might her bonnet (p. 420).
"Thank Gott, we Germans believe in sentiment, and keep ourselves young mit it" (p. 425).
Jo never, never would learn to be proper, for when he said that as they stood upon the steps, she just put both hands into his, whispering tenderly, "Not empty now," and stooping down, kissed her Friedrich under the umbrella (p. 430).
Possible Discussion Questions:
Why do you think Jo tore up the poem Professor Bhaer had taken his hope from?
A sweet interlude of a chapter, huh? I cracked up several times here, especially when Alcott observed that "the twins got on remarkably well together, and seldom quarreled more than thrice a day" (p. 413). That sounds awfully familiar to this mother of several small ones -- Daisy and Demi are three, which is exactly how old my Tootie is right now :-)
And of course, the chapter ends so deliciously, with Jo and Professor Bhaer practically flirting!
Favorite Lines:
Daisy and Demi had now arrived at years of discretion, for in this fast age babies of three or four assert their rights, and get them, too, which is more than many of their elders do (p. 412).
Possible Discussion Questions:
Do you know any adults who, like Professor Bhaer, "are at home with children" and get along with them uncommonly easily?
We're almost there! By the time this giveaway ends, I think we'll have finished reading Little Women. Anyway, I'm giving away something a little different this time! I have five prize packs, each of which contain a bookmark, a big bumper sticker, and a key chain. I bought the bookmarks from Hayden (aka Story Girl) via her Etsy store, Home to Highbury, and I bought the stickers from the Etsy store Book Fiend. I made the key chains myself :-)
All the stickers are oval, 3 1/2" x 5", and outdoor-rated for 4 years, being water- and UV-resistant. They all look like this:
All the key chains are 1 1/2" across, and the fronts are all different, but the backs all look like this:
Here, then, are the five individual prize packs. One way to enter the giveaway is to leave a comment on this post telling me which TWO you would most like to have -- winners are first-drawn, first-served, so you might not get your first choice, so please do tell me what your second choice would be as well.
Good Company
Adventures
Loving Hands
Families
Elegance
This giveaway is open world-wide. I will choose five winners one week from today, on Friday, June 12, 2015. I will then email the winners at the address provided to the widget, and they will have one week to reply with their mailing address. If a winner does not reply by Thursday, June 18th, I will disqualify them and pick a new winner.
PLEASE make sure your information for the giveaway widgets includes your current email address so that if you win a prize, you'll get my email informing you that you won!
a Rafflecopter giveaway
I do like Amy and Laurie together. Much more than I used to! They tease each other, help each other, and are generally sweet. And aren't the oblique references to them getting all smoochy kind of cute and hilarious at the same time? They seem truly happy together, and I'm glad. To be honest, I'd completely forgotten this chapter, and I am so pleased by how well they get on together.
Favorite Lines:
Jo had grown her own saucy self again since Teddy came home (p. 407).
"Come away, Impertinence, and don't shock my family by calling me names before their faces," answered Amy (p. 408).
"Don't laugh, but your nose is such a comfort to me," and Amy softly caressed the well-cut feature with artistic satisfaction (p. 409).
Possible Discussion Questions:
Are they any parts of this book that you'd forgotten, if you've read it before? Or that you like better or worse than you used to?
Meg
by Rose
I’ll admit that I have never before thought much of Meg as a character. I liked her well enough, but compared to Jo, and later Amy, she didn't strike me as very interesting. However, upon this rereading I suddenly realized that there is a lot more to her than what I thought at first, and now I find her quite a fascinating character.
When you look at Meg, she is everything a young, proper woman of this time period ought to be. She is motherly to her younger sisters, she dreams of romance but is almost unrealistically innocent and proper when it comes to courtship, and her biggest dreams are to have beautiful things and luxuries.
But apart from that, she is a character who has a lot difficulties while learning to be content with her situation in life, and her journey towards that goal and how she accomplishes it is what I in particular like about her.
Meg's struggles are very well summarized in the following:
"She was fond of luxury, and her chief trouble was poverty. She found it harder to bear than the others, because she could remember a time when home was beautiful, life full of ease and pleasure, and want of any kind unknown. She tried not to be envious or discontented, but it was very natural that the young girl should long for pretty things, gay friends, accomplishments, and a happy life. At the Kings she daily saw all she wanted, for the children's older sisters were just out, and Meg caught frequent glimpses of dainty ball-dresses and bouquets, heard lively gossip about theatres, concerts, sleighing parties, and merry-making of all kinds, and saw money lavished on trifles which would have been so precious to her. Poor Meg seldom complained, but a sense of injustice made her feel bitter toward every one sometimes, for she had not yet learned to know how rich she was in blessings which alone can make life happy."
In a time where your class very much defined your identity and your expectations from life, it must have been really hard on Meg to suddenly readjust her entire way of thinking when her family lost their fortune. To suddenly find many of her dreams out of reach, and yet be surrounded by acquaintances who had all the luxuries she dreamed of, must have been almost like being stuck in the middle between two classes, and I think that is one of the main reasons she has such a hard time being content with her situation.
Though she quickly learns that being rich doesn't necessarily means being happy, it isn't until great hardships are thrown upon the family that she realizes how rich she is "in love, protection, peace and health, the real blessings of life." After Meg has had that realization, it seems she has finally found the key to being happy with her situation, and when we see her 3 years later on the brink of entering her new life it is obvious she has grown a lot in that aspect.
"Somehow envy and discontent soon vanished when she thought of all the patient love John had put into the little home awaiting her, and when they sat together in the twilight, talking over their small plans, the future always grew so beautiful and bright that she forgot Sallie's splendour, and felt herself the richest, happiest girl in Christendom."
Even though contentment is something she keeps fighting with throughout the book, the little glimpses into her married life shows us how she keeps growing.
Many readers today may think that Meg got the least exciting story of the sisters, and though it is true she never got to travel much and see the world, that doesn't mean she didn't get any adventures. She got to experience the great adventure that is marriage and later motherhood, things that most girls dreamed of at that time.
But most importantly, she is a fine example to show that when you are rich in the things of true value, you can be truly happy and content with a simple life.
(Hamlette's Note: Thanks for this lovely character sketch, Rose! Meg is easy to overlook, and you've shown us some excellent reasons why she deserves our attention.)
Laurie's back! And married to Amy! Don't you love Jo's reaction to his announcement that he's married her? "Mercy on us. What dreadful thing will you do next?" (p. 395). Good thing Laurie knows her so well and isn't mortified by that :-)
And I love Laurie's explanation of how he came to fall in love with Amy instead. He says, "Amy and you changed places in my heart, that's all" (p. 397). That seems like a very sensible remark. Anyway, I like it.
AND THEN! Professor Bhaer arrives, unexpectedly, and he's so delicious, isn't he? I love it when he offers his sympathy for her losing Beth, and "Jo felt as if no comfort could equal the look of the kind eyes, the grasp of the big, warm hand" (p. 402). Everyone has a jolly visit talking about everything under the sun, and then they end by all gathering around the piano, which was melancholy, but sweet.
And don't you love how Mr. and Mrs. March totally know Jo is falling for Professor Bhaer, but she doesn't yet? I'm amused.
Favorite Lines:
"An old maid, that's what I'm to be. A literary spinster, with a pen for a spouse, a family of stories for children, and twenty years hence a morsel of fame, perhaps..." (p. 393).
Mr. Bhaer sat looking about him with the air of a traveler who knocks at a strange door, and when it opens, finds himself at home (p. 403).
Possible Discussion Questions: What did you think of Alcott's little homily on spinsters at the beginning of the chapter? She was 36 when Little Women was first published (a year older than I am!), so do you think she considered herself a spinster by then?
In which Jo grieves over Beth, begins to see herself more clearly, and tries writing "nice" stories instead of the sensational stuff she used to sell. And, to her surprise, she finds a market for her nice stories too, much like Alcott found that her nice novel outsold all her more exciting stories.
And just when Jo's finding some balance again, she gets the news that Laurie and Amy are engaged. Happily, she's confirmed in her insistence that she doesn't love Laurie as anything but a friend and pseudo-brother, so she can rejoice in their news. And it helps her realize that she misses Professor Bhaer and hope he might come visit her.
Favorite Lines:
Now, if she had been the heroine of a moral storybook, she ought at this period of her life to have become quite saintly, renounced the world, and gone about doing good in a mortified bonnet, with tracts in her pocket (p. 388).
Meg describes Jo as "a chestnut burr, prickly outside, but silky-soft within, and a sweet kernel, if one can only get at it" (p. 388).
Possible Discussion Questions:
If Laurie hadn't decided to marry Amy, do you think Jo would have realized she was fond of Professor Bhaer?
