13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Little Women- Part Two, February 24, 2006
Just to be clear, Little Women was originally published in two parts: Little Women, and Good Wives. They've since been sold mostly in one volume. If you remember the death of Beth, Jo's experiences in New York, and Meg as a married woman, you have already read this. I enjoyed reading them as separate volumes (it allows me to pretend that Beth lives and Jo ends up with Laurie), but this isn't how this book is usually sold. But, contrary to what some another review has said, this isn't some gimmicky attempt by publishers to rip off readers, this is how the book was originally sold.
Both halves of this story are lovely, definitely worth reading.
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7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Little women become "Good Wives", December 24, 2004
Louisa May Alcott captured the spirit of a loving family in "Little Women," the ultimate coming-of-age story. In "Good Wives," the second half of the "Little Women" story (and the second part of an ongoing family saga), Alcott takes her little women out of teenage hijinks and into a darker, more adult place.
The book opens with Meg March's wedding to John Brooke -- he's not the wealthy man of her dreams, but he is the man she loves. As Meg learns that it's a struggle to be a poor man's wife, her sisters Jo and Amy are stretching their own wings -- Amy is becoming an accomplished young artist, and Jo is letting "genius burn" as a published writer. Beth, who has never recovered from her bout of scarlet fever, is still a fragile homebody.
Things take an unexpected turn when Aunt March invites Amy to go to Europe with her -- a trip Jo has wanted for years. To make things worse, Beth is in love with Laurie... but then Laurie proposes to Jo. When she rejects him, he storms away to Europe. Jo leaves as well, to be a governess and a writer in the city, but returns home to find Beth slowly wilting away. Tragedy, love and new life will bring the family back together in unexpected ways.
It always hurts to grow up, and the events of "Good Wives" are no exception. It's a much more adult book than the first "Little Women," with the girls finding out about love, marriage, careers, artistic attempts and the loss of loved ones. There's plenty of humor -- Jo's disastrous housecalls and Amy's equally disastrous dinner party -- but it's muted.
Alcott's writing, surprisingly, doesn't change much -- it's still funny, weird and highly detailed, but also full of sweetness and pathos. And while the book has some sad endings, the overall feel is that life goes on and things always turn out, if not happily, then for the best -- there are marriages, babies, and new beginnings for everyone. And it ends with a lead-in to the sequel, "Little Men," with Jo and Professor Bhaer adopting a bunch of boys as unruly as Jo was.
Jo is the same old Jo, with her foot in her mouth and her fierce independence. But she does become more mature and less prickly. Beth is almost a nonentity, wasting away until leaving the book altogether; Meg seems rather ditzy as a housewife, but apparently is shown as a Marmee-in-training. Amy does the best of all, becoming a vivid, funny character almost as likable as Jo.
The second part of "Little Women" is "Good Wives" -- a very different kind of story about the March girls. But if anything, it's a more beautiful and sweeter one.
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4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
this was a good book, October 26, 2004
I liked this book a lot although i found amy's letters to be a bit boring. All throughout the book, i found myself wanting Jo and Laurie to end up together. Whether they do or not, you have to read the story. And Meg is finding her married life a lot different then she imagined. Its not all a bed of roses. Read the book. Its a good ending to little women.
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