History YMMV / LittleWomen

* EsotericHappyEnding: Jo married a professor [[MayDecemberRomance 15 years her senior]], whereas Laurie settles for marrying Jo's younger sister Amy. Many fans were not happy. In Alcott's defense, she told the fans from the get-go she wasn't their slave and [[ShipSinking wouldn't put Laurie and Jo together to please them]]. Fritz is at least given some {{Backstory}}, a sympathetic personality and a few chapters devoted to him, along with a touching proposal scene under a TogetherUmbrella.
** At least the current film version makes Prof. Bhaer rather handsome (come ON, it's Gabriel Byrne!). And to be fair, Jo '''is''' quite happy with him, and he obviously adores her. Plus it doesn't hurt that she enjoys the idea of teaching a house full of young people, same as him.
** Also, is this an EsotericHappyEnding '''just because the FanPreferredCouple got sunk'''? Seems to be a pretty shallow definition, at least imho.
* FairForItsDay: The series was actually comparatively feminist by the standards of its day, but the most feminist thing about the novel isn't anything in the book itself, but the fact that Louisa May Alcott defied feminine standards of the day by fully supporting herself and her family financially with her pen after most publishers told her to "stick to your teaching." Still, this shouldn't be exaggerated - there certainly ''were'' a significant number of working women in the late 19th century, and a substantial women's suffrage campaign, while in the book the idea of women's suffrage is brought up maybe once and PlayedForLaughs. It was fine in the context of its time, but it wasn't hugely progressive.
** In the last of the four books, Annie aka Nan is portrayed as a capable and independent woman who, despite caring for Tommy, views him bringing up their ChildhoodMarriagePromise as a total "what the HELL" moment, and in the end is single ''and happy because of that'', while Daisy's own choice to marry her VictoriousChildhoodFriend Nat is ''also'' seen as valid and worthy of respect.
* FanPreferredCouple: Jo and Laurie -- and no, this is ''not'' a case of ValuesDissonance. The original 19th century fandom also shipped them.

* MisaimedFandom: Alcott was '''''pissed off''''' to see her female readers focus less on Jo's struggle to be a writer and live her life the way she wanted to, and much more on whether she and Laurie would or not end up married. [[NiceJobBreakingItHero It explains a LOT]] on why the ShipSinking was so downright vicious.

* PuritySue: Amy grows from a vain, spoiled, pretentious, tantrum-throwing little girl into the unabashed epitome of tact, taste, beauty and gentility as a woman, with next-to-no warning. Partly understandable when you realise she was based on Alcott's own younger sister, who died after the book was published and left her daughter, Louisa, to be raised by Alcott. Therefore Amy is kept deliberately in the background of the sequels, and is described as someone who doesn't seem to age, as a way for Alcott to remember her dead sister and cope with her absence.

** At least the current film version makes Prof. Bhaer rather handsome (come ON, it's Gabriel Byrne!). And to be fair, Jo is quite happy with him, and he obviously adores her. Plus it doesn't hurt that she enjoys the idea of teaching a house full of young people, same as him.

* HollywoodHomely: Most, if not all, of the movie adaptations cast very beautiful actresses to interpret the self-described "plain" Jo March, leading to the unintentionally hilarious moment when Jo has her hair cut off and Amy cries: "Jo, your one beauty!". The Winona Ryder version even has her declare that she is "ugly and awkward". At least KatharineHepburn in the most famous earlier adaptation isn't a classic beauty, and manages to make young Jo coltish and a bit clumsy.
* MisaimedFandom: Alcott was '''pissed''' to see her female readers focus less on Jo's struggle to be a writer and live her life the way she wanted to, and much more on whether she and Laurie would or not end up married. [[NiceJobBreakingItHero It explains a LOT]] on why the ShipSinking was so downright vicious.

* PuritySue: Amy grows from a vain, spoiled, pretentious, tantrum-throwing little girl into the unabashed epitome of tact, taste, beauty and gentility as a woman, with next-to-no warning. Partly understandable when you realise she was based on Alcott's own younger sister, who died after the book was published and left her daughter, Louisa, to be raised by Alcott. Amy is kept deliberately in the background of the sequels, and is described as someone who doesn't seem to age.

** Daisy is described as Beth incarnate in the end of ''Little Women'' and reminds Jo of Beth again in ''Little Men''.

* TastesLikeDiabets: ''And how''.

* {{Shipping}}: Called "lovering," in those days.

* FairForItsDay: The series was actually comparatively feminist by the standards of its day, but the most feminist thing about the novel isn't anything in the book itself -- but the fact that Louisa May Alcott defied every feminine standard of the day by fully supporting herself and her family financially with her pen after most publishers told her to "stick to your teaching."
** The fact that Jo supports a woman's right to work and support herself if she wants to while viewing marriage as something that can be optional is VERY damn feminist. Annie aka Nan is portrayed as a capable and independent woman who, despite caring for Tommy, views him bringing up their ChildhoodMarriagePromise as a total "what the HELL" moment, and in the end is single ''and happy because of that'', while Daisy's own choice to marry her VictoriousChildhoodFriend Nat is ''also'' seen as valid and worthy of respect.

* PuritySue: Amy grows from a vain, spoiled, pretentious, tantrum-throwing little girl into the unabashed epitome of tact, taste, beauty and gentility as a woman, with next-to-no warning. Partly understandable when you realise she was based on Alcott's own younger sister, who likely objected to the earlier characterization.
** Or Beth, except for the low self esteem and ''genuinely'' crippling insecurity, due to CreatorBreakdown.

* DieForOurShip: Poor Amy.
* EsotericHappyEnding: Jo married a professor [[MayDecemberRomance 15 years her senior]], whereas Laurie settles for marrying Jo's younger sister Amy. Many fans were not happy. In Alcott's defense, she told the fans from the get-go she wasn't their slave and [[ShipSinking wouldn't put Laurie and Jo together to please them]] (even back then, her fandom could be insane and annoying). Fritz is at least given some {{Backstory}}, a sympathetic personality and a few chapters devoted to him, along with a touching proposal scene under a TogetherUmbrella.

* FanPreferredCouple: Jo and Laurie -- and no, this is ''not'' a case of ValuesDissonance. The original 19th century fandom ''also'' shipped Jo and [[FirstNameBasis Teddy]].

* HollywoodHomely: Most, if not all, of the movie adaptations cast very beautiful actresses to interpret the self-described "plain" Jo March. The Winona Ryder version, with gorgeous Ryder as Jo, has her declare that she is "ugly and awkward." A hilarious moment in this movie is when Jo has her hair cut off and Amy cries: "Jo, your one beauty!" At least KatharineHepburn, while still a friggin' movie star and therefore gorgeous, isn't a classic beauty, and manages to make young Jo coltish and a bit clumsy.

* PuritySue: Amy grows from a vain, spoiled, pretentious, tantrum-throwing, frankly unpleasant little girl into the unabashed epitome of tact, taste, beauty and gentility as a woman, with next-to-no warning. Partly understandable when you realise she was based on Alcott's own younger sister, who likely objected to the earlier characterization.

* {{Tearjerker}}: Beth trying to "wean herself" from life when dying from the effects of scarlet fever. This troper can't even imagine how hard that must have been to do.

* DieForOurShip: Poor Amy. This hatred can even be seen in films of the book: the writers don't change the ending to Jo/Laurie, but they show Amy in a bad light (removing her extreme tact and elegance in the 1994 version, for instance) and don't include quite nice scenes between her and Laurie (like his cute marriage proposal to her) with this same intention.
** This is especially stupid and/or funny given that Jo rejected Laurie twice, did everything to stop him from proposing — including leaving home — and wanted him to marry one of her sisters (Meg in the first volume, Beth in the second). Jo chose another guy and had a happy marriage (with the bonus that the guy, Professor Fritz Bhaer, was her BigBrotherMentor and beta reader too), but the fandom who still prefers her with Laurie is as strong today as it was over a hundred years ago when the writer revolted.
** Crosses into misogyny when you realize that Amy is bashed to Hell and back, yet the readers almost never aknowledge that [[HumansAreFlawed Laurie wasn't exactly a saint]] and that his attentions towards Jo actually made her VERY uncomfortable. So Laurie can chase after Jo all he wants and he's still a cutie despite Jo not romantically wanting him, but Amy dares like him as well as marry him and she's an evil MarySue? [[SpitTake PFFFFT.]]

** Also, no matter what her bashers say, it's not like Amy was 100% shoehorned into the "role". She's shown to have genuinely grown past her SpoiledBrat, and Laurie's proposal to her in the book is rather cute. (And very "conveniently", the movies totally erase it to make Amy look bad.)

* MisaimedFandom: Louisa May Alcott was VERY upset when she found out that her readers shipped Jo/Laurie and made it THE core of Jo's CharacterDevelopment as a character, when she actually intended Jo to be an example of how women should learn to stand on their feet and support themselves alongside their dreams.
** Even more so, such a misaimed fandom ''survives to this day''.

* PuritySue: Amy, after she grows up and is no longer a spoiled brat, just beautiful and perfect, at least as far as the narrator's concerned. On the other hand, her "Mary Sue"-ness is GREATLY overblown by rabid Jo/Laurie fans, who use it to attack Amyu for "being the whore in between their Twu Luv", totally missing how Jo's priorities don't necessarily lay by living only for romantic love.

* ShippingGoggles: Jo hilariously puts on her Beth/Laurie shipping goggles in the chapter "Tender Troubles."
* ShipToShipCombat: The biggest pity in the world is that ''LittleWomen'' wasn't written 150 years later. It would have been grand to watch the Jo/Laurie and Amy/Laurie Ship Wars unfold, the outrage when the author deliberately [[ShipSinking sunk]] the FanPreferredCouple, and the [[DieForOurShip various creative and excruciatingly painful ways poor Amy must die]]. But unless Alcott's fans' letters are preserved in a museum somewhere, one of the earliest {{Shipping}} frenzies is lost to time. What evidence remains suggests it was a ship war for the ages, with poor Professor Bhaer and Amy taking the worst of it. Now if someone only found some nineteenth-century fan fic in a trunk somewhere...
** There's no need for that. Check any literature board with a LMA section and you'll see Jo/Laurie fangirls whining and screaming about what a slutty MarySue Amy is and how Jo and Laurie are sooooo destined forever.

* EsotericHappyEnding: Jo married a professor [[MayDecemberRomance 15 years her senior]], whereas Laurie settles for marrying Jo's younger sister Amy. Many fans were not happy. In Alcott's defense, she told the fans from the get-go she wasn't their slave and [[ShipSinking wouldn't put Laurie and Jo together to please them]] (even back then, her fandom could be insane and annoying). Fritz is at least given some {{Backstory}} and a few chapters devoted to him, along with a touching proposal scene under a TogetherUmbrella.

** Also, no matter what her bashers say, it's not like Amy was 100% shoehorned into the "role". She's shown to have genuinely grown past her SpoiledBrat, and Laurie's proposal to her in the book is rather cute. (And very "conveniently", the movies totally erase it to make Amy loo bad.)

** The fact that Jo supports a woman's right to work and support herself if she wants to while viewing marriage as something that can be optional is VERY damn feminist. Annie aka Nan is portrayed as a capable and independent woman who, despite caring for Tommy, views him bringing up their ChildhoodMarriagePromise as a total WTF moment, and in the end is single ''and happy because of that'', while Daisy's own choice to marry her VictoriousChildhoodFriend Nat is ''also'' seen as valid and worthy of respect.

* DieForOurShip: Poor Amy...
* EsotericHappyEnding: Jo married a professor [[MayDecemberRomance 15 years her senior]], and Laurie married the ex-SpoiledBrat turned MarySue Amy. Many fans were not happy. In Alcott's defense, she told the fans from the get-go she wasn't their slave and [[ShipSinking wouldn't put Laurie and Jo together to please them]] (even back then, her fandom could be insane and annoying). Fritz is at least given some {{Backstory}} and a few chapters devoted to him, along with a touching proposal scene under a TogetherUmbrella.

* FairForItsDay: The series was actually comparatively feminist by the standards of its day, but the most feminist thing about the novel isn't anything in the book itself but the fact that Louisa May Alcott defied every feminine standard of the day by fully supporting herself and her family financially with her pen after most publishers told her to "stick to your teaching."

* PuritySue: Amy, after she grows up and is no longer a spoiled brat, just beautiful and perfect, at least as far as the narrator's concerned.

** At least the current film version makes Prof. Bhaer rather handsome (come ON, it's Gabriel Byrne!). And to be fair, Jo is quite happy with him, and he obviously adores her.

* HollywoodHomely: Most, if not all, of the movie adaptations cast very beautiful actresses to interpret the self-described "plain" Jo March. The Winona Ryder version, with gorgeous Ryder as Jo, has her declare that she is "ugly and awkward." A hilarious moment in this movie is when Jo has her hair cut off and Amy cries: "Jo, your one beauty!"

* EsotericHappyEnding: Jo married a professor [[MayDecemberRomance 15 years her senior]], and Laurie married the ex-SpoiledBrat now MarySue Amy. Many fans were not happy. In Alcott's defense, she told the fans from the get-go she wasn't their slave and [[ShipSinking wouldn't put Laurie and Jo together to please them]] (even back then, her fandom could be insane and annoying). Fritz is at least given some {{Backstory}} and a few chapters devoted to him, along with a touching proposal scene under a TogetherUmbrella.
** At least the current film version makes Prof. Baer rather handsome (come ON, it's Gabriel Byrne!). And to be fair, Jo is quite happy with him, and he obviously adores her.
* FanPreferredCouple: Jo and Laurie -- and no, this is ''not'' a case of ValuesDissonance. The original 19th century fandom ''also'' shipped Jo and [[FirstNameBasis Teddy]].
* FirstInstallmentWins
* HollywoodHomely: Most, if not all, of the movie adaptations cast very beautiful actresses to interpret the self-described "plain" Jo March. The Winona Ryder version, with gorgeous Ryder as Jo, has her declare that she is "ugly and awkward". A hilarious moment in this movie is when Jo has her hair cut off and Amy cries: "Jo, your one beauty!"

* ShipToShipCombat: The biggest pity in the world is that ''LittleWomen'' wasn't written 150 years later. It would have been grand to watch the Jo/Laurie and Amy/Laurie Ship Wars unfold, the outrage when the author deliberately [[ShipSinking sunk]] the FanPreferredCouple, and the [[DieForOurShip various creative and excruciatingly painful ways poor Amy must die]]. But unless Alcott's fans' letters are preserved in a museum somewhere, one of the earliest {{Shipping}} frenzies is lost to time. What evidence remains suggests it was a ship war for the ages, with poor Professor Baeher and Amy taking the worst of it. Now if someone only found some nineteenth-century fan fic in a trunk somewhere...

* {{Tearjerker}}: Beth trying to "wean herself" from life when dying from the effects of Scarlet Fever. This troper can't even imagine how hard that must have been to do.

** Billy, Dick, and [[HeartwarmingOrphan Nat]] from Little Men.

** Billy, Dick, and [[HeartwarmingOrphan Nat]] from Little Men.

* TheWoobie: Beth, and Jo up until the last four chapters of ''Little Women Part II''

* NarmCharm: ''LittleWomen'' plots a course through {{Mary Sue}}s, [[PurpleProse wildly extravagant and sentimental prose]], [[AnAesop Aesops]] (some of them [[FamilyUnfriendlyAesop rather questionable]]) in [[OnceAnEpisode nearly every chapter]]... and comes out as a gripping romantic drama with a deserved place in the highest pantheon of American literature.

** Louisa May Alcott is ''very'' good at these. Just read "My Beth" and "In the Garret".

* HeartwarmingMoment: Jo and Friedrich at the very end of ''Little Women'':

* {{Shipping}}: Called "lovering," in those days.
* ShipSinking: "I won't marry Jo to Laurie to please anybody!"
* ShipToShipCombat: The biggest pity in the world is that ''LittleWomen'' wasn't written 150 years later. It would have been grand to watch the Jo/Laurie and Amy/Laurie Ship Wars unfold, the outrage when the author deliberately [[ShipSinking sunk]] the FanPreferredCouple, and the [[DieForOurShip various creative and excruciatingly painful ways Amy must die]]. But unless Alcott's fans' letters are preserved in a museum somewhere, one of the earliest {{Shipping}} frenzies is lost to time.
** What evidence remains suggests it was a ship war for the ages, with poor Professor Baeher and Amy taking the worst of it. Now if someone only found some nineteenth-century fan fic in a trunk somewhere...
** Actually, the STSC ''lives'' still now. The Jo/Laurie "essay" in the Ship Manifesto LJ comm is '''full'' of Amy bashing, RelationshipSue calls and "Jo/Laurie OTP!" bitching from both the rant's author and the commenters.

** Actually, the STSC ''lives'' still now. The Jo/Laurie "essay" in the Ship Manifesto LJ comm is '''full'' of Amy bashing, RelationshipSue calls and "Jo/Laurie OTP!" bitching from both the rant's author and the commenters.

* The biggest pity in the world is that ''LittleWomen'' wasn't written 150 years later. It would have been grand to watch the Jo/Laurie and Amy/Laurie Ship Wars unfold, the outrage when the author deliberately [[ShipSinking sunk]] the FanPreferredCouple, and the [[DieForOurShip various creative and excruciatingly painful ways Amy must die]]. But unless Alcott's fans' letters are preserved in a museum somewhere, one of the earliest {{Shipping}} frenzies is lost to time.

** "I know I shall be homesick for you, even in Heaven."