There are a couple of scenes where Beth? Amy? is reforming Laurie that made me rethink my idea that the unabridged version is always better than the abridged (see my adored Count of Monte Cristo). But the abridged LW always chokes me up when Amy? Beth? gets sick.

I could barely read Jack and Jill once, but I actually like Eight Cousins/Rose in Bloom better than Little Women and its sequels. However, I'm apparently weird in that I'm actually glad Rose ended up with Mac instead of Charlie, because I totally would've picked Mac myself. However, I wouldn't necessarily have gone to the extreme of sanctimoniously killing Charlie to get him out of the way if it'd been my book.

FWIW, I also like An Old-Fashioned Girl better than Little Women despite its high sanctimony. I think i just like Rose and Polly better than the March girls, so it follows that I like their books better.

One of the more amusing moviegoing experiences I have had was the elderly couple behind me at Moulin Rouge heatedly arguing over whether Nicole Kidman was dying of consumption or tuberculosis.

Beth's the one who gets sick and dies.

Amy lives, marries Laurie, and lives happily - and richly - ever after. (Their daughter is in Jo's Boys.)

I think my favorite Friends episode ever is the one where Joey and Rachel trade favorite books, and my favorite moments are around Rachel spoiling him for Beth's death and the bit at the end where he puts the book in the freezer because Beth is sick...

The Old Fashioned Girl is one of my favorite books of all time, even if it is sanctimonious. I love Polly, and Tom, and Fanny, and young Maud! I just want to live in Polly's little apartment with her cat and her coal fire and the young female artists downstairs!

Huh. I don't think I KNEW there was an unabridged version of LW. Which makes me want to immediately run out and read it.

The unabriged version, held up next to the abriged version (metaphorically held up, though if you want to actually hold them up, go ahead) is a perfect example of Why Editing Is Good.

I loved the episode of Friends where Rachel gets Joey to read Little Women, and he gets all teary over Beth: "If I keep reading is Beth gonna die?"

However, I'm apparently weird in that I'm actually glad Rose ended up with Mac instead of Charlie, because I totally would've picked Mac myself. However, I wouldn't necessarily have gone to the extreme of sanctimoniously killing Charlie to get him out of the way if it'd been my book.

Mac was totally the guy to get. He's a kind-hearted bookaholic nerd who loves kids--what's not to like? He had his jerk moments in Eight Cousins when he was recovering from whatever illness it was he had and was battling to save his sight. (Such a literary cliche!!) I loved the bond that he and Rose developed at that time, and after that, it was a given they would hook up in my mind.

Charlie was a rogue and wastrel, and, by Victorian lit standards, had to die.

I remember reading, ages ago, that the women at a bookstore in Paris - Shakespeare & Co.? - when Henry Miller asked them for something to read on a long train trip gave him Petite Femmes (apologies for my lousy French spelling). He grabbed it, expecting something with sex ... and was quite disappointed.

Mac was totally the guy to get. He's a kind-hearted bookaholic nerd who loves kids--what's not to like?

Cool, so I'm not alone! I've just been in so many discussions of Rose in Bloom that centered on grumbling over Charlie's death and Rose's preference for saintly Mac that I'd concluded it was the "Susan in The Last Battle" incident of the LMA canon.