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.

No- I much prefer Mac-- I don't think charlie, really could have been reformed, even through love.

I can't remember if Phoebe (from Rose in Bloom, not Friends) ended up with a significant other. I really wanted her too.

That illness of Mac's in Eight Cousins was a complete set-up for their future relationship. Not only does she become more sensitive to him and his plight and taps into her more caring side, but he eventually takes pains to try and be thoughtful of her as well, even though he does try and hide it from his brothers to cover up any wussiness.

Actually, now that I'm talking about it, I want to reread Eight Cousins. I'll have to see if my bookstore has it for me to pick up when I work tomorrow. Maybe it's less "alternative education tract" than I remember Uncle Alec's techniques being.

I can't remember if Phoebe (from Rose in Bloom, not Friends) ended up with a significant other. I really wanted her too.

She does. The family eventually relents and decides she's good enough for Archie after she risks her own life nursing Uncle Alec through an illness he gets while helping some immigrants. (Gotta love all the class and ethnic issues packed into that subplot!)