Thursday, July 26, 2012

The Classics Club: An Old-Fashioned Girl

"Young men often laugh at the sensible girls whom they secretly respect, and affect to admire the silly ones whom they secretly despise, because earnestness, intelligence, and womanly dignity are not the fashion."
~An Old-Fashioned Girl by Louisa May Alcott

I first tried reading An Old-Fashioned Girl when I was ten and had run out of things to read.  I think I got about halfway through the first chapter before I tossed the book down in disgust.

I don't know what I was thinking.

When I picked up AOFG again, I must have been about twelve.  This time, the story came alive for me.  Polly, Fanny, Tom, Maud, Grandma Shaw, Will, Mr. Sydney all seemed so tremendously real, even more so than the March sisters in Little Women (sacrilege, I know).  Since then, I've read AOFG a good half-dozen times, and this most recent re-read was the best yet.

Polly Milton, the protagonist, is one of those overlooked literary heroines.  She's sweet without being sloggy, funny without being over-the-top, old-fashioned and charming but not prudish, pleasant and likable but not without her faults... in short, she's the kind of girl everyone would want for a friend, and I don't know why she isn't more well-known in the bookish world.  When the story begins, she's fourteen, but the book skips ahead six years about halfway through, and for the rest of the story she's twenty.  I liked her in the beginning, of course, but I liked her even better in the second half of the book.  I'm not quite sure why, but she just seemed more real somehow.

For those of you who don't know the story, Polly is a country girl who comes to stay with her friend Fanny Shaw in the city, and during her stay she's exposed to a lot of unfamiliar things in a much faster-paced world (it's the 1870's, mind) than what she's been accustomed to.  She embarrasses Fanny at times with her lack of airs and graces, but by the time she goes home again, the girls are closer friends than before and the entire Shaw family (including Fanny's incorrigible brother Tom and spoiled sister Maud) is (are) sad to see Polly go.  (I know "family" is a singular word, but I always want to put "are" instead of "is," especially when I'm specifying people in parentheses... anyways.)

Then the narrative takes a six-year leap and suddenly Polly's back in the city again, this time to earn her own living as a music teacher.  Fanny's an unhappy young society woman, Tom is a college dandy and Maud an attention-hungry schoolgirl.  And this time a little bit of romance starts to creep into the story, and refreshingly enough it doesn't quite look like there's going to be a happily ever after until the very last chapter (in which there IS a happily ever after--yes, I know I just spoiled that, you're welcome.)

Fanny always annoyed me a bit when I read the book in previous years.  She struck me as a silly little snip who didn't appreciate what a good friend she had, and even after Polly's good influence didn't seem to change much for the better.  But when I re-read AOFG a few weeks ago, I saw Fanny in a different light-- maybe it was the fact that I hadn't read the book in over a year, or maybe it's that I'm getting older and more mature (now wouldn't THAT be nice) or maybe it's that I just missed stuff the first few times.  But at any rate, I found myself liking and pitying Fanny more than ever before, and truly rooting for her to have a happy ending.  (Yes, of course I knew how the story turned out, but there's still that feeling of suspense, you know?)


"Do go along, or you'll be too late; and then, what will Polly think of me?" cried Fanny, with the impatient poke which is peculiarly aggravating to masculine dignity.
"She'll think you cared more about your frizzles than your friends, and she'll be about right, too," [said Tom.]

Tom is one of my favorite characters in the story.  At fourteen he's funny, mischievous, prank-playing, a good sport and a bit annoying at times but well-meaning.  At twenty, he's suddenly become a bad student, far too attentive to his appearance (and not in a Sir Percy way--Tom is just annoying) and, horror of horrors, engaged to a girl with the loathsome name of Trix.  (What were her parents thinking?  I bet they worked for General Mills.  Yes, that must be it.)  Yet he still has a good heart underneath, and though he gets into trouble even more as a young adult than as a teenager, you can't help liking him.  At least, I couldn't.

Maud was simply hilarious when she was a spoiled-brat six-year-old, and quite likable and cute at twelve.  She seemed to be much more of a real person in the second half of the book, but I was always amused at her lisping whines in the first part.

...and a little girl, of six or seven, came roaring in. She stopped at sight of Polly, stared a minute, then took up her roar just where she left it, and cast herself into Fanny's lap, exclaiming wrathfully, "Tom's laughing at me! Make him stop!"
"What did you do to set him going? Don't scream so, you'll frighten Polly!" and Fan gave the cherub a shake, which produced an explanation.
"I only said we had cold cweam at the party, last night, and he laughed!"
"Ice-cream, child!" and Fanny followed Tom's reprehensible example.
"I don't care! it was cold; and I warmed mine at the wegister, and then it was nice; only, Willy Bliss spilt it on my new Gabwielle!" and Maud wailed again over her accumulated woes.

One thing that particularly stands out to me in AOFG is the simplicity of the dialogue.  The way the characters speak is so very real--there are a few times in Little Women and, yes, even Eight Cousins where the conversations come across as rather stilted and unnatural.  Not so in AOFG (though AOFG might seem more likely to have saccharine dialogue--the title itself, you'll have to admit, sounds rather hopelessly Victorian and rosy and cutesy).  Now, of course, Little Women was scribbled out over a period of six weeks without much wiggle room for editing, so it's only natural that some parts of it should be not quite on par with the rest, but AOFG is still my favorite as regards the dialogue.    As Alice says, a book is no good if it has no pictures or conversations, and though I don't quite agree about the pictures (sounds too much like Gaston...) I have to agree that a book with dry conversation is apt to be a dry read on the whole.  And AOFG is jam-packed with interesting conversation, the kind that makes you really want to find out what happens on the next page.


"Don't do that again, chicken, or you'll blow me away. What's the matter?" asked Tom, throwing down his book with a yawn that threatened dislocation.
"I'm afraid I can't go to Polly's," answered Maud, disconsolately.
"Of course you can't; it's snowing hard, and father won't be home with the carriage till this evening. What are you always cutting off to Polly's for?"
"I like it; we have such nice times, and Will is there, and we bake little johnny-cakes in the baker before the fire, and they sing, and it is so pleasant."
"Warbling johnny-cakes must be interesting. Come and tell me all about it."
"No, you'll only laugh at me."
"I give you my word I won't, if I can help it; but I really am dying of curiosity to know what you do down there. You like to hear secrets, so tell me yours, and I'll be as dumb as an oyster."

And now I'm going to be mean and say that if you, too, are dying of curiosity to know what Maud and Will and Polly "do down there," you'll have to read the book and find out for yourself, because I'm not going to tell you.  Horrid of me, I know.

My rating-- nine out of ten stars.  I'm hesitant to give it ten out of ten, simply because that would mean it's absolutely perfect, and I wouldn't say it's quite perfect.  It has one major shortcoming, and that is that it's simply not long enough and there's no sequel.

Oh, well, never mind-- no sequel means I get to make up the post-ending myself, and that's always fun.

20 comments:

GreenMedallion said...

Ah! I can't believe it! You reviewed one of my favorite books! I remember first reading this... It completely captured me. I later re-read it and enjoyed it just as much. Louisa May Alcott was an incredible writer.

Great review!

Kirsten Fichter said...

Love this book!! I waited to read AOFG until I was about 17. But once I began it, I knew I wouldn't be able to put it down! :)

Arielle Melody Bailey said...

Yay, another fan of An Old Fashioned Girl!!!! I love, love, LOVE this book!! Alcott did a tremendously wonderful job with this story.

I felt sorry for Fanny too and like how her story ended. Oh, and Sydney is terrific! "Sir Philip" is one of my favorite scenes, especially, of course, the latter part in the kitchen with Tom!!

You know, I detest the name Trix! Always now it makes me think of a snob! (In fact, I named one of my minor characters in Gemini Trixie, and she is DREADFUL.)

Maud is hilarious!!

I agree with every word m'dear, not long enough and no sequel. ):

Great review, Amy!

Melody said...

I'm looking forward to reading this. The title has delighted me for as long as I can remember, but I never knew much about it beyond its swellissimus name and that it was written by the author of LW. ;)
Heehee, our ten-year-old selves can be silly sometimes, can't they?

Unknown said...

Oooh yes, I LOVE this book! It's such a delightful read.

Anonymous said...

Oh, I love this book! It took me a while to read it for some reason, but I ended up loving it! Of course, I also hated Little Women the first time I read it... I know, I'm just terrible. No excuse. Sorry, Jo.
Ohhh, I can't wait to show you all the splendiferously amazing books I got yesterday!! I'm hoping to take some pictures of them later today, and maybe even I'll have time to whip out a post real quick...
Lovely review as always, Chauvie! Your reviews are simply the best ever. =)

deryn joy said...

OH YES, I loved that book! one of LMA's more overlooked gems, it seemed to me :)

Ella said...

This is one of my favorite books!
I've read it two or three times and I have ejoyed it more everytime:)

Lydia said...

i love this book! one of my all time favorites!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Beth Grace said...

My favorite Louisa May Alcott book... ever!!!!!! I do enjoy "Little Women" too because of the four sisters and their friendships together- kind of like my sisters and I (but then again there are five of us so that would classify us more as the Bennet sisters, wouldn't it? But never mind, I'm getting offtrack...). LMA is one of my favorite fiction-writing authors (next to Austen and Dickens) and AOFG is is probably- no most likely- my favorite book out of all the ones she wrote! :)

Kathryn said...

I LOVE AOFG. Like you, I did not finish it the first time I started it, but that was only because I lost it about three quarters of the way through. Imagine my delight when, several years later, I rediscovered it. Of course, I had to read the whole thing all over again. I definitely prefer it above Little Women, Under the Lilacs, and Eight Cousins, although I think that Rose in Bloom might be my favorite Alcott book.
This was an excessively delightful post!

Holly said...

oh i so want to read this book now! :)

Kate said...

I love AOFG. I've read it (and Rose in Bloom) far more times than I have Little Women. (Although it's a given that I love that, too.) I love the quote snippets you included - I agree with you: the conversations in AOFG are marvelous.

Jessica said...

I read this book as a young teen and enjoyed it a lot. :-) I think I may read it again soon!

Julia Rogers said...

Hey Amy,
I KNOW I haven't commented in ages but i just HAD to this time!
Mom read this out loud to us when I was about five and then once again when I was about eight and I liked it both times..but then I read it for myself at about 15 and ABSOLUTELY LOVED it!! It is DEFINITELY one of her best..WAY better than LW..sorry but its true =) It is almost equal with Rose In Bloom..and that is saying alot! Those are my 2 VERY favorites of hers, then comes 8 Cousins, then Little Men. then Jo's Boys, then Jack and Jill,..... THEN Little Women. Sorry..but I just read the others a LOT more..I can read those ANY time..I have only read the unabridged version once. = )
but it was good and I enjoyed it,...just not as much as some of her others.

Hayden said...

Haha! I was planning on reviewing this book, but it looks like you beat me to it!

I ADORE this book SO MUCH. I mean, I really do.

A lot. :)

Scullery Maid said...

This is one of my favorite books! I have read it about six times in the last couple years. I love the part where they all come up to Grandmother's rooms and listen to her stories(My fave is the one about the night-time secret party).

Terra said...

Oh, I love AOFG! I grew up reading this book and Rose in Bloom. I love Rose in Bloom the best though. My favorite book of all time. I think Mac is the best, way better than Mr. Darcy (I still love Mr. D.) Anyway, back to AOFG, I have probably read it ten times since I was about thirteen. I love the fact that Tom is not your average "perfect" hero. He has many faults, but I love him better because of them. The end is too perfect! Boy, your post has made me want to read this story yet again. :)

Alexandra said...

LOVED THIS BOOK. Ya know, we really should do a dream casting of this...seriously, really should.

And whatever happened to our PIC screenplay? (Answer: LIFE. LOLOL.) Need to get back to that eventually. Hahaha.

Anyway. This book was a gem. Just LOVED it.

Anonymous said...

I really have to read this book!! Especially after reading this review. :)
-"God Little Teacup"