There's a reason Henry James called "Little Women" a satire

Posted Thursday morning, January 2, 2020.

Then 12 year old Kirstin Dunst stealing the show as Amy in Gillian Armstrong's 1994 film version of “Little Women”, which I now want to see almost as much as I want to see Greta Gerwig's new one.

The March girls getting ready to surprise Marmee with presents on Christmas morning, with Amy as the plucky comic relief to the scene’s sentimentality:

"There's mother. Hide the basket, quick!" cried Jo, as a door slammed, and steps sounded in the hall.

Amy came in hastily, and looked rather abashed when she saw her sisters all waiting for her.

"Where have you been, and what are you hiding behind you?" asked Meg, surprised to see, by her hood and cloak, that lazy Amy had been out so early.

"Don't laugh at me, Jo! I didn't mean any one should know till the time came. I only meant to change the little bottle for a big one, and I gave all my money to get it, and I'm truly trying not to be selfish any more."

As she spoke, Amy showed the handsome flask which replaced the cheap one; and looked so earnest and humble in her little effort to forget herself that Meg hugged her on the spot, and Jo pronounced her "a trump," while Beth ran to the window, and picked her finest rose to ornament the stately bottle.

"You see I felt ashamed of my present, after reading and talking about being good this morning, so I ran round the corner and changed it the minute I was up: and I'm so glad, for mine is the handsomest now."

---from “Little Women” by Louisa May Alcott.

Comments

[JD]

And I thought it was just Victorian snark.

[Kaleberg]

Sometimes a parody is so good that it becomes a classic. H. Rider Haggard's King Solomon's Mine comes to mind. I'm sure there are others.

[Kaleberg]

I'll add any movie about the glory of the British Empire by Alexander Korda.