This whole book is so fascinating in the way it looks at femininity and marriage, and I really love how all of the sisters have different ideas of how they want to fit what is expected of them as women. I really liked the way this book looks at marriage and relationships as the sisters get older, especially having the different opinions from the girls. Love is the only thing that we can carry with us when we go, I enjoyed the way this book uses letters between the girls and Marmee, as well as focusing on where they are throughout the books. Not surprisingly due to the name of the book, this part mainly focuses on the sisters settling down into relationships and moving out of the family home. Good Wives is set 3 years after Little Women, when the sisters are presumably in their late teens. I then borrowed my boyfriend’s copy of the Penguin Paperback Classic (found here) which contains both parts so I could finish the story properly! Most editions of the book will contain both parts and will be commonly called Little Women in it’s entirety, but the Wordsworth children’s collectors edition I read ended at the end of part 1. My review for the first part can be found here. This review is for Good Wives, or part 2 of Little Women.

The book includes a behind-the-scenes journey, including an author profile, a guide to who’s who, activities and more. Although they all face painful trials along the way – from Meg’s sad lesson in housekeeping to Laurie’s disappointment in love and a tragedy which touches them all – each of the girls finally finds happiness, if not always in the way they expect. Three years on from Little Women, the March girls and their friend Laurie are young adults with their futures ahead of them.

With Illustrations by Jessie T.Good Wives is the second story about the March family. Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy: Being a Sequel to 'Little Women'. Don't let be a stranger to the babies, for they will do more to keep him safe and happy in this world of trial and temptation than anything else, and through them you will learn to know and love one another as you should.” no time is so beautiful and precious to parents as the first years of the little lives given them to train. Each do our part alone in many things, but at home we work together, always. That is the secret of our home happiness: he does not let business wean him from the little cares and duties that affect us all, and I try not to let domestic worries destroy my interest in his pursuits. His place is there as well as yours, and the children need him let him feel that he has his part to do, and he will do it gladly and faithfully, and it will be better for you all.

don't neglect husaband for children, don't shut him out of the nursery, but teach him how to help in it. children should draw nearer than ever, not separate you, as if they were all yours, and had nothing to do but support them.

Good wives alcott