I loved reading Little Women as a kid and plan to one day re-read it along with the rest of the series: Good Wives, Little Men and Jo’s Boys. So when I came across this little known Louisa May Alcott novel, I snapped it up thinking to fall into a similar warm and fuzzy world, akin to that of Little Women. But where Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy present several faucets of one’s personality, the good along with the bad, in An Old-Fashioned Girl, Polly is like reading a book about Beth, all the time, with no break for reality. As I like to say, she’s Polly without the Anna and just as annoying.
A simple country-girl, Polly travels to the big city to stay with her friend Fanny Shaw and family (rascal brother Tom, spoiled younger sister Maud, “nervous” mother, absentee father, and grandmother, a woman whose temperament closely resembles Polly’s and therefore becomes a port in the storm for the simple girl overwhelmed by city brashness).
Polly is so sweet and lovely however that soon she is mending family differences and bringing father and son, grandmother and grandchildren closer together, until the family resembles a Norman Rockwell painting. Unfortunately Polly’s visit must come to an end, and though she has yearly visits to the Shaw’s, the author skips forward to Polly as a young woman, moving to the city permanently to teach music and keep a little room for herself. Her family being poor, Polly has given up her share of the inheritance so her brother Will can go to school and become a clergyman. It’s the stuff of sainthood, folks.
Back in the city, Polly once more enmeshes herself into the life of the Shaw’s, only now she and Fanny seem to be competing for the same young gentleman, putting a rift in their friendship, and beloved Tom has engaged himself to a society girl who treats him horribly, is selfish beyond measure and has little of virtue to recommend her. This gives Polly great heartache, to see Tom suffer so.
But Polly, being the angel she is, soon gives up the new gentleman friend for Fanny’s sake and stands steadfastly by Tom, through thick and thin, propping him up despite his poor behaviour and decisions. She knows, though, there is good in him yet, if he but had a chance to grow up and mature a little.
Gag.
The book of course ends very happily for all, but I think, had I read this as a child, I would likely have enjoyed it more, and gotten more out of it. As it is, I just wanted to shake Polly out of her delightful complacency and tell her to get a personality. She was just far too saintly and goody-two-shoes-y for my cynical adult self. The award for most irritating protagonist would I think, go to Miss Polly Milton, very deservedly.
Till next time, happy reading!
L 
“Until I feared I would lose it, I never loved to read. One does not love breathing”
~ Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird
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