Good Girls don’t read

[koyotesdaughter]

I’ve been thinking about young literary heroines. The ones I remember are, if not tomboys, then at least misfits. Anne of Green Gables was our protagonist, not the respectable Diana. Lucy showed us Narnia, not her sensible sister Susan. The Little House series showed us Laura, with her loud mouth and her inability to sit still, not her pretty and

Comments

[after_nightfall]

How about Catelyn then? Good and dutiful daughter who studied statecraft and later thanked her father for the wonderful match he made her. Check. Good wife who helped and supported her husband, and came to feel an affection for him even though their marriage was an arranged one. Check. Good mother who put the wellbeing of her children before her own. Check. Good lady who did her best for her liegemen. Check. She never rebelled and was probably what, say, Walder Frey had been telling his daughters for decades: if only you'd been more like Catelyn Tully, I'd have no trouble marrying you off

[regina_of_york]

Jane is a good example, imo.

Also, what about Elinor from Sense and Sensibility?

[koyotesdaughter]

I was thinking about Elinor. Senses and Sensibility wasn't one of my favorite of Austin's works, so I didn't remember it so well. After glancing back through it, I think Elinor does qualify as a Good Girl.

[regina_of_york]

Elinor is not only a Good Girl, but in the end her more "wild" sister only finds happiness when she learns to be more like Elinor.

Which sounds rather cloying when I type it out that way, lol.

(But if you want a refresher without re-reading the book, try the movie. Alan Rickman as Brandon=LOVE.)

[koyotesdaughter]

Haha. The movie is part of what had me dis-cluding Elinor. I enjoy the movie, and I adore Emma Thompson, but that role made me remember Elinor as much older than she was in the book. So I thought she was verging on spinsterhood, having over-prioritized taking care of her mother, rather than being a girl of 19.

Also contributing to my confusion was that I read most of Jane Austin's work at once, and Anne Elliot from Persuasion is the one who is still single as the spinster-nearing age of 27. I thought it was both of them.

[koyotesdaughter]

The story of teenaged Catelyn rebuffing Petyr's affections and marrying a stranger after losing her betrothed would, indeed, make an excellent Good Girl as heroine tale. As it is, I think she's too old for the discussion. As we know her, she's surely a Good and Dutiful Mother, but she's fully a woman. I was wary of referencing A Song of Ice and Fire at all, really, because the target audience is well beyond "formative years", although it is read by many teens despite its adult nature.

I haven't actually read any of the others you mention. If you recommend them, I'll try to get my hands on them.

Regarding Jane Eyre (which I also haven't read), even though she's a Good Girl in her role as governess, is she really Good, given the era? Or is her station as governess already something that shows she wasn't pretty / rich / subservient enough to land herself the "ideal" of a good marriage?

[after_nightfall]

I'd definitely recommend you to pick up "Sunshine" as it's a good and entertaining read, if a bit full of inner monologues for the first twenty pages or so. "Lymond chronicles" is a good read too, but don't pick it up if you don't have a lot of time. It's a sprawling, verbose historical series that's somewhat difficult to read, but worth the effort in the end.

I've been thinking about Jane Eyre, and now I'm not sure anymore how she'd fit into your concept of a Good Girl, which I took to mean a female in the formative stages who does not fight or rebel or live in conflict with her environment, and I was thinking that except at first, she'd settled into her life quite nicely and was making her own way in the world - the (in her time) increasingly acceptable way of a woman earning her own keep. Of course there could be more to being a Good Girl than that. Maybe if you read it one day, you'll be able to comment.

[koyotesdaughter]

Sunshine is on my library list, now. :)

[silvertistel]

I haven't read "Sunshine", but at least Jane Eyre should definitely count as a "good girl".

She's deprived of wealth and good fortune, and still soldiers on and doesn't complain. In school she's Hermione Granger, but without the adventures and all together very respectable. She's kind, helpful and likes children.

So yeah, she's definitely a good girl, down to not even being stunning or fabulous looking. :)

[koyotesdaughter]

I suppose I really should read Jane Eyre one of these days.