An Old Fashioned Girl

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An Old-Fashioned Girl is a children fiction novel by Louisa May Alcott. It was first published as a whole in 1870, although the first part was published in 1869.

It all starts out with a Tom Shaw fighting with his sister, Fan, to go to the station to pick up Fan's friend. Fan does not wish to go because her curls will get ruined in the rain. Finally, Tom agrees to go, and runs to the station. There, he expects to meet a fashionable, breezy young lady, but is instead met by a young girl with a bright face, and simple clothes. Her name is Polly. The first book is about Polly having to deal with irritating Tom, who is sometimes nice and sometimes mean, her own simple country clothes being made fun of by Fan's friends, and temptations that come her way.

The second book, which is about what happens six years after Polly leaves the Shaw house, is about Polly working as a music teacher, and being looked down upon because of that. She also has a new lover, Mr. Sydney, a rich but kind gentleman, who, unfortunately, Polly does not love, and Fan does. She declines his visits, and falls in love with Tom, instead, but Tom was engaged to a mean girl named Trix. Eventually, though, the Shaw family gets broke, and Trix releases her engagement with Tom. Tom gets expelled from college, and has many debts, so after Trix releases him, he goes West to where Polly's brother is because he has to earn money and is no good at businesses. Tom comes home from the West later, and even though in his letter he said he loves Maria Bailey, he only said so because Polly's brother did not want anyone to know that he (Polly's brother) loved Maria. Tom thinks that Sydney still loves Polly, even though he just got engaged to Fan, and there is a grand clearing up of mysteries. Polly and Tom admit that they love each other, and get married.