Little Women & Good Wives

I must 'fess' - my only fault is writing cynical reviews of 'classic' novels that everyone else loves! I will try to be a better reviewer, and aspire to be blinded by nostalgia, and put my faith in God - no, wait, I won't. Little Women must have rotted my brain! What a trying read! I watched the BBC adaptation a couple of Christmases ago and loved the story and the characters, so I instantly downloaded the book - but never got around to completely destroying the illusion until now. The adaptation was far, far better than the 'classic' novel - and according to devoted fans of Alcott, the 2017 adaptation is not even one of the better retellings! I completely understand the distortion of nostalgia - I love the Scarlet Pimpernel books by show more Baroness Orczy, but understand how modern readers hate the florid prose and biased view of the French Revolution. Little Women is like that - for those readers who were introduced to Meg, Amy, Beth and Jo as children, I'm sure the author's simplistic narrative, cliched characters and leaden moral lessons will never fall out of fashion, but I struggled to read the first book and won't be continuing with Good Wives. show less

Some books read like a lifelong friendship, each page a warm or comforting embrace as you laugh and weep along with the characters. Little Women by L.M. Alcott is an enduring and endearing classic that will nestle its way so deep into your heart that you’ll wonder if the sound of turning pages has become your new heartbeat in your chest. To read the novel is a magical experience, and we are all like Laurie peering in through the March’s window and relishing in the warmth within. I have long loved the film adaptations and make it a holiday tradition to ensure I at least watch it every December (it has Christmas in it, it counts), so it was fascinating to finally read the actual novel and return to character I feel I’ve always known show more yet still find it fresh and even more lovely than ever before.

Semi-autobiographical, Alcott traces the lives of the four March sisters, Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy, and their struggles to make their own way in a society that offers little use for women beyond the household. An emotional epic and moving family saga full of strong characters, sharp criticisms on society and gender roles, and a beautiful plea to dispense with the worship of wealth and find true purpose and value in simplicity, nature and generosity. show less

‘’I like good, strong words that mean something.’’

Impossible to think that I hadn’t read Louisa May Alcott’s classic novel before this year’s Christmas holidays. And yet, I think that for everything there is a reason because its comfort, however momentary, was indeed welcoming during one of the most emotionally draining periods of my life.

This is the story of the March family, centred around the joys, the hopes, the pain, the dreams, the labours and the loves of the four sisters. Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy. All different, all with their gifts and weaknesses (although some are weaker than the others…). Through this beloved family, Alcott comments on the factors that shaped women’s lives at that time, the stereotypes, the show more prejudices and the unchanged, almost eternal way certain feelings are experienced.

Reading is the best comfort. Jo, especially, demonstrates this view most tangibly. Yes, books are the warmest company and I can verify that because I am talking from the bitterest of experiences. Even fairy tales are an escape from an unsatisfying reality and nowhere is this better demonstrated than in the Pickwick Portfolio, the pride and joy of the March sisters. As the reality of poverty and hardship is depicted throughout the novel with a clear eye, never sentimentally or romantically, reading and evenings by the fire become the means for a mind to find nourishment and comfort. When the pain is so acute, your heart seems within the clutches of a vise, you trust in two things. God and books. They are possibly the only ones that will not disappoint you. And it would be unforgivable not to mention that Alcott’s must be one of the first detailed depictions of a writer’s battle between the Commercial and the material that comes straight from their hearts, a fight that must be a dragon circling every writer’s lair.

Louisa May Alcott portrays the ‘woes’ of womanhood to perfection. ‘Be elegant’. ‘Be quiet’. ‘Find a husband. Make sure he is rich.’ Jo refuses this charade. She is thinking of the women who fight a different war at home while their husbands are away. While we are building our castles in the air when we are young, we don’t stop and think how quickly they are bound to fall once we reach a certain age when we can’t dream anymore…Alcott shows that, unlike Amy and her pitiful whims and fake coquetry, women who love the hardest are the seemingly ‘immune’ ones, like Jo. Moreover, she places an emphasis on the balance between motherhood and fatherhood for the creation of a beautiful family. Contemporary writers who ‘fight against patriarchy’ should take note of it. I mean, you wouldn’t have been born without a man, right? Right.

Jo is the heart of the story. The soul. The epitome of the bookish tomboy, the fire, the spirit, the independence, the refusal to compromise. When she falls in love, she keeps it locked within her. Her temper is her way of rebelling against the norm, even when she tries to contain it. She is the only sister who pursues a dream that doesn’t involve men (with the exception of Beth, of course) but targets personal and artistic fulfilment. She is the one who jumps to a loved one’s defence in ways that are most ‘unladylike’ and I could easily see my self reflected in what some would still characterise as ‘improper’, ‘unwomanly’ behaviour. They do settle forAnd leave it to her to make everything sound naughtier than it should…Women like Jo are attracted by the cerebral; they answer when their minds are stimulated. But weak men? They still settle for the timid, boring one, the docile, the fake, the plastic, the empty, the comfortable. When they can’t have the fire…

Make no mistake, dear friends. Not many things have changed over the centuries…

I fully agree with the ‘classic’ status the novel has acquired. The character of Jo will stay with me forever, and Alcott’s subtle satire exposes the stereotypes without fully condemning them, however. I am vehemently against marriage, and I have a few qualms over the way Jo’s character was ‘wrapped up’ at the end of the novel,l but that’s just me and my cynical nature.

There is a distinctive, calming quietness in this novel. A novel for winter evenings and mornings, slow and still. While I was reading, I was taken back to my childhood and the serenity I felt when I used to sit in my grandma’s house, very early in the morning during Christmas, watching the grey sky.

I can’t do this anymore. It’s impossible to experience the same innocence and lightness. It’s just not there now. Now, more than ever…

‘’A quick temper, sharp tongue and restless spirit.’’

My reviews can also be found on https://theopinionatedreaderblog.wordpress.com/ show less

A book that both defines and transcends the sentimental literature of the nineteenth century, Louisa May Alcott's Little Women is one of those lifelong companions that I have read and re-read, in whole and in part, too many times to count...

The story of the four March sisters, their adventures and friends, their joys and sorrows as they come of age during the tumultuous period of the American Civil War, is as relevant today as when it was first written. Here we see both the warmth and strength of family love, and the bitter rivalries that can arise between siblings. As someone who grew up in a house with three girls, I could enter fully into many of the characters' feelings, whether it was Amy's pique at being left out, or Jo's show more righteous indignation at the burning of her precious papers, and subsequent ecstasy of repentance when her anger almost costs her something far more dear. Who hasn't longed, like Meg at Vanity Fair, to be popular? And who hasn't secretly wished that, like Beth, they had a kindly benefactor?

Like the March girls, many children today must cope with the absence of a parent, whether through military service or other causes; and like the March girls, children have always been forced to confront difficult moral choices as they struggle to become adults. I have sometimes seen this book described as very "modern" in its appreciation of the many different kinds of friendship and love possible between men and women. Frankly, I tend to think that every generation overestimates its distinctness, and that what some read as "modern," are simply observations about the human animal that were as true in the 1860s as they are today...

There are so many aspects of Alcott's masterpiece that I love, that it would be impossible to list them all. Suffice it to say that this is a beautiful book, both in its overarching themes and structure, and in its particular characters and narratives incidents. Finally, I should note that although this book has been published in a seemingly endless variety of editions, I myself grew up on the Illustrated Junior Library edition, with illustrations by Louis Jambor. show less

I love this book. Some of the ideas in the second part, Good Wives, are in my opinion outdated and frustrating (I did start to feel angry at points), but apart from that the book is so spirited and optimistic and funny and even naive in places, it's such a pleasure to read.

Little Women is very much a character-driven novel, having only a loose plot to keep it going much of the time. It also includes quite a bit of moralizing, with an omniscient narrator and various characters passing judgments and giving lectures. Some scenes seem explicitly designed to teach a particular character a particular lesson. And sometimes the lesson involves some quite old-fashioned values.

But the charm of the book for me lay in the pieces in between, the simple scenes of family life, of fun and friendship. It paints a picture of another time, illustrating in great detail how women lived their lives. It also shows a loving and supportive family, bringing each character to life. It warmed my heart simply to see them being kind show more to one another and bringing joy to themselves and their friends. I don't remember the last time I've read a modern book that created such an effect.

The writing isn't particularly skillful, and I found the beginning chapters especially rough, but the author did skillfully weave in a few story elements that, once introduced, kept me reading on to see the solution to the mystery or the resolution of the little conflict. The characterization, in my opinion, is the crowning feature. Each character felt like a real person, not an allegorical invention or a stereotype or a half-baked figment of an author's imagination.

But readers should not expect this book to be free of sexism because it was written by a woman and centers around female characters. There certainly are "lessons" included about being a good housewife, and it's even explicitly stated that this is the best thing for a woman to become. Personally, I enjoyed the first half of the book far more than the second, preferring the scenes of childhood and the early teenage years to those of young women trying to make matches. Given the fact that the book is clearly separated into a part one and part two, the first part having what I consider a satisfying ending, I almost wish that I'd stopped reading there.

If you decide to read this book, you might do that yourself. Of course, I tend to dislike romance as a genre even in contemporary books, so you might enjoy the second half significantly more than I did. Ultimately, I think the question of whether you'll like this book comes down to your tolerance for moralizing and whether you'll get bored without a stronger plot. To me, this seems the kind of book best read in little pieces day by day, treating it as a window into the past. If you're anything like me, you'll enjoy the view while also being glad to close the cover and come back to a world where women can do more and be more than the March family ever would have dreamed. This book is part of our cultural history, best viewed as a stepping-stone along the path of feminism rather than a shining ideal of it in and of itself. show less

Alcott must have known the controversy she was about to create when she decided not only to screw over the heartthrobbers with Jo's flat rejection Laurie, but then stab them in the back with the notorious old Mr. Bhaer as her lovable replacement. I have to admire Alcott her audacity, and I wonder if she in fact meant for it to be a tragic ending. I haven't read any of the sequels, but I'm afraid Jo may have acted on a whim here and she might live to regret it later.