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Little Women (Little Women #1)

by Louisa May Alcott

4.03 · Rating Details · 1,205,770 Ratings · 15,687 Reviews

Little Women is the heartwarming story of the March family that has thrilled generations of readers. It is the story of four sisters--Jo, Meg, Amy and Beth-- and of the courage, humor and ingenuity they display to survive poverty and the absence of their father during the Civil War.

Paperback, 449 pages

Published April 6th 2004 by Signet Classics (first published 1868)

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Community Reviews

(showing 1-30)

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Oct 04, 2007 Susan rated it it was amazing

Shelves: juvenile

Someone I know claimed this no longer has value, that she would never recommend it because it's saccharine, has a religious agenda, and sends a bad message to girls that they should all be little domestic homebodies. I say she's wrong on all counts. This is high on my reread list along with Pride and Prejudice, Jane Eyre, and a Tree Grows in Brooklyn--you could say that I'm pretty familiar with it.

Let's see--there's a heroine who not only writes, but is proud of the fact and makes a profit from Someone I know claimed this no longer has value, that she would never recommend it because it's saccharine, has a religious agenda, and sends a bad message to girls that they should all be little domestic homebodies. I say she's wrong on all counts. This is high on my reread list along with Pride and Prejudice, Jane Eyre, and a Tree Grows in Brooklyn--you could say that I'm pretty familiar with it.

Let's see--there's a heroine who not only writes, but is proud of the fact and makes a profit from it in a time that this was somewhat out-of-the-ordinary. Reading this, and especially knowing later that the main character is (for all practical purposes) Alcott herself, inspired me to write myself, and I haven't forgotten the writing lessons even today: don't let money cloud your vision, write for yourself first, take criticism, write what you know. Still wise even today. Also in this book, we see the perspective of a family coping with the financial and emotional strain of having a loved one away at war, something that is unfortunately all too relatable today. There's also (extraordinary in those times, common in ours)a platonic, though not uncomplicated, friendship between a man and a woman that is sort of a different kind of love story in a way and a powerful one at that. We see people getting married, but marriage is never portrayed as The Answer to Everything--many of the matches involve sacrifice and struggling. The girls, though good at heart, aren't a picture-perfect family of saints. They're flawed and human. The paragon Beth would seem the exception, but the message with her is more about how even the quietest among us can make an impact on the world--not parading her isolated life as an example, only her kindness.

I won't lie. Someone dies, there's a war and a father's away--so yes, God is mentioned: I think there's a few Pilgrim's Progress references in passing and there's some talk of faith at moments when the characters most need it. To contemporary readers, this may seem like a lot, but heavy-handed it is not. It was probably somewhat unusual for its time. The thought that everyone's relationship and perception of God could greatly vary, and that to be true to your religion was entirely non judgmental and meant being kind to other people and trying to make yourself better, not other people? The thought that each person must be allowed to deal with these feelings in their own time in their own way? Wacky stuff.

I admit it seems like a tough sell to today's kids, packaged in somewhat formal sounding-language, and bearing every indication of being literary broccoli, but this book is a classic for a reason. It might be a tough sell, but I don't think we should give up on trying to think of ways to do it anyway. What's inside still counts. Don't write it off. ...more

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Dec 27, 2014 Barry Pierce rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 19th-century, read-in-2014

Okay I’m just gonna say this. I liked Little Women. I’m an 18-year-old guy and I liked Little Women. What. It’s quaint. It’s quaint as fuck. I’m such a Jo.

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Jan 09, 2013 Rory rated it did not like it

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I hated this book.

I can't even begin to go into all the reasons I dislike this novel. It's dull and preachy through out most of it--aside from Jo who is a truly inspired character. But everyone else seems one note, most of the chapters come off as morality plays than solid scenes or plots. And just when Miss Alcott has something seemingly interesting she breaks it for no other reason than to do something.

Whether its the pairing of Amy and Laurie (huh?), the point made CONSTANTLY that Beth's life ...more

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Dec 04, 2013 Corrie rated it it was amazing

The book begins:

"Christmas won't be Christmas without any presents, grumbled Jo, lying on the rug.

It's so dreadful to be poor! sighed Meg, looking down at her old dress.

I don't think it's fair for some girls to have plenty of pretty things, and other girls nothing at all, added little Amy, with an injured sniff.

We've got Father and Mother, and each other, said Beth contentedly from her corner."

There's an undercurrent of anger in this book and I think Louisa May Alcott would have gone much furthe ...more

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Sep 16, 2016 Fabian rated it really liked it

Yes, yes. I'm a grown ass man reading this, but I'm not ashamed. I also read the "Twilight" sa(ha-ha!)ga and a bunch of Charlaine Harris as well, remember?

What I tried to do here was dispel the extra melodrama and embrace the cut-outs (fat trimmed out) of the Winona Ryder film. I was on the hunt for all the "new" (ha!) stuff that the regular person, well informed of the plot involving four young girls growing up (or in the case of Beth, NOT) never even knew existed. But it seems that the film d ...more

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Dec 16, 2008 Dottie rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: children-ya, perennials, trgbc, 1001-read, 1944-1966, own, favorites

My copy of this is probably 55 years old -- I've probably read it at least twenty-five times. One of my all-time favorite books. One of my favorite authors ever. Yes, it is old-fashioned -- it was old-fashioned fifty-five years ago. But that is the point pretty much in my opinion. This is a story of times past, of a family which functioned in a particular way in a particular time. This is also a story of what one person in a family might have wished were so all of the time in the family but wasn ...more

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May 28, 2008 Annalisa rated it liked it

Recommends it for: teenagers: read this instead of Twilight

Shelves: book-club, classics, movies, didn-t-finish

I'm definitely a victim of modern society when I find this book slow. Had I read it in its day (or even as a youth) it would probably be fantastic, but as it is I'm finding the life lessons saturated in every chapter a little much, not sweet. Which brings me to Beth. Back in the day sweet, mild, submissive were prime female qualities. Now I look at the picture of her on the front cover with her empty eyes and blank stares and she looks sweet in a mentally challenged way. And Jo who is endearing ...more

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Aug 13, 2015 Huda Yahya rated it liked it

Shelves: novels_novellas, الأنثى-هي-الأصل

قرأت هذه الرواية في سن الخامسة عشر تقريبا
وهي رواية لطيفة اكتسبت شهرتها عبر السنوات
من خلال اقتباسها في أعمال سينمائية
وفي ابتداعات الرسوم المتحركة

بل حتى الأوبرا كان لها نصيب من ذلك
حيث ألف الموسيقار الأمريكي مارك آدامو أوبرا نساء صغيرات في عام
1998
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rFkXV...

:::::::::::::

الرواية مقتبسة عن تجربة الكاتبة الذاتية مع شقيقاتها الثلاث

وتقدم لنا حياة أربع شقيقات هن
ميغ وجو وبيث وإيمي

.في جو مليء بالدفء العائلي
متوغلة في أسرار النساء اللائي عشن في تلك الفترة
وكيف كانت تفكر أدمغت ‏ ‏قرأت هذه الرواية في سن الخامسة عشر تقريبا
وهي رواية لطيفة اكتسبت شهرتها عبر السنوات
من خلال اقتباسها في أعمال سينمائية
وفي ابتداعات الرسوم المتحركة ‏

بل حتى الأوبرا كان لها نصيب من ذلك
حيث ألف الموسيقار الأمريكي مارك آدامو أوبرا نساء صغيرات ‏في عام‎
1998 ‎
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rFkXV...

:::::::::::::

الرواية مقتبسة عن تجربة الكاتبة الذاتية مع شقيقاتها الثلاث‏

وتقدم لنا حياة أربع شقيقات هن
ميغ وجو وبيث وإيمي ‏

‏.‏في جو مليء بالدفء العائلي
متوغلة في أسرار النساء اللائي ‏عشن في تلك الفترة
وكيف كانت تفكر أدمغتهن على اختلافها

الطريف أنه بينما كتبت لويزا تقول أن جو
- المستلهمة من ‏شخصيتها هي نفسها ‏
كان عليها أن تظل الأديبة ‏العانس

ولكن بناء على رسائل المعجبات الكثيرة‏
والتي طلبت منها تزوج جو بأي ثمن‏
‏ لم تجرؤ على رفض طلبهن في النهاية

فإن لويزا ظلت بلا زواج لآخر أيام حياتها‏

:::::::::::::

عن الشخصيات

*
جوزفين أو جو

هي بطلة الرواية التي تبدو في نظر الكثيرين مسترجلة ‏
لشخصيتها القوية ولجرأتها
وهي الأخت الصريحة ‏
والشغوفة بالكتابة‏
‏
وبعد مقاومة طويلة لفكرة الزواج
تتزوج أخيرا من ‏البروفسور الألماني
فريدريك بير‏

*
مارغريت أو ميغ

هي الشقيقة ‏الكبرى التي تتحمل مسؤولية المنزل
وتوفر الحماية والدفء للجميع
وهي تتمتع كما وصفتها لويزا بجمال أخاذ‏
ولكنها تحمل أفكارا من الطراز القديم

*
اليزابيث أو بيث

فتاة تبدو من وصفها هادئة وبيتوتية ‏
مطيعة وخجولة
تحب الموسيقى والقطط والدمى ‏
وتعزف ‏على البيانو
وهي تفضل المكوث في منزلها على الاختلاط والثرثرة‏
كما أنها تهوى الأعمال الخيرية ‏
وتساعد أمها ‏في رعاية الأسر الفقيرة
وأثناء زيارتها لأحد تلك الأسر ‏
تلتقط عدوى الحمى القرمزية من أحد أ‏طفالها ‏
وصحيح أنها تشفى مع الوقت
ولكن المرض جعلها دوما ضعيفة ‏
وتموت بعدها بفترة بمرض آخر
فالعالم لا يحتمل شخصيات برقة بيث
وكان عليه التخلص منها عاجلا أم آجلا

*
ايمي ‏

هي أصغرهن ‏
وهي فتاة مدللة
تبدو باردة المشاعر وملهوفة على مصلحتها الشخصية‏

عانت إيمي من أنفها المسطح
وكانت ‏تشبك مشابك الغسيل على أنفها عند النوم
آملة حل هذه المشكلة العويصة من وجهة نظرها
:D
علاقتها كانت دوما متوترة مع جوزفين
وذات يوم بعد موقف محتدم بينهما
تقوم إيمي بإحراق ‏ رواية جو التي لم تنهيها بعد

كانت إيمي دوما قريبة من عمتها
التي أتاحت لها الفرصة للسفر إلى أوروبا
كي يتسنى لها فرصة الاطلاع على أعمال الفنانين العظام‏
لولعها بالفن ولموهبتها في الرسم

‏ ولكنها في النهاية ‏تقرر التخلي عن الفن
‏ لأنها لم ترى أنه بإمكانها أن تكون على المستوى الذي كانت ‏تتوقعه لنفسها

::::::::::::::::

الرواية لطيفة وخفيفة الروح
كلاسيكية بامتياز
...more

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Feb 03, 2012 Shovelmonkey1 rated it did not like it

Recommends it for: no one, seriously.

Recommended to Shovelmonkey1 by: My mum and the 1001 books list

Shelves: 1001-books, read-in-2010

To me this book is just a big neon highlighted literary exclamation mark defining how incredibly different I am from my mother. She loves this book. Really, really loves it....a lot. She always used to tell me how great she thought it was although, as a kid I somehow avoided reading it; mainly because at this point I was too busy dangling from a climbing frame by my ankles or stealing scrap wood from building sites in order to make dens and tree houses.

As it is prominently placed on the 1001 boo ...more

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Aug 26, 2016 Matthew rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: classic, audio, coming-of-age, completist-book-club, 2016, hoopla

Updated 8/26/2016 - Update at end

So, this is going to be my most confusing review to date and I am going to need some help from people who read this, so please reply if you know! (see below)

I read this for my Completest Book Club. I am glad I did because it is a classic I hear about all the time. If you take the Never-ending Book Quiz on Goodreads, it seems like every other question is about Little Women. While for me this book was just okay, I can see why it is a classic and enjoyed by many.

My ...more

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Aug 02, 2013 Jonathan rated it it was amazing

Shelves: personal-favourites, classic-literature, children-s-literature, childhood-book, 1001-books-to-read-before-you-die

Little Women remains to this day one of the books I have, curiously, read the most. And I'm not ashamed to state this. Why should I be? The notion that certain films or books are 'chick-lit' is one so alien to my mind. They may be geared at specific audiences mostly, but any strong work of art will appeal to any individual - or rather can appeal to any individual - person.

I don't know what it is about Little Women that made me so attracted to it. Perhaps it was the characterisation in the women
Little Women remains to this day one of the books I have, curiously, read the most. And I'm not ashamed to state this. Why should I be? The notion that certain films or books are 'chick-lit' is one so alien to my mind. They may be geared at specific audiences mostly, but any strong work of art will appeal to any individual - or rather can appeal to any individual - person.

I don't know what it is about Little Women that made me so attracted to it. Perhaps it was the characterisation in the women in the book at the age of ten. Maybe something in my childish mind told me that independent and restrained elegance in female characters was something to be admired when it could be created in fiction - when I say restrained elegance I mean the wisdom of modesty. Something about the girls - Jo, Meg, Beth and Amy - appealed to me, something told me that they were well crafted characters.

Who can explain why any fictional book touches anyone? Who can define how we class things such as quality or beauty? It seems to be something subconscious, something picked up both culturally and individually. To me, Little Women was, and because of fond memories still is, a work of pure art. It has its rough patches no doubt but it kept drawing me back in with the tales of women discovering their paths in life and ultimately a romance. Some might find this an overly sympathetic or sappy book. I'm not here to say it isn't. But it touched me in a particular way and that is what I'm hear to state. Think of me as someone who has had an experience with a novel - for it is the nature of humanity to aim to share experience.

I'll always describe myself as a romantic at heart, in the sense that I'm an idealist, that I hold to ideals and to the belief that people can be better. Age and time have perhaps developed me into more of a cynical idealist but a part of me is strongly romantic deep down. It is the poetic side of me, the writer side of me, the side that wants to break free of conventions and try to find the words to explain what I so clumsily cannot. It is that part of me that was awakened by such literature as this - I must admit that delving into something like Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret might have stunted such development however.

Somewhere in a distant time a copy of Little Women floats. It has paper browned through the constant touching of grubby little fingers; pages crumpled and worn with regular turning (or heaven forbid - leaving it with the spine open on a chair); and there are unidentifiable food stains on several pages. It may not have been the greatest of copies, certainly nothing extraordinary about it, but it was my copy. And it was a copy well loved. And it was the extra love that added an aura of romance and a boundless love to it. And it is to this image, lost in the vortex of space and time, that I return to when I think of this novel. ...more

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Jan 31, 2015 Zoë rated it really liked it

Book 12/100 for 2015
I had to read this book for my Children's Lit class and I loved it! We've done a lot of discussion which has really opened my mind to new things in the book and made me love it even more. I'd definitely recommend this book to anyone wanting to get into classics as it's a children's book (so easy to read) but also there are fantastic characters (except Amy, I really hate Amy).

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Apr 16, 2013 Tea Jovanović rated it it was amazing

Shelves: read-for-pleasure

Knjiga moje mladosti :) Ah, kako smo je svi gutali :)

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May 10, 2013 Sherwood Smith added it · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, history-19th-c

There will be spoilers.

Now, if she had been the heroine of a moral story-book, she ought at this period of her life to have become quite saintly, renounced the world, and gone about doing good in a mortified bonnet, with tracts in her pocket. But, you see, Jo wasn't a heroine; she was only a struggling human girl, like hundreds of others, and she just acted out her nature, being sad, cross, listless, or energetic, as the mood suggested.

I first read this book as a tween, and had a real love-hate ...more

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Aug 18, 2015 ☆ ĄňŊǡƂėƮĦ ☆ ŞŧŎŋė rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites, classics

This book was really good. You know those books that you aren't sure what made them your favorite? this is one of those books but i will try. For one reason the characters were so believable and relate-able. Also their stories weren't so far fetched, since they were based on Louisa May Alcott's time. Each of the sisters personalities were different but still similar enough to seen that they were siblings. This helped me since I have a twin sister and we are both different and similar at the same ...more

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Dec 02, 2015 Mandy Blair Crider rated it really liked it

A classic! The book and movie both did me in... Tears!!

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Feb 26, 2009 Antof9 rated it it was amazing

Shelves: women, made-me-cry, faves, fathers, re-read, americana, made-me-think, charming, 2009-read

I have said for years and years how much I like this book, but I realized when I started reading it on Sunday that I might not have picked it up since 4th grade when I wanted to be called Meg! Is that possible? I think so.

After finishing it on Monday afternoon, I was talking to some girls that evening where I realized (yes, I was thinking out loud) that this book is loaded with advice -- marital advice, parenting advice, interpersonal relationships advice ... and it's all good. I mean seriously, ...more

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Jan 20, 2016 Helle rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: classics, 1001-books, american-lit, books-i-own, telegraph-top-100-books

My heart is melting a little as I close this book at long last, my mind contented. It is a sweet book, occasionally a bit too sweet, but there were many places where I felt quite moved. If I’d been 17 when I first read this, I would have been over the moon about it.

It is the story of the four March sisters and their family joys and woes. From the beginning we are meant to see how different they are. The dialogues were so evenly distributed between them it felt unnatural at times, or perhaps fai ...more

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Dec 15, 2015 Xime García rated it it was amazing

Recommended to Xime by: Mi mamá

Shelves: love-love-love, reseñados

: Me encantó, en serio.

Este libro y yo tenemos una larga historia.
Es el libro favorito de mi mamá, y como tal, ella habría preferido que este fuera mi primera lectura, allá cuando yo tenía nueve o diez años. Por supuesto ya desde chiquita le entré a llevar la contra y mi primer libro fue Harry Potter y el Cáliz de Fuego. A partir de allí, comencé un camino muy diferente al de ella, un camino que no pudimos hacer converger nunca más, porque desde Harry Potter que la fantasía siempre fue una de m ...more

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Jun 01, 2016 Saoirse Sterling rated it did not like it · review of another edition

Shelves: bairns, bloody-cack, septic, feminine, ce19, 2016, bookshelf

Read as part of the #InfiniteVariety2016 Reading Challenge based on the BBC's Big Read poll.

The one thing I'm not going to do is apologise for not liking this. I hold no truck with that: stop apologising for having an opinion that is different to the majority.

Little Women was relatively written well in the grammatically correct sense, but I found it to be a very slow and dull read. It is definitely of its time and even though there are small points of seeing the necessity of having strong, indep ...more

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Jan 09, 2016 Stacey (prettybooks) rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: classics, read-in-my-twenties, childrens-fiction, classics-challenge

This mini review is part of a blogpost talking about three children's classics.

Little Women was one of the classics that had been on my wishlist the longest. I think I first came across it while watching that episode of Friends. I didn't know much about Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy March, but it seemed like the perfect children's classic for me.

Yet Little Women wasn't as engaging as I had hoped. I wasn't emotionally drawn into the sisters' lives, which is important for a character-driven novel. It's a ...more

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Feb 13, 2012 Michelle rated it did not like it · review of another edition

No wonder there's a children's version of this book. Most kids haven't experienced actual pain, and these characters obviously came from a bad fairytale. O gee, I'm awfully glad that you girls have become so happy in life. Too bad their lives are hardly realistic. O no! Their father's fighting in the war, AND they are poor. O my, how selfless! They gave food to an even poorer family. Everybody loves each other to death. They even have an artist and writer in the family. But some of the girls hav ...more

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Mar 27, 2016 Manybooks rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Recommends it for: ANYONE

Shelves: childrens-literature, family-stories, classics, favorites, book-reviews

I believe that I have read this book about fifteen times, but that is a conservative estimate at best. And although Little Women is probably one of my all time favourite books, I have never managed to pen a review, simply because I really do not think I can post a review that would do sufficient honour to either book or author. With that in mind, this review will not be a standard review of Little Women, but rather some personal musings (and thus it might be a bit rambling, but I hope I will kee ...more

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Jun 01, 2015 Karschtl rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: movie, classic, part_of_series, drama, children_teenie, 1001-books, read-in-2002

I once did a short presentation on this book, the following text was part of it.

Louisa May Alcott was born in Germantown, which is now a part of Philadelphia, in 1832. But soon she moved with her family to the Boston-area, where she and her three sisters Anna, Elizabeth and May grew up. The four girls were educated by their father Bronson Alcott, who was a member of the New England Transcendentalists. Through him Louisa met other Transcendentalists like Theodore Parker, Henry David Thoreau and R I once did a short presentation on this book, the following text was part of it.

Louisa May Alcott was born in Germantown, which is now a part of Philadelphia, in 1832. But soon she moved with her family to the Boston-area, where she and her three sisters Anna, Elizabeth and May grew up. The four girls were educated by their father Bronson Alcott, who was a member of the New England Transcendentalists. Through him Louisa met other Transcendentalists like Theodore Parker, Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson.
Influenced by these great writers it is not surprising that Lousias greatest passion was writing. She had a rich imagination and often made up stories that she and her sisters act out for their parents or friends. She started her career as a serious author partly because she needed to earn some money to support the family who was not always wealthy. In the beginning, Louisa wrote poetry and short stories, later on the novels.

At the age of 35 her publisher asked her to write a novel for children. That’s how she wrote „Little Women“ where she describes the four March sisters coming of age in New England at the time of the Civil War. The father serves as a preacher in the war, the girls are left alone with their loving mother. The five women live in poverty but try to make the best of it.
The story is very autobiographical. Lousia resembles Jo, who is a tomboy only interested in literature. The eldest sister Anna was the model for Meg, who is pretty and rather vain about that. Elizabeth is portrayed as the gentle Beth, she is the quiet and shy one who enjoys playing the piano. The equivalent of the youngest sister May is Amy, the little girl that often wants to be the center of the attraction. You can see the similarities even in the names: Elizabeth and Beth; May and Amy. „Little Women“ was followed by several other novels about the March family, such as: Good Wives, Little Men and Jo’s Boys.

Especially children books always have a moral (or even more than one). Here for example in the second chapter, where the sisters give their Christmas breakfast to a hungry family and content themselves with bread and milk. They were really looking forward to this breakfast, because they are not rich and don't get all those good things regularly. But they saw that this other family was suffering a lot more. They are rewarded for this altruistic act on the same evening with a delicious dinner, donated by their neighbour who has heard of their generous gift. Only who gives something, gets something in return. ...more

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May 04, 2016 Raoofa Ibrahim rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: dead-authors

In a lovely, poor home, there are 4 sisters

description

Meg: the prettiest of the four March sisters, loves luxury, and nice things

description

In part II she'll become more mature, and when she got married, Oh how I adored this part, for it showed the real struggles of a young married woman, without the sugar coat that most the authors do.

Jo: she tried to be the man of the family when her father was at war, she may not be so pretty but she is a bookworm, writer, and kind(even if that didn't shows up), she is my fav. c ...more

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Dec 26, 2008 Sarah rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: classics, childrens, american-as-apple-pie, page-to-screen, page-to-stage

I first read this book nearly twenty years ago, and at that age I think I was far too young to really appreciate it.

Alcott wrote this as a response to a request for a "book for girls" which I think can explain much of the preachiness about morals and virtues. That Marmee is just so darned virtuous! I think it was also an outlet for Alcott's frustration with being constricted to the expectations and limitations of her gender in 19th century New England. At first I thought Jo's tomboyishness was g ...more

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Mar 01, 2016 Laurie –A Court of Books– rated it liked it

Shelves: read-in-2016, classics, to-read-before-dying, read-in-french

SPOILERS

I think that there is something wrong with my french version of the book Little Women. Indeed, I knew for a fact that Beth was going to die (Rachel told Joey in Friends, when they exchanged their favorite book) but in my book, Beth is very well alive at the end. I know that when the book was first translated in French, they deleted numerous parts of it, fearing that it wasn't compatible with the French culture, but later it was fully re-translated and it is the one I actually bought... I ...more

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Mar 22, 2016 Sarah rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: literature-classic, books-i-own

5/2 - I've seen the Winona Ryder movie a number of times, but now that I'm getting started on this I don't think I've ever actually read the book. I know the story so well I think I just imagined I'd read it, when I'd really only watched it. To be continued...

7/2 - Loving this. Loving the precision that it's written with (made more impressive by a month of poorly, or at least not impressively, written Kindles), the ease with which I can picture all the characters (thanks, once again, to the wond 5/2 - I've seen the Winona Ryder movie a number of times, but now that I'm getting started on this I don't think I've ever actually read the book. I know the story so well I think I just imagined I'd read it, when I'd really only watched it. To be continued...

7/2 - Loving this. Loving the precision that it's written with (made more impressive by a month of poorly, or at least not impressively, written Kindles), the ease with which I can picture all the characters (thanks, once again, to the wonderful writing, and of course the 1994 movie), and the general feeling of happiness I get while I'm reading it.

At one point one of the girls mentions Uncle Tom and I wonder if that's a reference to . If it is I'm surprised that these girls, even with the progressive parents that Marmee and Father are portrayed as, would be permitted to be exposed to what, even in this day and age, I consider are strong themes, in Uncle Tom's Cabin. To be continued...

22/3 - I finished this over a month ago but wasn't having one of my 'sick weeks' and by the time I'd recovered I just didn't feel the desire to write about it that I usually feel, in fact it's been over a month since I last wrote anything about any of the books I've finished - my motivation was just gone and it's taken this long (and surviving another 'sick week') for it to come back. Over the last few days I've found myself composing reviews in my head of the books I've read and that seemed a clear message from my brain that I was ready to review again.

By the end of the book I found my disdain for Amy and her vanity over her nose and her need to appear like she had more than she did had lessened. To begin with I saw her as a proud and haughty child and didn't feel like she fit in with the rest of her family at all, but I think that her relationship with Laurie changed her, softened her personality, till she became a much more likeable and sympathetic character.

As I read the final chapters of Little Women I confirmed to myself that I definitely had never read the book , just watched the movie, due to the fact that there were numerous scenes that I didn't remember happening which I assume is because they weren't included in the movie. Now that I know the original story I feel the need to watch the movie again, it has been a number of years since I saw it ;) I look forward to reading the sequels and seeing where Amy, Jo, and Meg and their families end up.

POPSUGAR 2016 Reading Challenge: A YA Bestseller ...more

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Dec 02, 2015 Scarlet Cameo rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Recommended to Scarlet Cameo by: Lau

Shelves: rc-15

"Cuatro pequeños baúles en fila, cubiertos de polvo y gastados por el paso del tiempo. Cuatro mujeres que han aprendido a trabajar y amar. Cuatro hermanas, separadas por el tiempo, ninguna de ellas falta, aunque una se marcho antes que el resto, pues el amor inmortal la hace más presente que nunca. Cuando a las cuatro les llegue la hora de abrir sus baúles ante el Señor, espero que rebosen de dicha, actos de bondad y vidas llenas de valor. que sus almas se eleven felices y, que tras la lluvia, ...more

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Dec 13, 2011 Kim rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: childhood-favourites, re-read, kindle

Reading this book again after an interval of some forty years was much like returning to a place known well in childhood, but not seen since. Memory distorts the landscape and the size and the shape of things contained within it. The place is both totally familiar and completely unknown at the same time.

Little Women is one of the first novels that I remember reading. I can still see the book – a red hardback with small print, the dust jacket long gone. It took me to a time and a place that was c
Reading this book again after an interval of some forty years was much like returning to a place known well in childhood, but not seen since. Memory distorts the landscape and the size and the shape of things contained within it. The place is both totally familiar and completely unknown at the same time.

Little Women is one of the first novels that I remember reading. I can still see the book – a red hardback with small print, the dust jacket long gone. It took me to a time and a place that was completely foreign to me. I knew nothing about 1860s Concord, Massachusetts, about the American Civil War, about what it would be like to have an absent clergyman father, about having to earn a living at a young age. Indeed, when I first read this book, all of the March sisters seemed very grown up to me. What I related to was not the specific circumstances of their lives, but being a girl, growing up, wanting something more than I had and not knowing what the future would bring. I read Little Women and its sequels several times between the ages of 9 and 14 and the experiences of Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy became part of my life.

Re-reading the novel forty years on, the first thing I noticed was how very young the March girls are. The next thing I noticed was the pervasiveness of the moralising. Marmee is, of course, the chief proponent of right and proper behaviour, with every negative experience turned into a teaching moment. This was not something I noticed at all when I was a child, so the moral lessons worked either subliminally or not at all. Another thing I noticed was how time flew by, particularly in the second part of the book (that section which I knew previously as Good Wives). I also noticed the emphasis on gender roles. Even though Jo wants to be a writer and Amy an artist and both girls engage in those activities, the proper role for girls of being a good wife and a good mother is emphasised again and again. Given the period in which the novel was written this is not surprising, but it is not what I remember of the book from my childhood.

Coming back to Little Women after all of this time has reminded me what I loved about the book when as a child. It has also given me a different perspective on the novel. For example, I’ve spent forty years not liking Amy March ((view spoiler)). I don’t feel that way anymore. I used to think that Marmee was the ideal mother. Now I think that I would have been driven crazy if my mother had had a moral lesson for every occasion.

I’m very glad to have re-read this novel. I’m also glad to have done so as a buddy read with my friend Lynn. I don’t know that I would give the book four stars if it was not a childhood favourite, as there is no doubt that it is very dated. However, the fact that it has been a treasured literary experience for more than forty years keeps it firmly in four star territory.
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About Louisa May Alcott

As A. M. Barnard:
Behind a Mask, or a Woman's Power (1866)
The Abbot's Ghost, or Maurice Treherne's Temptation (1867)
A Long Fatal Love Chase (1866 – first published 1995)
First published anonymously:
A Modern Mephistopheles (1877)

Louisa May Alcott was born in Germantown, Pennsylvania on November 29, 1832. She and her three sisters, Anna, Elizabeth and May were educated by their father, philosopher/ t As A. M. Barnard:
Behind a Mask, or a Woman's Power (1866)
The Abbot's Ghost, or Maurice Treherne's Temptation (1867)
A Long Fatal Love Chase (1866 – first published 1995)
First published anonymously:
A Modern Mephistopheles (1877)

Louisa May Alcott was born in Germantown, Pennsylvania on November 29, 1832. She and her three sisters, Anna, Elizabeth and May were educated by their father, philosopher/ teacher, Bronson Alcott and raised on the practical Christianity of their mother, Abigail May.

Louisa spent her childhood in Boston and in Concord, Massachusetts, where her days were enlightened by visits to Ralph Waldo Emerson’s library, excursions into nature with Henry David Thoreau and theatricals in the barn at Hillside (now Hawthorne’s "Wayside").

Like her character, Jo March in Little Women, young Louisa was a tomboy: "No boy could be my friend till I had beaten him in a race," she claimed, " and no girl if she refused to climb trees, leap fences...."

For Louisa, writing was an early passion. She had a rich imagination and often her stories became melodramas that she and her sisters would act out for friends. Louisa preferred to play the "lurid" parts in these plays, "the villains, ghosts, bandits, and disdainful queens."

At age 15, troubled by the poverty that plagued her family, she vowed: "I will do something by and by. Don’t care what, teach, sew, act, write, anything to help the family; and I’ll be rich and famous and happy before I die, see if I won’t!"

Confronting a society that offered little opportunity to women seeking employment, Louisa determined "...I will make a battering-ram of my head and make my way through this rough and tumble world." Whether as a teacher, seamstress, governess, or household servant, for many years Louisa did any work she could find.

Louisa’s career as an author began with poetry and short stories that appeared in popular magazines. In 1854, when she was 22, her first book Flower Fables was published. A milestone along her literary path was Hospital Sketches (1863) based on the letters she had written home from her post as a nurse in Washington, DC as a nurse during the Civil War.

When Louisa was 35 years old, her publisher Thomas Niles in Boston asked her to write "a book for girls." Little Women was written at Orchard House from May to July 1868. The novel is based on Louisa and her sisters’ coming of age and is set in Civil War New England. Jo March was the first American juvenile heroine to act from her own individuality; a living, breathing person rather than the idealized stereotype then prevalent in children’s fiction.

In all, Louisa published over 30 books and collections of stories. She died on March 6, 1888, only two days after her father, and is buried in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery in Concord. ...more

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