DNF at 70%
I tried really hard to get through these stories, but life is too short to read books you don't enjoy.
I read this book for the IWSG Book Club April '23 Library challenge. I was excited to read a collection of children's stories by the person who wrote Little Women, but this wasn't a good experience for me.
Ultimately, I think this work simply doesn't stand up to all the cultural and societal changes that have occurred from when this was written to now. It's just too out of date and too specific to the place, time, and demographic this work was written for. It's a niche that may not fully exist anymore, though I can see others being able to better appreciate this work than I am.
I may finish this collection one day but not now. If for no other reason than I think it would be a fun challenge to rewrite many of these stories for a modern audience.
I cannot recommend this to any of my personal friends, but could recommend it to students of cultural studies and fans of historical depictions.