Little Women
discussion
What do you think of it?
It is a wonderfull book. I read it four years back. the characters have each a unique and special personality and its interesting the way the story goes. I dint find it boring at all
I first read this book when I was about 11 years old, I've loved it on every reading.I guess it's not much of an action book or anything, but to me, it's got such character, you can get a real sense that you belong in the March family.
I've never really liked this story, and niether did it's author. She never wanted to write it but her father and publisher insisted. When describing writing the book she said she didn't enjoy it. She especially didn't want to write for young girls. As she was the primary breadwinner in her family she continued to write the simple children's stories that came easy to her- but longed to write more adult fictuion. I think you can tell. She didn't have the happiest childhood and so writing a semiautobiographical novel must have been...interesting. Growing up Louisa's father encouraged her to suppress herself. Little wonder that the father figure in Little Women is virtually nonexistant. Louisa resisted the urge to fix things that didn't go right for her in this semiautobiographical work. Ladislas Wisniewski was the love of her life that Laurie was based on supposedly. They didn't marry in real life and she tortures her character by having him marry her younger sister in the book. While she never married in real life I suspect having her character marry an older, educated but poor man is her way of resolving her daddy issues. Overall it the book mostly makes me uncomfortable. There are moments of quiet contentment, but no great joy.
I agree with Kimberley, it is a classic and everything but it just sooooo boring. I think all the appeal is that it all revolves around the girls but really, all I hear is how women were often not portrayed correctly or there were very few strong characters and yet all classics have what is considered strong female characters (Jane Eyre, the pride and prejudice heroine, the March girls, etc...)I think that Ashley's comments are very insightful and true in terms of quiet contentment not joy.
Overall is just a book that is over-hyped in my opinion.
I read this book for the first time when I was 8 years old. Since then, I've read it at least a half dozen times. It's still one of my absolute favorite books. I can't see how anyone could find it boring.
Ashley wrote: "I've never really liked this story, and niether did it's author. She never wanted to write it but her father and publisher insisted. When describing writing the book she said she didn't enjoy it. S..."That is so interesting, I did not know that. Where did you get that information from?
That might be why the book is very centered on morals and family values, if her father and publisher were insisting on it. I still love the book, and it makes me sad that she did not feel a genuine desire to write it.
Yes, it is sad but interesting, I guess you can see her pain in Jo's suffering in Good Wives then, which is more sad and realistic than the first in it's portrayal of the cruelness of life.
I think I kind of know what you are getting at here Kimberly. Kind of goody two shoes? A little preachy? The first time I read it, I couldn't even get through it. I ended up coming back to it years later and now? One of my favourites. Little Men and Jo's Boys are fantastic too (if you care to see how things work out for the Little Women). Stick with it, totally rewarding.
Eva wrote: "I think I kind of know what you are getting at here Kimberly. Kind of goody two shoes? A little preachy? The first time I read it, I couldn't even get through it. I ended up coming back to it years..."Little Men and Jo's Boys were gifts along with Little Women many, many Christmases ago! What wonderful books!
Greslim wrote: That is so interesting, I did not know that. Where did you get that information from? I can't speak for Ashley, but I learned the same things from a PBS documentary about Louisa's life.
Check out: http://www.alcottfilm.com/
I was shocked to learn that Alcott even wrote lurid pulp fiction. Definitely not the wholesome image I originally had of her.
Having said that, I think the reason "Little Women" is still a classic is because the story has elements that ring true. Much of the suffering and heartache the family endured in the novel was taken from Alcott's own life. Beth's death is poignant because Louisa lost her own dear sister Elizabeth to complications w/ scarlet fever.
I love the morals of the story and the Victorian charm. I hold "old-fashioned" values, I suppose, and don't subscribe to all the views of modern feminism. Alcott was a feminist in her own right, and this comes through in Jo's character most of all. She did whatever was necessary to keep the family going, while her father was chasing dreams of a utopian society and putting the family through tremendous hardships.
She found freedom in her day volunteering as a nurse through the Civil War. But she contacted typhoid fever and was given mercury as part of her treatment. The mercury poisoning affected Louisa for her remaining days. "Little Women" was written afterwards, and sometimes she could barely hold the pen to write (reminds me so much of dear Jane Austen writing in her final days writing "Persuasion").
"Little Women" may be too sunny or didactic for some people's tastes, but I think on a more careful reading, one will see the blood, sweat and tears Alcott poured into this book. It is her magnum opus, a book that came together quickly because it touched on the notes of her life that had already been written. I will continue to treasure this book as I remember the love and sacrifice of it's author.
Ashley brings up some really interesting points. Although I was familiar with Bronson Alcott's eccentricities, I'd never really considered LMA's daddy issues. I think Jo's choice of husband had more to do with prudence than her desire for a father figure. She knew that a relationship with Laurie would be tumultuous and she was rebelling against the expectation that she should marry for money. In fact, after his proposal she resigned to remain unmarried. There is a short passage after the proposal where the author pleads with readers to respect old maids, which I find touching. Professor Bhaer was a good match for her, I happen to love him, she pursued a good marriage rather than a convenient one. I can see why people don't care for the book. It's not about the story so much as it's about the characters who, to me, seem more like old friends than literary figures. The fact that LMA received more notoriety from Little Women than the thrillers she preferred to write says a lot for the old adage, "write what you know."
I still need to read Good Wives. I've always been so curious about Jo Bhaer's newlywed days and I never knew there was a book on the subject until recently.
This is one of my all time favorites. I agree that you have to put yourself in the skin of one of the characters. There are some modern overtones. For example that the mother wants to take the youngest daughter out of a public school in order to be home schooled and that she practices holistic herbal medicine rather than the terrible medicine of the day.
Ok, I was under the impression that Good Wives was a supplement to Little Women (which it is...) but I just downloaded it as a pdf and...it's just the second half. I've read this before. I totally thought I was going to read about Jo moving into Plumfield and converting it into a school with Prof. Bhaer. LAME.
Uhmm, well Good Wives is the sequel to Little Women and is the second book in the series abotu the March family. There's a sequel to that one, in which we are told how Jo starts a school at Plumfield, it's the third book in the series: Little Men;)Hope this enlightens you
sad but awesome
2 bad jo didn't end up with laurie
2 bad jo didn't end up with laurie
Jamie wrote: "Ok, I was under the impression that Good Wives was a supplement to Little Women (which it is...) but I just downloaded it as a pdf and...it's just the second half. I've read this before. I total..."
read little men and jo's boys thats what there about
read little men and jo's boys thats what there about
even though it has an happy ending in the end i feel some feeling i don't know which saddens me about laurie and jo
and i cried many time while reading this book
i totally agree with ashley
Melissa wrote: "sad but awesome2 bad jo didn't end up with laurie"
i too feel the same too bad did not end up with laurie
I read this when I was about 9 years old... my teacher noticed I was a more advanced reader than my classmates and that I was doing poorly in class because I was bored... so instead of punishing me she gave me "independent study", so to speak, and more difficult, engaging classwork. I finished this book in about two months, and loved it. Yes, it's got some definitely depressing moments - I still cry when I read certain parts of it - but if you're familiar with the setting, the time period and the setting and all, then you really connect with it a lot more. Now, of course it's not going to appeal to people who rarely traverse outside the realms of contemporary pop lit (not that there's necessarily anything wrong with contemporary pop lit), but if you're used to reading authors like Austen, Bronte, the like, then this book reads a bit easier.
Soumya wrote: "Melissa wrote: "sad but awesome
2 bad jo didn't end up with laurie"
i too feel the same too bad did not end up with laurie"
yeah, totally
2 bad jo didn't end up with laurie"
i too feel the same too bad did not end up with laurie"
yeah, totally
This book defined me and many of my friends who are also in their mid-50's. I am always amazed that a book which touched so many of us is a book which many younger women haven't read. They are missing out. And regarding Jo and Laurie.... he wasn't enough for her! Laurie would not ever have given Jo the push she needed to succeed as an author- and I think the Professor gave her this push.
mid 50s?????????????????????????
wow i was 6 when i read 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wow i was 6 when i read 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I love this book. I read it when I was about 9 and I've read it at least a dozen time since. It's one of my absolute favorites. The characters are brilliant and so well developed. I used to love the language so much that I went around talking in that kind of old-fashioned speech for a week after I read it. It's an amazing book! If you don't like it, or find it slow, I'd watch the movie. It's a great movie and really livens up the story.
This was my first "big" book I ever read. I don't know how many times I have re-read it. Wish had a copy so I could return to all the March girls
u dont have a copy??????????? thats 2 bad, ive got a really old copy with beautiful plates
favorite book of all time since childhood. when i was young our very elderly neighbor gave me the copy she had as a child. i treasure it. it's fragile and not the copy i read but what a gift! i also had it on tape as a child and listened to it so many times i could say the words right along with it.
How wonderful, that you all have sweet memeories with the copy of Little Women:-) I got mine as a Christmas present from my mother, but unfortunately it wasn't her old copy
I love the movie adaptations. I have a copy lying around here somewhere. I have read versions of it before. It is worth reading again.
I really love not only this book but the rest of the series as well. In Little Women I find it unique in that Women are the main characters and that men only have supporting roles. However, for me I think that this book is a role model for all women in that the roles they play shouldn't be taken for granted. I do think that this book should be on every bookshelf of readers.
I need to read this book. And I agree that the men take secondary roles, except for Laurie and his grandfather.
Melissa, Yes, there are people who are as old as 50. (I'm teasing.) I know what you meant, but all the !?I hated the book when I read it all the many years ago. It was when I was in my 50s that I first found someone else who hated it. Until then, I genuinely thought I was the only one.
When I started reading the book March a couple of years ago, the first thing that struck me was how much it was like Little Women, and I hated it so much I couldn't finish it. But not before I found out it was about Mr. March, the Little Women's father. Even though I hated it and could not finish it, I agree it deserved the Pulitzer.
Why did I hate it? The writing style just drove me to distraction. Can't stand Jane Austen either. Or Harriet Beecher Stowe.
Wow, Melissa sure loves exclamation points.
Melissa wrote: "mid 50s?????????????????????????wow i was 6 when i read it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!..."
I believe Cameron meant that she read it when she was younger and now in her 50's she is saying that it was influential to her and her friends. It seems a bit much to respond the way you did even if she didn't read it until her 50's. We don't all read the same books at the same places in our lives. At 6 or 50, a book is a book.
I love this book every time I read it. The characters are so distinct and I find it really easy to get involved in their lives - despite the fact that Little Women is an old classic with stuffy language to match.
I never did read any of the sequels, though; are they as good?
I never did read any of the sequels, though; are they as good?
Jo" Boys is a good book, not as good as Little Women. But it is worth reading for context.
Yes I think all the sequels are good. Sorry I put Jo" instead of Jo's Boys.
I know this is a really good book ..I really like reading louisa May Alcott books because they are so descriptive and really very interesting to understand..
I you it as a child and loved it. I tried to read it recently and found it saccharine, especially Marmee. Read "March" by ? Brooks which is an view of what the father was doing during the time the book takes place.I can see how young women today find the book boring. Those girls are just too good.
I watched it as a cartoon series when i was 8 i think. it was so so sentimental and heartbreaking . Due to the censorship over media in saudi arabia , there are lots of gaps in the story in my mind.at that time boys were accusing who watches such series as a feminine.It was a dark time.
I loved the purity, simplicity, and saccharine sweetness of this book and the sequels. I also love L. M. Montgomery books. Nothing wrong with a little purity, sweetness, and old-fashioned goodness.
no, nothing wrong with that easier gentler time.
The book was written to:1. sell a lot of books
2. appeal to children
It was not written to:
1. be great literature
2. have any other redeeming value
I thought the characters were a bit over-the-top, especially when it came to competing for who could be the most self-sacrificing. The novel is particularly offensive when one considers that Alcott actually was a feminist who sold her soul for money by writing this book.
It was an amazing, fascinating, inspirational novel... one that I would love to read again and again.
I enjoyed the movie much better than the book but that's my option (the one with Christian bale..which I have seen at lest twice if not three times). Jo is very much like me in every way except that I don't think I'll fall in love with a bearded stranger but who knows? my ideals might change.
Kimberly wrote: "I am currently reading this book, a little more than halfway through.
The old timey language isn't as bad as I thought it would be, but the book is a classic, and still a total bummer!
I find..."
The old timey language isn't as bad as I thought it would be, but the book is a classic, and still a total bummer!
I find..."
I agree with Greslim's comments...immerse yourself in the characters and identify with them. This classic is definitely a favorite of mine.
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It is an absolutely amazing book, I could not put it down when I began reading it. Then again, everyone has their own preference over genres of literature. A tip that might help make it less boring, is to actually immerse yourself in the characters. To become part of the family and feel as they feel for their sorrows and their pains. I think this book should be a part of every young lady's library. It shows good judgement, valuable ethics, and unquestionable morals.
I'm sorry you find it to be boring, it really breaks my heart. This is my favorite classic along with Pride and Prejudice.