Sunday, June 14, 2020

Little Women (Louisa May Alcott)





 
Much to my mother's surprise, I have always been a bit of a classics rebel. I picked this one up for book club and must say, I'm glad I did. I borrowed a tattered old copy from one of my nieces - which seemed appropriate and added to the nostalgia of this story. 

I'm sure I'll have more to say after our book club discussion. These are my thoughts so far:

The feminist part of me bristled at a lot of it, but there is something lovely and magical about it that kept me reading....kind of like Anne of Green Gables. My husband, on the other hand, has it on his 'Books I Regret Reading' list. LOL I did appreciate the cautious approach to marriage and the idea that it isn't the answer to everything. Apparently, Louisa herself was fiercely independent and never did marry.

I've never watched any of the movies. I think I should!

Goodreads says:

Generations of readers young and old, male and female, have fallen in love with the March sisters of Louisa May Alcott’s most popular and enduring novel, Little Women. Here are talented tomboy and author-to-be Jo, tragically frail Beth, beautiful Meg, and romantic, spoiled Amy, united in their devotion to each other and their struggles to survive in New England during the Civil War.
It is no secret that Alcott based Little Women on her own early life. While her father, the freethinking reformer and abolitionist Bronson Alcott, hobnobbed with such eminent male authors as Emerson, Thoreau, and Hawthorne, Louisa supported herself and her sisters with "woman’s work,” including sewing, doing laundry, and acting as a domestic servant. But she soon discovered she could make more money writing. Little Women brought her lasting fame and fortune, and far from being the "girl’s book” her publisher requested, it explores such timeless themes as love and death, war and peace, the conflict between personal ambition and family responsibilities, and the clash of cultures between Europe and America.


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