Saturday, November 19, 2011

Little Women


Somehow I never read Little Women as a child and so entered my teen years determined to scorn it for its notorious goody-goody nature. And so the years went by with my scorn for this classic unchecked until recently when I felt the need to experience for myself the world that so many have loved to distraction. I started Little Women as an experiment with the Kindle app on my iphone, reading it whilst waiting at the doctor's office, the hair salon, etc. but soon found myself so caught up in the world of Jo, Amy, Meg, and Beth that I pulled the Penguin Classics version that I won last year down from the shelf and read it for real.

While the goody-goody nature of the book is often cloying, I think the reason for the novel's popularity and longevity lies in the fact that Louisa May Alcott created such a completely intact world that was realistic enough to be inhabitable but whose sharp edges were softened and made comfortable and thoroughly desirable. I have no doubt that if I had read this book as a child, I would have "played" Little Women, fantasized about living within the pages of the novel, become obsessed with it as I did my Anne and Little House books.

Last week on a business trip, I downloaded the 1994 Little Women movie with Winona Ryder as Jo and Susan Sarandon as Marmee. I thoroughly enjoyed it and felt that it captured the spirit of the book as well as all the major plot points, not an easy thing to do with a highly episodic book like this one. I also like how the script incorporated a bit of the Transcentalism that shaped the Alcott household but that is not overtly present in the book itself.


Now that I've finally read Little Women, I was able to read the Little Women chapter in Erin Blakemore's The Heroine's Bookshelf, which explores the trait of ambition and the character Jo. I found Louisa May Alcott's story so sad as compared to the magical world she created in Little Women, but then that is par for the course when it comes to fictional worlds created by beloved authors.

What did I earmark? I didn't want to fold down the corners of the pages of my beautiful copy, so I didn't mark much, but after reading this passage I found a post-it note to mark the page because I thought it so good. Regardless of her motivation as a writer and views of the finished product, Alcott was a talented author, able to balance the pressures of telling a story with speaking out with a strong narrative voice.

..in spite of her [Amy's] American birth and breeding, she possessed that reverence for titles which haunts the best of us,--that unacknowledged loyalty to the early faith in kings which set the most democratic nation under the sun in ferment at the coming of a royal yellow-haired laddie, some years ago, and which still has something to do with the love the young country bears the old,--like that of a big son for an imperious little mother, who held him while she could, and let him go with a farewell scolding when he rebelled.


Ultimately, for me, passages like this are what makes Little Women a classic. Yes, the story of the March girls growing up, shouldering their responsibilities and embracing their roles in society, is inspiring and heart-warming, but LMA's ability to articulate the American experience in all its social contradictions and ambiguity earns Little Women a place on the Classics shelf and reading lists for the future.

14 comments:

  1. I love the passage you picked out, about America as the adult son of Mother England. :-) I'm rereading this one in 2012. I read it for the first time last year and it's become beloved to me. I might also read the sequels (Little Man and Jo's Boys) in 2012. :-)

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  2. * Little Men (not Little Man) ;-)

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  3. The fact that you read this puts a huge smile on my face :)

    I would highly recommend Eden's Outcasts by John Matteson...it's a dual biography covering the life of Louy and her wackadoodle transcendentalist father, Bronson, won the Pulitzer in biography, and is one of the most powerful bios I've ever read. I really feel it does Louisa justice. Her letters and journals are also amazing.

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  4. I find myself easily overlooking the flaws of Little Women because I first fell in love with it when I was 8. I think that, for a young girl, its lessons are marvelous but they can seem a bit preachy to an older reader. I never read the Anne books as a young girl and recently read the first. I didn't understand the passion others feel for it at all, making me more sure that our love for these books is ingrained in us from our first reading.

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  5. Like Lisa I read Little Women as a younger girl and thoroughly enjoyed it. Whilst I found my recent reading also enjoyable it is probably not a book I would read over and over. I definitely think some of the appeal lies in childhood but I also think that some of the appeal is cultural. Perhaps as an Australian the American historical aspect does not hold as much appeal for me.

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  6. Really enjoyed this post. I read Little Women after I became addicted to the Little House books. I have loved it ever since.
    Of course, Little House and Laura remains my first true literary love.

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  7. I too never read this book as a child. I tried to read it earlier this year but abandoned it, unfinished - definitely too sweet and preachy for this adult. I did enjoy March by Geraldine Brooks, which is about the girls' father during the civil war.

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  8. I really enjoyed March as well and read this before I had read Little Women

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  9. I have to confess I've never been close to tempted to read this book.

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  10. I really liked the way you contrasted your adult appreciation of the world of Little Women, and its inhabitants, with your likely responses as imagined for your childhood reader-self. In a way, it is a delightful complement to the way the book is usually experienced--as a stimulus to the imagination of little girls (little women!!) who are trying to picture how it will be to grow up and discover their mature identities. Thanks for your perspective, as always!

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  11. I haven't read this one since childhood, I should really read it again and see how it stands up.

    I admit that I have only read two of my big box of Penguins, and one of them, Jane Eyre, was a reread. However, I did love We Have Always Lived in the Castle. I should just take a random book off that shelf and just dive into it!

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  12. This was a book I fell in love with as a kid, along with Anne of GG and the Little House books. I should reread it sometime! I also loved her other young adult books and reread them frequently. I'm glad you enjoyed it!

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  13. Little Women was one of my favourite books growing up. I loved it because Jo wanted to be a writer, and so did I (I still do). I cried when Beth dies. I haven't reread it recently, though I have enjoyed the same movie you did - I thought it captured the spirit of the book very well too. I'm delighted you enjoyed it upon your first read!

    Bybee posted about the biography of Louisa and her father, and now I'm looking for a copy of that too.

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  14. I always counted LW under my books read, but realized last year that the edition that I read several times as a child was abridged. For the last few years I've watched the 1994 movie version around the holidays. I can be a harsh critic of movie adaptations of classic books, but I would agree that it captures the spirit of the book and is thoroughly enjoyable to watch.

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