Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

Pat Young

Brev. Brig. Gen'l
Featured Book Reviewer
Joined
Jan 7, 2013
Location
Long Island, NY
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Little Women by Louisa May Alcott (1868).
How can you review a book on its 150th anniversary that 90% of your female friends read when they were girls and almost none of your male friends would have been caught dead reading? I am guessing that most of the men here will skip this review and most of the women will look at it just to see if I agree with their memories of a childhood favorite book. This is a thankless task.

Little Women was my wife’s favorite book. Growing up in a family of seven sisters (and no boys), she saw herself in its story of the four March sisters. Unfortunately, she turned out to be Beth. I recall coming home one day when Cecilia was bedridden and seeing that our twelve-year-old niece was lying next to her in bed and reading Little Women out loud. It was as much a comfort at the end of life as it had been an inspiration at the beginning.

Another problem with reviewing Little Women is that it was explicitly written for girls. Alcott was popular writer of stories when she was approached by a publisher to write a book to fill the gap in its catalog for girls book. What became the most successful novel of the Civil War and Reconstruction periods written by a veteran of the war was never written for someone like me.

This review will be posted in multiple parts.
 
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