Still one of my favorite books - it's just so insightful about the daily struggle to be a good person. I'm low-key dreading the "it's not as feminist as you think it is!" takes that will inevitably spring up around the movie release (shocker: book that was written in the 1860s has many values from the 1860s). But re-reading this novel for something like the 15th time (and for the first time in my 20s) was really special, and helped me reassess how I personally feel about the way women and men are framed in here. Video to come soon-ish with some more reflections.

|| 4.0 stars ||

Oh, what a lovely book this was. It’s a classic, but somehow doesn’t suffer from the same afflictions that would make it a boring, pretentious and drawn-out read like so many other “classics” are. Is it because this was written by a woman, unlike most other older classics? Well, I won’t say so in fear of sounding a little offensive, but secretly I think: Yes, duhh.

This story really had such pure warmth and feeling with such lovely and tender characters, you truly couldn’t help but love every person that appeared on the page. Everyone had a special little something about them that made them uniquely sweet and endearing; even the characters that were only there for a little while.
I can’t quite explain it, but every person just felt so fleshed out and real, yet better somehow: This book showed quite an idealistic world since I don’t think everyone is quite so fair and good in real life, but it was a very idyllic and peaceful world to reside in for a while!

The sisters were all probably a little too good to be true, but I didn’t mind it too much and just decided to admire them for their sweetness and humbleness:
I couldn’t help but be charmed by Meg’s pretty and calm poise, I couldn’t help but laugh at Jo’s wild and unabashed antics, I couldn’t help but feel affection for Beth’s selflessness and purity, and neither could I help but adore Amy’s charming and graceful nature.
I have to admit to having a secret favourite in Amy, whom I personally thought had the most fun and interesting scenes and personality; she was so funny to me as a child and so perfectly lovely as an adult. Her growth was really nice, and I just loved everything about her.

[SPOILERS FROM HERE ON OUT]:

I know there’s quite a debate about who Laurie should have ended up with as many people are not happy with the author’s choices, but I personally think all ended as it should have.
Jo and Laurie were never more than friends, and neither do I think they could have successfully been anything more. Their friendship was very brother/sisterly and well-suited in that way, but it never, not once, felt romantic to me.
Opposingly, Laurie’s interactions with Amy always seemed more tender and gentle to me, even when they were young. There were already quite a lot of little scenes that showed how well he cared for her and wanted her to feel good. And of course, when they grew older it became even more apparent that they would make a good match. Especially the way they acted with each other when they were abroad truly settled the matter for me and showed me that Laurie could find no better match for him than Amy. What they had was romantic love, while him and Jo had pure platonic love. It was very obvious to me. And I admire the author for making the right choice, despite knowing it would upset a lot of readers.

However, although an entirely different matter, I did have one big complaint:
I personally think Beth should have died in part 1 instead of part 2. I don’t quite understand why the author let her survive her illness in the first place if she was simply going to ignore Beth’s existence after that, just to kill her anyway, only now when we don’t care as much for sweet little Beth as we used to when we knew her well. It was just an odd choice, since it really limited the emotional impact her death could have had for me.

All in all though, this was a really nice and warm book that I treasured reading. Even if it could be a little preachy and sanctimonious sometimes.

this book is such a treasure. ☁️✨
mr. and mrs. march raised such strong women of faith and i really enjoyed seeing them grow up alongside the mischievous boy next door. i loved laurie! he was so lively and charming and wore his heart on his sleeve. i also loved the march sisters as if they were my own. i saw a little bit of myself in each one, but mostly meg. i feel as though meg march is my soul character.

I have owned this book forever! I have the movie and have always loved it. Thanks to several group challenges on here, I have finally gotten to this little gem.



Happy Reading!

Mel

Tengo sentimientos encontrados...
Por una parte, me gusta que la historia sea tan fluida y refleje la vida de cuatro mujeres en su cotidianidad.
Por otro, me aterra el mensaje moral implícito en la novela. Definitivamente, en este siglo XXI, el paradigma de la mujer ha cambiado y voy a chocar con las ideas que se defendían hace un par de siglos. Sin embargo, me sigue causando incomodidad pensar en que mucho de lo que se refleja en la novela se sigue defendiendo por las mujeres. Y, por supuesto, me causa incomodidad ver cómo era la forma de concebirse en esa época. En fin, que me gustó pero me causó un gran conflicto.

PD. Leyendo un poco sobre la autora pienso que tendríamos que reivindicar su obra en otros sentidos. De entrada, saber que escribió "mujercitas" por necesidad económica, pero que su obra es monumental y abarca otros géneros literarios. O quizás apreciar la pluma intrépida de la autora, la manera de elaborar cuatro personajes memorables e icónicos, pero tener presente que, a pesar de ser una sufragista del siglo XIX, varias de las ideas reflejadas en este libro son cuestionables. Finalmente, siempre es problemática la literatura de otras épocas por el golpe ideológico. Una conclusión tengo: me alegra no haber nacido en el siglo XIX.

we stan.
https://youtu.be/KREaj07OEfU

━ ⊱ pre-read ⋅ ⊹

the way im literally squealing in excitement! oh my this just seems like such a cozy and comforting read and i cant wait to fall in love with it <3 hopefully entering my mysterious girl reading classics era ?!

I’M IN LOVE, I’M IN LOVE, AND I DON’T CARE WHO KNOWS IT!

When I was a child, my mother used to drag me to antique stores all the time. There is nothing more boring to a kid than an antique store. It smelled like dust and old people, and everything looked the same (dark wood), and if we were in a particularly bauble-heavy shop I had to clasp my hands behind my back like a Von Trapp child in order to avoid invoking the you-break-it-you-buy-it policy on a $42 crystal ashtray.

On one such excursion, when I was like eight, I found a vintage-ish copy of Little Women. Because it was a book, and because it had some kind of illustration of pretty girls in pretty dresses, it was far and away the most interesting thing in there. So I indulged in what was then and what remains one of my favorite pastimes: asking my mother to buy me something. She said no, both because it was confusingly expensive and because she doubted eight-year-old me’s lasting interest in reading a 750-page book from 1868.

Ever since, Little Women has tantalized me.

I am very pleased to say it lived up to every expectation.

This book is so cozy and delightful and happy. A lot of the time, when series start out in the childhood of characters and then follow their growing up, the book gets worse. But I always liked reading about this ragtag group of gals!!

Warning, spoiler ahead, and if you complain about me spoiling a book that was published seven of my lifetime ago I will absolutely freak out so don’t say I didn’t give you a heads up:

Obviously Jo and Laurie were meant for each other, and his marrying Amy and Jo’s marrying some random old dude was the biggest flaw of this book. But even with that, this book ended happy, and I enjoyed almost every second of it.

(Okay, I’m sorry, but Amy is the clear weak link and didn’t deserve Laurie!! I will not rejoice for them!!) (Did I have to take off a half star for that alone? Yes. Because it upset me immensely. And I won’t apologize. If anyone should be apologized to, it’s ME. And also JO. And also LAURIE!)

But absolutely every other second was a pleasure.

Bottom line: This book feels like Christmas.

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pre-review

cozy: ✓
comforted: ✓
joy: ✓

review to come!!!

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currently-reading updates

I am ready to feel COZY. I am ready to feel COMFORTED. I am ready to feel JOY.

I wanted to love this novel so much and thus I set myself up for failure. I’ll try to adequately summarize my thoughts, however I feel a little scatterbrained. It’s taken me a long time to get through this novel and thus not everything is fresh in my mind. I won’t be tagging any spoilers so if you still haven’t read this, haven’t watched the movie or live under rock then I advise you to stay clear of my review.

2.5ish/5

n  Part Onen
If I had to rate the first part of this novel I would have given it no higher than one star. It’s so dreadful to read through multiple “moral lessons” from a woman that often time teaches her daughters to humble themselves for men. I understand that this is a classic and thus the values and morals have changed, however this is a novel that is still praised for the lessons it is teaching; these lessons are mostly boring and arise out of natural circumstances.

I don’t know about you but my upbringing did not result in a lecture after everything I did. I learned things on my own and it felt that the little women were often time coddled. It’s no wonder I severely despise the woman Meg and Jo had grown into.

Additionally, Mr. March might be the second worst character. Both the Marches are incredibly one dimensional. His only importance to the story was when he was away at war and once he returned he served no purpose.

Meg’s love story with Brooke makes my blood boil. Within five minutes Meg goes from declining his proposal to declaring her love for him to defy Aunt March. There exists no romance or chemistry between them and she’s still the same immature child she was five minutes ago. This concludes the first part and leads us to

n  Part Twon
I’m not a particular fan of the style of writing and some chapters read more easily than others. There are the select few chapters that were phenomenally written. I wish I could pluck these out bind them in their own novel and reread this instead. The chapters are: Literary Lessons, Heartache, Beth’s Secret, Lazy Laurence, and The Valley of the Shadow.

First and foremost, the Jo/Laurie/Amy debate shouldn’t exist in my opinion. Laurie proposed at the wrong time, had he waited until both him and Jo were older I think she would have said yes, regardless of whether he got his life together like Amy demanded him to. Both Laurie and Jo were still childish and despite her young age Amy was able to put Laurie in shape to be the respectable gentleman his grandfather wanted him to be.

What we should all be focusing on is Beth’s death. I don’t think it was avoidable and it plays a pivotal part in the story. It certainly made me sad but the strongest emotion this chapter evoked from me was anger.

Why would Beth doom Jo by making her promise to stay with their parents upon her death?

From page one Jo has been waiting for an opportunity to travel and gain experiences and instead Jo is forced to take Beth's place. Had Beth lived, I believe she would have married a simple man like Mr. March and continued taking care of her parents and family nearby. Because of her death, Beth needed someone to fill that place and thus came in Jo. This PISSED ME THE FUCK OFF. As soon as Jo makes that promise any life she had planned vanished and with that she met crusty ass fucking Professor Bhaer and crossed herself off my list of characters I love.

I don’t think I will ever hate a character as much as Bhaer This man is so condescending and self centered. He’s as one dimensional as Mr. March (we’re going full circle here). HE LITERALLY READ A POEM ABOUT THE LITTLE WOMEN, let me repeat that, THE LITTLE WOMEN, and pulled out a sentence about love and said “diz here iz about me professorine” LIKE SHUT THE FUCK UP!!!!

Which brings me to the fucking end. Of course Amy is doomed with a sick child because she named her kid after Beth. Jo I couldn’t give a fuck about after she gave a second thought to a crusty old man. Meg I hated from the first page. Doesn’t even matter if they mention Beth because Jo took her place.

The more I think about this novel, the more I think about how much I hate it and how it doesn’t make up for the 5 chapters I enjoyed out of 47. Had I read this novel as a child and grown up with it, maybe I would have liked it (very weak maybe), but I think a piece of literature should be judged despite what age you read it at and this just didn’t do it for me.

Thank god for Greta Gerwig and being able to make a phenomenal movie out of such a mediocre novel.

---
Yes I just watched the 2019 film adaptation for the first time and I am emotional.

No, I will not be taking questions at this time. Thank you.

A new movie is coming out December 25th...

I've never read it so I might have to do a readalong for it that month!

I wanted to love it but i found it so boring :(

Un clásico de clásicos, un manual de buenas costumbres y educación, reflexivo, nostálgico y repleto de frases maravillosas.
Las protagonistas son personajes entrañables que por algo, después de tantos años, permanecen en la mente de los lectores, muchas cosas que aprender de la familia March.