Little Women

5 ✨

I have nothing to say, except this book is simply

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Alzi la mano chi almeno una volta nella vita non ha sentito parlare di Jo, Meg, Amy e Beth. Ce le hanno fatte conoscere sotto ogni forma possibile, anime, film e serie tv ma nessuna di queste è mai riuscito ad eguagliare la bellezza e la potenza dei libri di Louisa May Alcott.

Grazie a questa nuova uscita targata Mondadori Oscar Vault, avremo il piacere di ritrovare in un unico volume, i libri che hanno reso celebre Louisa May Alcott. Piccole donne infatti ancora oggi è uno dei capisaldi della letteratura per ragazzi.

La storia ambientata durante la guerra di secessione americana, narra le vicende di una famiglia molto unita, composta da quattro sorelle: Jo, Meg, Amy e Beth. Una famiglia senza ombra di dubbio simile a quella del mulino bianco ma che dopo la partenza per il fronte del padre, è costretta a vivere tra le ristrettezze economiche.

L’inverno sarà difficile per tutti e non dovremmo spendere denaro in cose futili, quando i nostri uomini stanno soffrendo in guerra. Noi non possiamo fare molto, ma possiamo contribuire con qualche piccolo sacrificio e dovremmo farlo volentieri.


Nonostante i problemi, la povertà e la malattia, le ragazze crescendo, impareranno a diventare responsabili capaci di affrontare, insieme, ogni tipo di sciagura e difficoltà.
Nel primo libro quindi conosceremo approfonditamente le quattro sorelle, ne carpiremo pregi e difetti ma soprattutto le accompagneremo nella loro crescita e maturità...

Mentre il primo libro è circoscritto nello spazio temporale di un anno, si parte a Natale e si finisce con il Natale dell'anno dopo, in Meg. Jo, Beth & Amy, Piccole donne crescono, l'autrice ha spaziato su uno spazio temporale molto più ampio permettendoci così di vedere tutti i cambiamenti che hanno avvolto ogni singolo personaggio, matrimoni, figli ecc...
Ovviamente non starò qui a raccontarveli perchè come sapete non amo gli spoiler ma vi assicuro che l'autrice saprà come sorprendervi.

Nonostante si parli di libri scritti alla fine dell'ottocento, posso dirvi con certezza che i temi trattati sono ancora oggi molto attuali e infatti sono stati capaci di abbracciare epoche diverse.
L'autrice ci ha quindi regalato una quantità infinita di personaggi in cui è praticamente facile rispecchiarsi: dalla ribelle Jo alla dolce Beth. Certo rispetto all'epoca in cui la Alcott ha dato vita a questi romanzi, oggi le donne, vengono considerate di più nella società, non c'è un rifiuto netto degli stereopiti femminili anzi... ma rimane lo stesso, seppur nella classicità, un romanzo molto attuale.

All'interno di questo romanzo troverete anche Piccoli uomini, romanzo ambientato nel collegio di Jo e Fritz Baher a Plumfield.
L'istituto ospita 12 bambini di varie età tra cui i figli di Jo, Rob e Terry, i figli di Meg, Daisy e Demi Brooks, e i nipoti di Fritz, Franz e Emil.
Per finire, a concludere la raccolta, I ragazzi di Jo, romanzo in cui vengono descritte le vicessitudini dei ragazzi, ormai grandi, ospitati nell'istituto di Jo.

Per parlare di ogni romanzo non basterebbe una giornata quindi spero di esservi riuscita ad incuriosirvi con queste piccole nozioni ed ora vi lascio al mio ritratto.
In conclusione Piccole Donne è, ancora oggi, una storia che fa emozionare, divertire, commuovere e piangere. Se ancora non avete mai letto i libri di Louisa May Alcott, non potete assolutamente farvi scappare questa bellissima raccolta perchè in fondo, in ognuno di noi c'è una Meg, una Jo, una Beth e una Amy.

Appena ho visto quest'edizione Einaudi contenente tutti i quattro romanzi che compongono il ciclo delle Piccole Donne ho avvertito l'impulso irrefrenabile di comprarlo.

Innanzitutto perché mi permetteva di avere una versione d'insieme su libri che durante la mia infanzia e preadolescenza ho letto con lunghissimi intervalli tra uno e l'altro, in secondo luogo perché Piccole Donne è stato il mio libro preferito di sempre, quello letto talmente tante volte che la mia vecchia copia è quasi completamente plastificata dal nastro adesivo.



I quattro libri raccontano le vicende delle quattro sorelle March dall'adolescenza, trascorsa durante la Guerra di Secessione americana, e la piena maturità.



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This is vying for favorite book of all time. It is complete perfection.

Sempre bellissimi. Nonostante il tempo che passa. Nonostante il cambiamento dei costumi. Nonostante un certo moralismo. Ma la Alcott è stata una grande scrittrice e nella figura di Jo March elabora una figura di educatrice all'avanguardia per i tempi, e in cui probabilmente ritrae se stessa e le proprie idee. Amati fin da subito nell'infanzia e mai più abbandonati.

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THE LITTLE WOMEN -
COMPLETE COLLECTION:
LITTLE WOMEN, GOOD WIVES,
LITTLE MEN, JO'S BOYS.
by LOUISA MAY ALCOTT.
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Louisa May Alcott came from a family that grew up during times of a distant war in the neighbourhood of Concord where some of the great thinkers of US were then living and writing. Her father moved them from Boston to the remote Concord to be in that atmosphere, and it brought them into close contact with the best society had then to offer. She wrote this partly about their own life, is the surmise.

These little girls growing up were given education and taught to use their minds and have a right heart, rather than "catch" a gentleman and marry and find security; hence the title "women" rather than the more prevalent "ladies" which then denoted women with more secure existence and comparatively a more decorative rather than useful life, with servants and slaves.

The trials and bonds of this middle class family that went through the war at a distance, and knew hardships and privations and to remain nevertheless at a level above mundane, and retain intellectual pursuits.

The story of the Little Women continues with Good Wives, with three of the sisters now married and living not too distant from one another, and the extended family growing. They are just as loving within the extended family and their own separate lives and their trials as they were while growing up together.

Life continues and now, in Little Men, there are some little men in the extended family of the grown up little women, the latter bringing up the former. The values and joys are shared and passed on within the extended family clan.

Jo's Boys repeats the heartache of Little Women. Having grown up in the last half of the 20th century and with no pointers during growing years to indicate why Jo's boys were not good enough for Amy and Laurie's daughter, and the heartbreak of the one who fell in love was - is - very real, smiting the young reader's heart. Now, a few decades after reading the book, one looks back on the story with all the rest one has seen and knows and understood - and it is clear that this was due to the difference in status between the two. Laurie and Amy are wealthy and Jo's boys are adopted orphans, and so it does not matter how capable or intelligent the lover is - he is advised to not even try, not even ask, in the gentlest manner possible. This hurt had given another poignant ending to the original story extended over four books, just as in the first book there was really no good reason given why Jo refused Laurie even though she did love him. It is almost as if the story was too bland and so there had to be something of a sharp hurt, even more than the death of the gentle loving Beth. And so the permanent living pain of a soul suffering a heartbreak - not Laurie who got over his quick enough to come back from Europe married to Amy, but Jo, the one who felt awkward and gangly and not pretty and so tried hard to make up for the lack and be worthy. And so she refused love, that would have given her happiness and brought her out of the unworthy mode of her closed bud of a heart, and instead she refused it - and tore out her own heart.
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THE LITTLE WOMEN -
COMPLETE COLLECTION:
LITTLE WOMEN, GOOD WIVES,
LITTLE MEN, JO'S BOYS.
by LOUISA MAY ALCOTT
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December 18, 2022 - December 18, 2022.
Purchased October 17, 2018.

ASIN:- B077J6WNCT
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PICCOLE DONNE
Lo so, credo di essere un po' troppo cresciuta per questo tipo di letture, anche se non posso certo dire che mi sia annoiata. Ho trovato anzi divertente mettere in correlazione la generazione di ragazzine di fine 800 con quelle future: la mia, quella di mia figlia, di mia madre e di mia nonna.
Le illusioni e le speranze non sono poi così cambiate: un bel vestito, il desiderio di oziare tutto il giorno, perseguire un obiettivo coltivando la fiducia nelle proprie qualità e passioni.
I sogni da raggiungere, le difficoltà e le delusioni quotidiane da superare, la rabbia e il carattere ribelle da forgiare sono ancora molto attuali; sono certamente diverse le modalità di approccio al raggiungimento degli obiettivi e la società che ne ha profondamente modificato la graduatoria.
È sicuramente un libro ricco di buoni sentimenti e spunti che suggeriscono modalità eticamente corrette per affrontare la vita grazie ad un'impeccabile e saggia signora March.
Ma.
Non credo sia un caso il fatto che una volta letta l'ultima frase, girata l'ultima pagina e chiuso il libro, non siano certo la "santa" Beth, la viziatissima Amy o la frivola Meg a rimanere nel cuore; a ricevere tutte le nostre attenzioni è, guarda caso, la cocciutissima Jo, la stravagante, sincera, creativa, ribelle e VERA Jo, il personaggio forte del romanzo.
Cara Louise May Alcott sei davvero una gran furbacchiona! È che poi nella vita le signore March si contano sulla punta delle dita, e la vitalità delle piccole Jo si perde nella frivola incoerenza di tante Amy pentite.

I read this collection between Thanksgiving and Christmas every year, and every year it inspires me and helps me mentally close one year and start the next.

REVIEW OF THE LIBRARY OF AMERICA KINDLE EDITION EDITED BY ELAINE SHOWALTER

So in my humble opinion, this here Kindle edition of all three of Louisa May Alcott Little Women novels is truly and utterly absolutely perfect (and while also a bit more expensive than many of the available e-book collections of the three novels, Little Women, Little Men, Jo’s Boys is also and most definitely worth every penny I have spent). For delightfully, not only does Little Women, Little Men, Jo’s Boys contain the unabridged texts of all three novels (and rendered in a very reader-friendly format with a font size that is sufficiently large for easy and comfortable perusing), editor Elaine Showalter has also included a detailed chronology of Louisa May Alcott’s life (from her birth to her death) as well as detailed and interesting notes and annotations (and which I for one have especially appreciated for Little Men and Jo’s Boys, since while there generally are multiple annotated Little Women editions to be found, the same is definitely and unfortunately not so much the case with regard to the sequels), leaving Little Women, Little Men, Jo’s Boys wonderfully textually complete both with regard to Louisa May Alcott’s three Little Women stories and a nicely general but still sufficiently extensive introduction to Louisa May Alcott as both a talented author and also of course as transcendentalist Bronson Alcott’s daughter.

LITTLE WOMEN

Although Louisa May Alcott's Little Women is probably one of my all time favourite books (and which I have read at least fifteen times since 1979), I actually have never managed to pen a review, simply because I really do not think I can (in my opinion) post a review that would do sufficient honour to either book or author. And with that in mind, this here review will in fact not be a standard review of Little Women either, but rather some personal and academic musings about both Little Women and questions such as censorship as well as influences of Little Women on Lucy Maud Montgomery’s The Story Girl and it’s sequel The Golden Road (and thus my review might also end up being a bit rambling, but I do hope that I will keep potential readers engaged all the same).

LITTLE WOMEN AND CENSORSHIP

Now it is really quite amazing to and for me that a children's novel written in 1868 can still (in this day and age) be so fresh, enchanting (often even socially relevant) and truly, for 1868, Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women is not only quite progressive and strivingly feminist, it is actually much more so than many books (especially books meant specifically for girls) written in the late 19th and even early to middle 20th century. And with that in mind, it just astounds me to no end (and massively infuriates me) that there have actually been moves and petitions to have the novel banned and censored (since according to certain "activists" Louisa May Alcott's Little Women is supposedly just not feminist enough and thus, due to its lasting popularity, inherently "dangerous" to girls/women, and thus supposedly warranting official censorship). Yes, Little Women is not a novel I would ever label as feminist in the late 20th, early 21st century way and manner of thinking, but for 1868, it was and remains exceedingly progressive indeed, a novel that not only promotes gender equality to a point, but also, and this is one of its prime advantages, Little Women pleads for and strives for true freedom of choice, especially for women (Meg is happy being a homemaker and wife, but that is her own choice, it is not in any way forced on her, while Jo goes alone to New York City, and supports the family with her work, and even Beth is not forced to attend school when it is reaslised that she is much much too shy and too afraid of strangers for this).

LITTLE WOMEN AND ITS INFLUENCE ON TWO NOVELS BY L. M. MONTGOMERY

So while I was recently rereading Little Women, I was also at the same time rereading two of my favourite works by L.M. Montgomery (of Anne of Green Gables fame), The Story Girl and its sequel, The Golden Road. And having now completed these two novels, it becomes rather obvious at least to me how much both of these stories have in common with Little Women. Especially the character of Cecily King is very much akin to Beth March, both personality wise and her eventual fate (that she is also doomed to die young like Beth does). Now, I am NOT IN ANY MANNER saying or even insinuating that Montgomery actively plagiarised from Louisa May Alcott, and Cecily is also not just a replica of Beth March either (although the latter might well have served as a bit of a model for the former), but yes, the similarities are, for me at least, striking enough to believe that Montgomery was in all likelihood more than a bit influenced by Little Women when she wrote The Story Girl and The Golden Road (which also becomes rather apparent when one realises that both the March family and the King family create their own magazines, and that both of these magazines are similar in both style and content to a point, with the March girls' magazine being perhaps a bit more literate, which of course makes a lot of sense, as the March sisters are from a literary and academic family, while the King family are basically simply and mostly PEI farmers).

SHOULD JO HAVE MARRIED LAURIE INSTEAD OF PROFESSOR BHAER?

I know that there are some, perhaps even more than some individuals who are not quite at ease with the fact that in Little Women Jo does not end up marrying Laurie, but Professor Bhaer. Now for me, I have always thought that while Jo and Laurie would make and do make great friends, they would have made horrible and even intensely problematic lovers, and the concept that Laurie and Jo are too similar in and with certain perhaps less than admirable parts of their personalities has always made sense to me. For if Laurie and Jo had married, I do believe that their personalities would have clashed, and not because they are so different, but because they are so similar with regard to willfulness, stubbornness, desire and emotionality. And the professor, he complements Jo and she complements him. Professor Bhaer calms her personality, even giving Jo’s writing a calming edge, while she, in turn, makes his own calm personality a bit more outgoing. And also, one has to think of the fact that from an academic standpoint, Jo and the Professor are actually much more complementary and complimentary than Laurie and Jo would and could ever have been. For Jo thrives on writing, literature, education, something that Professor Bhaer also exibits, but something that Laurie only shows marginally (mainly artistically and musically, and in this, he is actually much closer to Amy, and not to Jo). And yes, in particular from an artistic and societal point of view, Laurie and Amy do suit one another and much more than Jo and Laurie would have or could have meshed. Yes, Louisa May Alcott might indeed have originally envisioned in Little Women for Jo to not have been married at all (and there are actually some critics who consider her love for her sister Beth, her devotion to her, lesbian, and while I most certainly do not, it is indeed a common thread in some secondary analyses). And then, when the publishers clamoured for Jo to also marry, it makes sense, at least to me, that Alcott had Jo not end up marrying Laurie, but Professor Bhaer, an older, more mature man perhaps, but also someone whose intellect, whose philosophy, whose education and ideas regarding education, corresponded to and with Jo. For yes, I actually do think with Laurie, that Jo would not only have had too many battles and arguments, I think she also would probably have found the life of relative leisure that Laurie and Amy end up enjoying, rather tedious, even monotonous in the long run when compared to and with the life that Jo and the Professor end up creating/having with their school at Plumfied, as demonstrated and described in the two sequels of Little Women, in Little Men and Jo's Boys.

Now I do hope that my musings and ideas regarding Little Women have proven to be entertaining, but also, that they have provided food for thought and perhaps a desire for a reread and for those of you who have not yet read this lovely and enchanting novel, a first read (it is a rewarding and emotional reading experience, but then again, I admit to being majorly biased).

Finally (and indeed, really and truly), there are indeed many many editions of Little Women. And my favourite at present is the Norton Critical Edition, as it also includes background, literary analyses (as well as a short bibliographic of Louisa May Alcott) and an extensive bibliography. Now if you are just desiring to read Little Women for its own sake, any edition (as long as it is unabridged and contains both the first and second part) will likely suffice. However, if you are interested in also perusing information about the novel, its historical background, reviews and critical literary analyses, give the Norton Critical Edition a try; you will not be disappointed (at least that is my hope).

LITTLE MEN

Although I have definitely for the most part rather enjoyed Louisa May Alcott's Little Men and do therefore consider it both a successful sequel to Little Women and also what I would consider an interesting and delightful late 19th century American boarding school story (and yes, a school story that really does descriptively and with much textual pleasure demonstrate how at Jo and Professor Bhaer's Plumfield, not only book learning and lessons are important and cherished, but also how the students are equally and intensely instructed and expected to be physically active, to engage in sports, gardening and the like), I also (and indeed frustratingly) have found that occasionally whilst reading Little Men, I was definitely feeling a just trifle impatient, that I really was wishing Louisa May Alcott would get to the point and move away from being so annoyingly preachy.

For while the majority of the often rather episodic chapters of Little Men certainly are entertaining and engaging enough (even though I sometimes have found Dan's escapades and even his entire story to be a trifle too one-sided and even a bit artificial in scope), there is (at least in my opinion) occasionally just too many doses of morality and how to successfully live and prosper with honour and integrity lessons and messages being presented, and yes indeed, that especially Jo seems in Little Men to have totally morphed into simply being Professor Bhaer's wife and a mother-like figure to and for her students, her so-called little men (and with a few female students being thrown in for good measure, although I do very much appreciate in Little Men that Nan is being actively encouraged to follow her dreams of perhaps later becoming a doctor, even if Daisy is still generally being depicted as a standard and like her mother Meg entirely housewifely individual).

Combined with the fact that in Little Men I have also rather missed reading more about Amy/Laurie and Meg/John and that I do rather find it annoying that the only information about John Brooke in Little Men is the chapter concerning his untimely death (realistic perhaps, as John Pratt, the model for John Brooke, did in fact die very young and unexpectedly, but why could Louisa May Alcott not have devoted a bit of her Little Men narrative to Meg and John before the latter's death), while I most definitely have found Little Men engaging and readable, it also does not and never will have the same kind of reading magic appeal to and for me as Little Women does (and no, I will thus also not likely all that often be considering rereading Little Men, whereas for Little Women rereading it is both totally a pleasure and something that I continuously and happily do engage in).

JO'S BOYS

Yes indeed, I do have to admit that while Little Women is both brilliant and will always remain a strong and magical personal reading favourite and that Little Men albeit unfortunately not quite as delightful as Little Women is still engagingly readable and as such also a solidly successful sequel, Jo's Boys (the third and also the final instalment of Louisa May Alcott's Little Women series), while I guess that it does provide a decent enough conclusion in so far that it presents and features how in particular the characters encountered as Plumfield students in Little Men live and thrive (or conversely sometimes fail and do not not succeed) as adults, well, Jo's Boys has for me and in my humble opinion for the most part been a rather massively disappointing and indeed also often quite frustrating and even mildly to majorly annoying reading experience.

For although both Little Women and Little Men do exhibit and show moralising messages and preachiness (and with the latter, with Little Men considerably more so than Little Women and with rather less subtlety), both novels do from where I am standing still utterly pale when compared to the almost constant and as such also absolutely overwhelming level and amount of sermons and directly in one's proverbial face both religious and cultural, behaviour-based evangelism that seems to literally inhabit almost every single page of Jo's Boys, with in my opinion Louisa May Alcott often totally eschewing engaging story telling techniques in favour of almost continuously hitting her readers over their collective heads with one moralising and message-heavy speech after another, and yes, often in such rapid succession that one cannot even really recover from being evangelised and preached at before another such volley is launched, before in particular Jo Bhaer starts pontificating once again, leaving me with considering Jo's Boys not as generally a reading pleasure but for the most part just a huge and tediously dragging slog.

And indeed, even the few instances where I have found relatable and engaging scenarios in Jo's Boys, such as for example Jo trying to hide from fans of her writing (and who are desperate for autographs) and that Nan is allowed to stay single and to just concentrate on her medical studies, these very few instances of untainted delight, they are both too few and far between and equally do not and cannot provide enough engagement and entertainment to successfully contain and mitigate the moralising, this cannot make the over-use of the latter in Jo's Boys feel in any manner less problematic and annoyingly one-sided.

Combined with the fact that I have personally also found Dan's story and how he is (and in my opinion rather callously and unfeelingly) prevented by Jo from openly and publicly declaring his love and devotion to and for Bess extremely off-putting (and not to mention incredibly unjust and inherently nasty to boot, considering that the text really does seem to show Bess and Dan's affection for one another to be totally genuine as well as mutual, that they both truly do love and very much cherish one another), while I do not in fact regret having read Jo's Boys, I will also only ever consider it a two star rating at best, as well as pointing out that from the Louisa May Alcott novels I have read to date, Jo's Boys is most definitely the one I have thus far enjoyed the least, that has for the most part not been a joyful but rather just a frustrating and painful reading sojourn.

What can I say? Wonderful stories and lovable characters. I have memories of reading them many times in many places. They're part of me in a way that's very dear to me.

Piccole Donne ****
iniziato 10/11/2009 - finito 23/11/2009
Louisa May Alcott ha scritto un romanzo che dovrebbero leggere le adolescenti di tutti i tempi. Dopo un secolo e mezzo riesce ancora ad emozionare le lettrici e a trasmettere quei valori positivi che ognuno di noi dovrebbe sempre portare con se. Questo vale al di là dello sfondo religioso che pervade il romanzo.
La Alcott, con la sublime delicatezza del suo scrivere, ci insegna a saper apprezzare le piccole cose di ogni giorno.
Meg, Jo, Beth e Amy sono tante sfaccettature di una stessa donna che affronta la vita e le sue mille difficoltà.

Piccole Donne Crescono ***
iniziato 24/11/2009 - finito 14/12/2009
Leggendo i libri uno di seguito all´altro è come se fosse un´unico romanzo. In questo le piccole donne diventano delle spose e i loro caratteri si modellano sulla base delle esperienze che la vita offre loro.

Piccoli Uomini
iniziato 10/02/2010 e abbandonato

Piccole donne 5/5
Piccole donne crescono 5/5
Piccoli uomini 4/5
I ragazzi di Jo 4/5