Little Women

by Archie Oliver (Adapter), Louisa May Alcott

Little Women is the delightful story of the four March girls and their approach towards womanhood.

Meg, the eldest and most beautiful, shrugs off her vanity and social ambition, discovering fulfillment in romantic love. Boyish Jo on the other hand, with her contempt of all "lovering", turns impetuously towards writing for solace. Gentle Beth rejects worldly interests, preferring to devote her life to her family, to the joy of music and to timidly aiding all who suffer in life. Amy, the youngest and most imperfect of the March girls, continually tries to overcome her selfishness and girlish pretensions, though he has a hard task before her.

The progress of these four "little women" is narrated along the lines of Bunyan's pilgrim, and we are shown how - encountering struggles and learning important lessons along the way - each one attains her own Celestial City.

Genres: Classics

157 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1868

Reviews

[jess]

Kind of want to read the full version because there was a lot of time jumps.

[Ragad]

My first heartbreak came from these pages. I've been rereading it to my little brothers at bedtime, and it was all good and dandy, though they understood very little because of the Victorian writing, until that particular bit in chapter 24.

"Oh, my sister, passing from me,
Out of human care and strife,
Leave me, as a gift, those virtues,
Which have beautified your life."

I was overcome with emotion, as I was the first time I'd read it. The way Beth passes so quietly, just as she lived her life. My brothers didn't clock she'd died until I had to explain it to them.

Anyway, I loved it as I had when I first read it, and having read it, I was able to understand the Greta Gerwig adaptation better and appreciate it better. Such a radical book for its time and one that has continued to inspire little women everywhere ever since.

[Danistorm]

I got a little dissapointed thinking i was reading the whole story when it was in fact just the very first book up until Meg accepts John as her future husband and the whole family have dinner together so that was a bummer.
it was a nice reading i guess. my love for the movies might have influenced it, but i didn't enjoy it as much as i thought i would. I bet it was quite the novelty when it was first published, but i think its too old for me and for this time... i can recognise the credit it deserves tho, there is a reason of why it is so loved and inspired so many amazing adaptations. but yeah, for today and for the kind of books im used to, it was a little boring...

[Haleemah]

Written so nicely. (:

[Rhea]

A personal favourite of my childhood reads, was picked off the shelf countless times.

[prathaaaaaaaa]

This book made me miss the “good old days” of me being 6 years old.

[sienna]

don’t recommend accidentally buying a kid’s adaptation of little women

[Deb]

Read this book several times as a child, and loved it.