Little Women: My Eyes Are Tired From All the Rolling

I have been slowly making my way through children’s classics I never read as a child. On the whole, this has been a wonderful experience. I loved The Wind in the Willows, Anne of Green Gables, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, and so on and so forth. I figured Little Women would join the ranks of children’s classics I loved, but I was oh-so-wrong.

A beautiful hardback cloth cover edition of Little Women by Louisa May Alcott - a novel loved by adults and children alike.

Come laugh and cry with the March family.

Meg - the sweet-tempered one. Jo - the smart one. Beth - the shy one. Amy - the sassy one.

Together they're the March sisters. Their father is away at war and times are difficult, but the bond between the sisters is strong. The family may not have much money, but that doesn't stop them from creating their own fun and forming a secret society. Through sisterly squabbles, happy times and sad, their four lives follow very different paths, and they discover that growing up is sometimes very hard to do...

***PLUS a behind-the-scenes journey, including an author profile, a guide to who's who, activities and more...***

Louisa May Alcott (1832-88) was brought up in Pennsylvania, USA. She turned to writing in order to supplement the family income and had many short stories published in magazines and newspapers. She was reluctant to write a children's book but then realized that in herself and her three sisters she had the perfect models. The result was Little Women (1868) which became the earliest American to become a classic.

First of all, sorry not sorry that I did not like this book.

And when I say “book,” I mean Part 1. I couldn’t go on to Part 2, “Good Wives,” because the first part exhausted me too intensely.

I actually am unable to understand what people see in this book. It’s one thing if you read it as a child and have all these fond memories when re-reading as an adult, but if you read it for the first time as an adult, what do you see in it? (This is a serious question. Please tell me why this appeals to people!)

What actually happens in this book?

The plot is threadbare at best. I mean, we’re literally just following along as these girls grow up. And it’d be one thing if they had interesting lives (or personalities… but I’ll get to that later), but they just don’t. There’s not even a lot of references to the period they’re living in, which might have made it a tad bit more interesting!

Why are these girls so insufferable?! 

I UNDERSTAND THAT THIS BOOK IS FROM THE MID 1800’S BUT THAT IS NOT AN EXCUSE. These girls are so wholesome and do-goody that I want to sit them all down and teach how to say “shit.” The crap that they say is so eye-rollingly-awful (I made up rollingly– you like it?), that I believe I have ocular muscle fatigue after reading it. I understand that it’s probably supposed to be setting a good example for children, but OH MY GOD. 

This one will never be for me. 

If you loved this book, then I am so glad to hear it! It’s obviously well-received, it’s a wildly popular classic! I just know that it will never be a book I enjoy. Maybe I should have read it as a child? WHO KNOWS! Either way, this one gets a thumbs down from me!

I hovered somewhere between HATED IT! and It was okay.

 
If you’ve read Little Women, what did you think about it? And if you loved it, please tell me why! I want to know what appeals to you. 

A.S. Thornton

A.S. Thornton has evolved from book blogger to author with a particular fondness for writing forbidden love in ancient deserts. When not writing, she’s caring for dogs and cats as a veterinarian. You’ll never find animals at the center of her writing, though, because those fictional worlds don’t have veterinarians and her literal brain can’t accept that the poor critters would be without parasite prevention. Thornton’s debut, DAUGHTER OF THE SALT KING is available wherever books are sold.