Friday, March 9, 2012

Little Women

From Goodreads.com

Title: Little Women
Author: Lousia May Alcott
Genre: Fiction
Sub-genre: Coming of age, romance
Pages:  643
Published: Originally published as two books, one, Little Women in 1868, and Good Wives, in 1869. The above version, which is the version I own was published in 1947 and includes both Little Women and Good Wives in one book.
Publisher: Originally by Roberts Brothers but this version was published by Grosset & Dunlap
ISBN:  0488060191
Reader's Annotation: How will life treat the four March sisters?
Summary: The first book, Little Women, opens with the four girls on Christmas Eve. Set during the Civil War, their father is away and the girls are lamenting this and that they are poor, among other things. Alcott two classically loved books take us through the lives of Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy and their trials and joys in life.
My Evaluation: Having seen two of the three versions of the movie, it was definitely an experiment for me to read the book now. I try not to do that but in this case in worked and I put the movie characters out of my mind (I'll discuss how well the movie did in a minute). While long, this book is excellent and a must read, for at least every girl out there. Alcott makes each one of the girls relatable and each girl has one thing or another that I wouldn't mind having myself. Alcott also makes the men in this story easy to fall in love with and makes great cases for why each man is which each girl.

My favorite version of the book is the 1994 version with Kirsten Dunst and Winona Ryder. Now, having read the book, I can see it is an excellent adaptation, which I rarely say about a movie based on a book. They always get something wrong. They did not in this movie, with the exception of changing the order of some of the events and the way that Beth dies.

And to the people that think this is a children's novel. It is not. Alcott never intended it to be. While she did write children's and young adult literature in her later years, most of her work were originally published as adult fiction.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5