Book Review: Little Women

Book: Little Women (Little Women book #1) by Louisa May Alcott

Edition: Paperback

Description:

Love. Tragedy. Sisters.

Growing up in New England during he Civil War, the March sisters share everything - their joys and troubles, their loves and secrets. But the four girls couldn't be more different. Meg, the oldest and the most sensible. Jo is a funny and mischievous aspiring author. Beth is shy and dreamy and Amy is pretty and artistic.

From dances to despairs, through weddings and funerals, the March girls stand as sisters. This is one family you will never forget.




Rating: 5 stars

Review:

I can see why Little Women is held in such high regards among so many readers, it's a timeless story about the March family. There's heart, humor, tragedy, love and many other discoveries throughout the story as the characters learn about life and all that it entails. The story follows the sisters (Margaret "Meg", Josephine "Jo", Elizabeth "Beth" and Amy) and their neighbor Theodore "Laurie" Lawrence over the years from when they were teenagers (and pre-teen in Amy's case) to growing into adults.

With their father away serving in the war, the sisters along with their mother work hard to maintain their home and caring for each other. I like that each of the sisters had very distinct and different personalities and interest. But I noticed that that Meg and Amy seemed to be the most envious of their rich friends. They envied the clothes, jewelry, status and all the other things that go with wealth.

While Meg mostly outgrew hers and learned to appreciate her life and found love with a man who didn't have a lot of money. I feel it took a lot longer for that to happen for Amy because despite her newfound sense of spirituality and her interest in art, it was her strong desire to become a member of the affluent society that felt like the main thing that guided her. Out of all the sisters, I think Amy had it the easiest and I feel like she got everything she desired. Although with a shift in perspective.

Meanwhile, I found Jo and Beth to share the qualities of being humble and selfless even more so for Beth. She is sweet and kind and enjoys caring for others, so much so that her health suffered due to trying to help a neighboring family whose situation was even more dire than theirs. While, Jo cares and thinks a great of others, her blunt honesty and coarse demeanor can give off the wrong impression of who she is.

Out of all the characters in the book, Jo is my favorite. She may be loud and brash but she's confident and is always trying to be the person she wants to be. I wonder if Jo was also author Louisa May Alcott's favorite character as well because no matter what scenes Jo appears in she is always the most liveliest and most interesting character on the page. She always felt like the heart of the story.

My second favorite character is Laurie. He has the same lively energy as Jo but he doesn't seem as focused as she is. I love their friendship so much that it seemed like a missed opportunity that it never turned into a romance. They were so perfectly suited that their eventual love interests seemed boring in comparison. I'm not surprised that there are a lot of readers who are disappointed about Jo and Laurie's non-romantic relationship because they do have an amazing chemistry. Well, there is some good news for us dissatisfied readers, authors Melissa de la Cruz and Margaret Stohl wrote an upcoming book titled Jo & Laurie which will explore a potential relationship between the good friends.

Anyway back to the review, Little Women is a very interesting book that's beautifully written but I do have mixed feelings about the ending. It seemed to dragged on a bit while also feeling rushed but it was still a relatively good ending. Prior to reading this, I was familiar with the story because I've seen a few adaptations, however, I always thought this was a stand alone story. There are two more sequels (Little Men and Jo's Boys) and I would love to read. I think it would be interesting to see what continues to happen to these characters. Overall, this was a very good story and I'm glad I finally read it.