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A review by avery_17
Little Women or Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy by Louisa May Alcott
4.0
3.5 stars
I was fully ready to give this book the full 4 stars. That was until in the eleventh hour Jo gets married.
Despite the time period this book is set in and was when it was written, I feel as though it still holds up fairly well to be read in modern times.
I recently read Pride and Prejudice at the end of 2019 and just found the story to be extremely dull and the characters and story quite unrelatable from modern day living and women’s lives. This story while having similar features of that story is done in a much more charming way and the characters are given much more depth in this story and have more complex motives and flaws to them. One could actually imagine these girls growing up in modern times whereas I felt reading the sisters in Pride and Prejudice, if they were to be transplanted in a different story or timeline they would completely fall apart.
I really wish the story had stayed true to Jo’s character in the end rather than just marrying her off as she starts to feel lonely after Beth’s death. It would have been interesting to see her try and build a career for herself as a writer and surround herself with her family and friends. Maybe she would marry in the future but leaving that open ended rather than shoving it at the end felt forced and like a disservice to her character and her story.
I was also confused about her relationship with the Professor as when they were shopping together in the rain there were a few lines where it sounded like his children had a living mother. As in, a mother the professor was still with. Within that conversation it sounded like they were waiting for time to allow them to be together or something like they were waiting for his wife to die? Did I miss something or am i simply reading this wrong? I listened on audiobook while casually following along in my physical copy so maybe I got distracted at parts and am missing something.
I was fully ready to give this book the full 4 stars. That was until in the eleventh hour Jo gets married.
Despite the time period this book is set in and was when it was written, I feel as though it still holds up fairly well to be read in modern times.
I recently read Pride and Prejudice at the end of 2019 and just found the story to be extremely dull and the characters and story quite unrelatable from modern day living and women’s lives. This story while having similar features of that story is done in a much more charming way and the characters are given much more depth in this story and have more complex motives and flaws to them. One could actually imagine these girls growing up in modern times whereas I felt reading the sisters in Pride and Prejudice, if they were to be transplanted in a different story or timeline they would completely fall apart.
I really wish the story had stayed true to Jo’s character in the end rather than just marrying her off as she starts to feel lonely after Beth’s death. It would have been interesting to see her try and build a career for herself as a writer and surround herself with her family and friends. Maybe she would marry in the future but leaving that open ended rather than shoving it at the end felt forced and like a disservice to her character and her story.
I was also confused about her relationship with the Professor as when they were shopping together in the rain there were a few lines where it sounded like his children had a living mother. As in, a mother the professor was still with. Within that conversation it sounded like they were waiting for time to allow them to be together or something like they were waiting for his wife to die? Did I miss something or am i simply reading this wrong? I listened on audiobook while casually following along in my physical copy so maybe I got distracted at parts and am missing something.