Take a photo of a barcode or cover
My rating is a 4.5. I love "Little Women," both the book and the movie. I read Pilgrim's Progress because it was referenced in Little Women. Finding a book that explores that world and characters was an unexpected gem.
I love the story of the father. His idealistic voice fit perfectly with my concept of the March's family. I also really enjoyed the events he struggles through. I was worried it would just be a war novel at the beginning in the sense of having battle after after battle. That was not the case at all. We see him struggle through a battle and then be reassigned to a plantation run by a northerner and worked by "contraband" or former slaves. I did wish he had stumbled with unknown bias as he worked with the former slaves. There are also wonderful flashbacks of his life with Marmee, how they meet, fall in love, and start a family as well as their struggles.
My biggest complaint and why this is not a pure five star review is the voice of Marmee. My childhood perception of her was the ideal mother, feisty yet refined, with passion but someone who has learned better how to function in the world. The Marmee in this novel is more flawed and less certain of her actions. If it had mostly been when she first met March when she was younger, that would have been fine. Yet her voice at the end of the novel, which would have coincided with Little Women, clashed too much with my image of that character that I have had in my thoughts since childhood.
I love the story of the father. His idealistic voice fit perfectly with my concept of the March's family. I also really enjoyed the events he struggles through. I was worried it would just be a war novel at the beginning in the sense of having battle after after battle. That was not the case at all. We see him struggle through a battle and then be reassigned to a plantation run by a northerner and worked by "contraband" or former slaves. I did wish he had stumbled with unknown bias as he worked with the former slaves. There are also wonderful flashbacks of his life with Marmee, how they meet, fall in love, and start a family as well as their struggles.
My biggest complaint and why this is not a pure five star review is the voice of Marmee. My childhood perception of her was the ideal mother, feisty yet refined, with passion but someone who has learned better how to function in the world. The Marmee in this novel is more flawed and less certain of her actions. If it had mostly been when she first met March when she was younger, that would have been fine. Yet her voice at the end of the novel, which would have coincided with Little Women, clashed too much with my image of that character that I have had in my thoughts since childhood.