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A review by sarieinsea
The Little House Collection: The Complete Little House Nine-Book Box Set by Laura Ingalls Wilder
4.0
This was a fascinating re-read. I hadn't read through this series since I was a kid, maybe early teenager? I can't even remember what inspired me to pick them up a few months ago, but it's been so incredibly interesting to revisit this. So, the first thing I'll say is that they're well written. LIW is very good at description, and these books are a LOT of descriptive prose. I appreciate her detailed and thorough recounting of a very specific time and place in history. I think the books have a lot of merit for that reason - if you want to know what life was like for the people who were settling on tribal lands in the later 19th century, this will show you just what it was like.
That said, it was hard to read in a lot of ways. It was hard to realize that Ma was hella, hella racist against the native Americans. Pa often came to their defense, but she never wavered in her steadfast hatred and fear of the people whose land she was helping to steal. Of course, no one in the books sees it that way. But it was hard to love Ma if I looked at her through the lens of everything I know now, so the only way to read it is to really try and put yourself in their shoes and see the situation through their eyes, misguided as they are.
Pa, too, is not quite as I remembered him. Turns out Pa has a major obsession with roaming, and he basically dragged his family all over hell and creation, through one disaster and hardship and on to the next, until Ma was finally like WE ARE NOT MOVING ANYMORE. Pa also was always, always barely just getting by, which I really didn't remember about these books. When Laura marries Almanzo and moves off to his claim, I got the sense that, okay, the rest of these Ingalls are gonna be struggling in perpetuity, but Laura's set.
Also, Almanzo. It now feels SUPER weird to me how he was portrayed in the TV show, all of which is completely ridiculous and idyllic now that I think about it. But Almanzo doesn't have a ton of personality in these books, and Laura is - at least initially - much more interested in his horses than in him, which makes sense because he's way older than she is, which is icky, but whatever, the TIMES, am I right? But yeah, the show. Calling him MANLY? Ugh! just uuuuugh. The last book in the series is basically just a series of Laura going for long drives with Almanzo and his horses, and detailed descriptions of her 3 dresses and hats. She seems happy at the end, though, bless her heart. I enjoyed that she insisted that the "promise to obey" line was taken out of their wedding vows, but was then disheartened when she reassures Almanzo that no, no, she isn't like his sister Eliza. She isn't for women's rights. She doesn't want to VOTE, lord no. She just doesn't want to promise to obey him. Sigh. It's a start, I guess.
I kind of don't want to go look up what happened to all the family members after the books end, because I have a feeling it'll be kind of depressing, and I'm definitely not going to revisit the television show. I feel like you could still give these books to kids for historical reasons, but you would really, really want to read along with them and give them some perspective on the history of what white settlers did to the native population in America, because you really just don't get a great sense of the full picture in these books. But you will come away with zero uncertainty about how Ma feels, I can promise you that.
That said, it was hard to read in a lot of ways. It was hard to realize that Ma was hella, hella racist against the native Americans. Pa often came to their defense, but she never wavered in her steadfast hatred and fear of the people whose land she was helping to steal. Of course, no one in the books sees it that way. But it was hard to love Ma if I looked at her through the lens of everything I know now, so the only way to read it is to really try and put yourself in their shoes and see the situation through their eyes, misguided as they are.
Pa, too, is not quite as I remembered him. Turns out Pa has a major obsession with roaming, and he basically dragged his family all over hell and creation, through one disaster and hardship and on to the next, until Ma was finally like WE ARE NOT MOVING ANYMORE. Pa also was always, always barely just getting by, which I really didn't remember about these books. When Laura marries Almanzo and moves off to his claim, I got the sense that, okay, the rest of these Ingalls are gonna be struggling in perpetuity, but Laura's set.
Also, Almanzo. It now feels SUPER weird to me how he was portrayed in the TV show, all of which is completely ridiculous and idyllic now that I think about it. But Almanzo doesn't have a ton of personality in these books, and Laura is - at least initially - much more interested in his horses than in him, which makes sense because he's way older than she is, which is icky, but whatever, the TIMES, am I right? But yeah, the show. Calling him MANLY? Ugh! just uuuuugh. The last book in the series is basically just a series of Laura going for long drives with Almanzo and his horses, and detailed descriptions of her 3 dresses and hats. She seems happy at the end, though, bless her heart. I enjoyed that she insisted that the "promise to obey" line was taken out of their wedding vows, but was then disheartened when she reassures Almanzo that no, no, she isn't like his sister Eliza. She isn't for women's rights. She doesn't want to VOTE, lord no. She just doesn't want to promise to obey him. Sigh. It's a start, I guess.
I kind of don't want to go look up what happened to all the family members after the books end, because I have a feeling it'll be kind of depressing, and I'm definitely not going to revisit the television show. I feel like you could still give these books to kids for historical reasons, but you would really, really want to read along with them and give them some perspective on the history of what white settlers did to the native population in America, because you really just don't get a great sense of the full picture in these books. But you will come away with zero uncertainty about how Ma feels, I can promise you that.