Little Women is 150 years old this
year. It's a much loved book, never out of print and filmed repeatedly, but sometimes dismissed as
"only" a children's book, a girls book, a family story. Among the
gifted people who would disagree with that are Susan Sontag, Doris Lessing, JK
Rowling , Gloria Steinem and at least two of the Ephron sisters. AND Simone de Beauvoir.
It's
been fun for a life-long fan like me to read the many thoughtful articles
being published this summer. (I’ll attach some links at the end)
Myself? I
read Little Women for the first time
when I was much too young and certainly didn’t understand a lot of it. Someone
had brought it as a gift, so I picked it up and found I could read it. So I
did. I was seven; it took me a month. And I was captivated forever. For me, then, the book was
telling the story the way it happened, so I was never one of the legions of girls
who were shocked that Jo did not marry Laurie. I’m not entirely sure I understood there
was even a person who was making it up. The sisters were real people to me, more real than anyone I knew. And I’m sure I thought I was the same age as Jo. The
honest talk about how to live life, and grow as a person, was thrilling and inspiring.
I read it again and again throughout my
childhood, as well as all the other Alcott books. Of course I have known for a long
time that the March family was – and was not- the Alcotts, and Jo was – and was
not- Louisa. Their life in Concord was - and definitely was not - the life of the Alcotts. It’s far more complicated and interesting than any child would
understand. Ideas about why Little Women matters have changed over the decades,
too, a fascinating window on changing times and changing ideas about girls.
Isn’t
one of the definitions of a classic is that as you re-read it with more
maturity, it too seems to deepen? That there is always more to find? I was lucky
to grow up with the March girls.
And a PS, for what it's worth, my favorite filmed Jo is
Katherine Hepburn, but my favorite movie of Little
Women overall is the 1994
version with Winona Ryder. And I really do believe Alcott gave Jo the perfect life partner.
Some recent articles:
