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This is a spoiler FREE review!
While I enjoy modern classics, I have a hard time convincing myself to read classic, classics. I find myself easily bored by much of the language and uninterested in the lengthy plots. This is something that I am trying to change.
I received a beautiful edition of Little Women for my 10th Birthday and just haven’t ever had the motivation to read the hundreds of pages. Instead, I put it off and I put it off and gradually it slipped further and further down my TBR list. That was until the BBC did a television series on Little Women. While I’m not one for watching the film before you’ve read the book, this did encourage me to pick the novel up as I finished my current read when I got halfway through the final episode in the BBC series. A month later and here we are.
Even once I started, It took me a while to read Little Women. Furious at myself for having taken an entire month to read one book, I forced myself to read the final 20% in one evening. At 02:30AM, about to give up, 5 pages from the end, I willed myself on and very sleepily, turned the final page and read the final lines. It was not that I didn’t like the storyline or that I didn’t get on well with the characters, I just found that I enjoyed some parts of the plot much more than others so I had some slow moments with it.
If, like me, you find classics a bit unreachable, I’d say Little Women is a nice one to start with. It’s not the shortest book in the world, but the language is very accessible as it was aimed as a children’s book. Yes, a children’s book written in the 1800s, but still a children’s book. Even if things have to be hard, it’s better if they’re a tiny bit easier, right? That’s not to say the writing is simple. In fact, some pieces are so beautifully written that I read them several times over. I am a sucker for words and this novel did not disappoint. Here’s an example:
“There are many Beths in the world, shy and quiet, sitting in corners till needed, and living for others so cheerfully that no one sees the sacrifices till the little cricket on the hearth stops chirping, and the sweet, sunshiny presence vanishes, leaving silence and shadow behind.”
This sentence also gives a little hint towards the sadder parts of the novel. Notably one in particular (which I won’t give any details on as this is a spoiler-free review) which, if you’ve read the book, trust me: you would know of it. I do not often cry in books but oh my goodness; I cried twice in ‘Little Women’. I don’t mean a sniff or two. I mean full on tears streaming down my face silently while I’m sitting in public transport or at the dinner table. What did I say? I like words, okay?
Unlike the movie of the book City of Bones by Cassandra Clare, watching the television series did not detract from my opinions of the book. I actually think that because I think of the book as I write this, the fact that I read the book after the TV series, that the book is the one that stuck with me instead of the TV sereis. This is as opposed to when I read City of Bones before watching the movie and I had the movie fresh in my mind when I was writing up the review for the novel. I wouldn’t put people off watching the TV series, I’d just say keep an open mind if you watch it and always remember the novel came before the Television.
Apparently, every girl who reads Little Women identifies herself to one of the four sisters. I’m not so sure but in case you want to know me better, according to close friends and family, I am a Jo crossed with a Meg with some Beth in me, not much Amy, though. I am also told that the depictions of the relationship between sisters is very realistic. As I do not have a sister myself I cannot completely vouch for this but I believe the family dynamics work well so it is likely to be accurate. I also appreciated how different the sisters were and I enjoyed getting a peak into their lives as adults with families at the very end of the novel.
I gave ‘Little Women’ a rating of ☆☆☆☆.5/5 stars. Even though this is the same rating that I gave The Alchemist; I had very different issues with each book. I largely enjoyed ‘Little Wome’ but I wouldn’t say it was one of my favourite books ever but it’s always nice for a book to bring you to tears… I guess…
XO
jemimaslife 