Quote:
Originally Posted by Victoria
issybird I have to ask, because I’ve followed your discussion with Catlady regarding movies and books about Little Women in another thread. Have you reread it, and was it able to survive the test of time?
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Wow, I’ve been thinking about this since you posted and I could go on and on, so people should feel free to skip my witterings here.
The short answer is no, I haven’t reread it. As with
Anne, I don’t need to; I read it so many times as a girl. Also as with
Anne, I’m aware of issues I now have with the text, so it’s probably just as well I don’t revisit.
The basic outlines and issues in the two books have a lot of similarities. Although
Anne is a generation later, both feature feisty surrogate heroines with literary ambitions. Admittedly,
Little Women is more serious and much grimmer and doesn’t have the laughs or cheery outlook. I don’t want to be too spoilery for those who will go on with Anne, but ultimately both Jo and Anne are broken by societal expectations and the imposed need to be “good”; for which read selfless and subsuming their personalities to a man’s ambition and woman’s destiny as a wife and mother. Faugh!
And yet when I read them, I was able to take what I needed from them, about being true to yourself and wanting to be in charge of your own destiny. There weren’t a lot of serious girls’ books which provided that same “scope for imagination.” So I know I’m better off not reading about how Professor Bhaer humiliated Jo and destroyed her confidence and kept her from what was turning into a lucrative career (and she needed the money as she supported her family!) and
Jo married him anyway.