Author : Louisa May Alcott

Genre : coming of age novel, Bildungsroman

Edition : I've read this novel on Internet (the link of the entire story is here)

First publication : 1868

Summary :                                                        During the Civil War, four daughters : Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy March waited and prayed their father who was on the front to went back home as quickly as possible. The war ravaged a lot of towns, including Gettysburg, where the family lived. So the little women and their mother moved to Newcord, hoping for a better life far from the war, for better for worse, between wealth and poverty.

— My opinion —

★ ★ ★ ★

Written by Louisa May Alcott (from now on L. M. A), it is her well-known novel she had written, known a huge success and is remaining famous today, in literature for young teenagers.

I have discovered the first Japanese cartoon adaptation for television for few years ago in French, when I was 10 and I really enjoyed this. So I have decided to read Little Women many years later, firstly in French to understand how it's narrated and then in English. Honestly, I have some difficulties to read the whole story because of the vocabulary — it was the first book I have read in English — even if I know well all the story. The writer knew for who she wrote this novel, it remains accessible for children.

So, what is the story before the Civil War in the USA ? Margaret (Meg), Josephine (Jo), Elizabeth (Beth) and Amy March lived in the little town of Gettysburg, in Pennsylvania. Their father was an officer, went into the battle, and he must leave his family : his four “little women” as he liked calling them, his wife Mary who helped soldiers during the war and Hannah, their servant for years ago. The entire family descended from the aristocracy, they were wealthy, lacked nothing and had a big house. But when the battle break out, the entire family settled to Concord. They stayed for a few time in their aunt, hoping to find a new home to start over a new life, accept that life is being up and down, accept that we can't have all the things we want. And the story begins here, at Christmas day, when daughters find and buy presents, giving them to their mother.

The world is made of injustices, it is always true in our time like in their time too. Each character knows helping people in need is very important ; solidarity is the word I remind when I have read Little Women. The four daughters are very different but very similar at the same time, moreover it's impossible to dislike them or one of them because each of them have the same qualities : kindness, generosity and devotion. They are simply endearing. I know many readers of this novel could have his favorite ; mine is Jo — like a lot of readers — because we have the same interests and the same view of life, I really appreciate her behavior, especially her courage and her determination. She looks like L. M. A, inspired by her, who wanted, at the same time during the writing of Little Women, to describe her life with her siblings.

Little Women illustrates well how life was, in a country ravaged by the war. The writer immerses us in the life's conditions of people who looked to escape battles, diseases, destruction and death, so L. M. A takes a distance with that. So, don't wait to find entire descriptions of these battles, we read the story of the family, we look them grow and evolve ; before and after. I would recommend this novel for people who like classical literature, discover new genres he/she never read before, except if you prefer adventure novels or thrillers, please go your way. This novel doesn't be liked by everyone I know, but it can be a book we like to read again after months, or years.

With a distance — of the History, the War and politics — impartiality without brutalizing her characters, with a realistic narration and without flourishes, L. M. A knew perfectly unite her imagination and the reality, to serve a philosophical moral : “Live with what you have, rather than live with what you want to have and don't have.”

— written by Julie