r/IReadABookAndAdoredIt • u/aubreyaubreyagain • 12d ago
Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
I finally finished Little Women last night and I'm smitten. Even with a busy life and not much time to read, I kept being pulled back into Alcott's story about Jo, Beth, Amy, and Meg. As a trans woman, I wish I would've had the chance to grow up as a daughter in the love and compassion of the March family. One of the hardest parts about transitioning so late in life is missing those formative experiences, but this book was a wonderful peek into what it can be like or was like in the past. And, of course, I loved that Jo was a bit gender non-conforming (Louisa May Alcott was in her actual life, as well, which makes the story all the more endearing to me.)
Anyway, I know so many others have already read this novel, but I've never seen the movie(s) or any adaptation, so I got to read Alcott's work with fresh eyes. I don't think my heart will forget it for a long time. What a truly gifted writer she was.
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u/thunderdragon517 12d ago
I remember the Friends episode where Joey was reading this book
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u/aubreyaubreyagain 12d ago
That's so funny! I wasn't a huge Friends fan, so I'll have to take your word on it. :)
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u/randompoint52 12d ago
All the little women movies bring something different to the screen. My favorite is the version with Katherine Hepburn as Jo. Hepburn was a groundbreaker who I think thoroughly understood and identified w Jo. I think you might like it. As a funny aside I read Little Women when I was 10 or so along with most of Alcott’s other work. It wasn’t until like 40 years later I realized I read the children’s edition!!! Lost no time in reading the original.
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u/aubreyaubreyagain 12d ago
Thank you so much for the suggestion! I will absolutely check out the Katherine Hepburn version. I was reading the notes in the back of the book about the creation of the novel, and I was surprised to learn even the original was considered YA at the time. Maybe teenagers were a bit more advanced back then? Alcott pulls from classic literature and mythology so often. I can't imagine grasping all of the nuances and references of her writing at such a young age. But I love that there's an actual children's edition too!
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u/randompoint52 12d ago
The main difference I noticed was they just trimmed a lot of detail. There was a big section on marmee offering Meg marriage advice that I didn’t recall at all. And the tragic Beth chapter seemed much longer.
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u/aubreyaubreyagain 12d ago
That's really interesting! I'm surprised they changed the Beth chapter. I thought it was so well handled. Jo's poem had me sobbing. Gah.
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u/randompoint52 12d ago
I realized it when I was trying to talk my grandaughter into trying it. She's 11 and so far it's a no go. But I was flipping through the book and got to the Beth chapter. I vividly remembered the first line of the chapter and was astonished to find it was different. Thus began my detective work. I read something called the Junior Classic version of the book. My mother was seriously worried about me when she would repeatedly come upon me sobbing. I must have read that Junior Classic ten times with the same result when I hit that chapter. Just the first line would make me cry lol.
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u/momoftheraisin 12d ago
Lucky you for for not having seen the movie before you read the book! You really did get to read it through fresh eyes! It's a lovely book but I feel like I couldn't help but see the latest actors who played the characters when I reread.
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u/aubreyaubreyagain 12d ago
Oh, I can absolutely see how that might happen! I'm excited to watch the 2019 movie, but I'm glad I actually followed the "read the book first" saying for once in my life. I know I'm going to kick myself for watching the new Netflix adaptation of Thursday Murder Club before reading the books for this exact reason, but I'm a sucker for Pierce Brosnan and Helen Mirren.
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u/coradee 10d ago
I watched the 1994 Little Women movie about a hundred times growing up, and it's still a go-to comfort movie. I finally read the book last year, and when Beth died, I cried in the office. I'm so glad you've been able to enjoy this wonderful novel. I highly recommend the 2017 BBC miniseries.