Little Women - L.M. Alcott

[goodreads]

Title: Little Women Author: L.M. Alcott Genre: Classics Rating: 9/10 # pages: Audiobook Date read: August 2008, April 2015

I've read LW many times, and still enjoy each reading of it. This was the first time I've heard it as an audiobook though, and that gave me a new appreciation of it as I find I'm often more likely to be touched by a book I know well if I listen to it rather than if I read it.

I'm one of the few who do not think Laurie and Jo belonged together, so that's never been a disappointment to me, but for the first time I believed the love growing between him and Amy. It's always seemed too convenient for me before, but I found some clues I hadn't seen before, which made it more real to me.

L.M. Alcott has a bad habit of putting morals into most of her books. LW isn't nearly as bad as Jack and Jill (where every chapter ended with a sermon of some kind - got old really fast), but worse than the Rose books.

Reread 2015 For once I have to downgrade my rating somewhat - I no longer feel like it deserves 5 stars. The morals / preaching is much too heavy handed for that, and there were passages I found myself skimming, when LMA got too wordy. Still, the good parts remain very, very good, and the sad parts still make me cry. This time around I especially loved Beth's poem - I don't remember being quite as touched by that in previous read-throughs.

Comments

[happymediocrity.livejournal.com]

I agree that Jo and Laurie didn't belong together. Jo and Professer Bhaer are perfect, though. :) Laurie and Amy are a good couple. They both have the same spirit and the kissing in the boat was very sweet.

I recently reread this too, and it was even better than when I first read it a few years ago. ^_^