Women's Lives and Relationships (Classic) Annotation - Little Women

Author: Louisa May Alcott

Title: Little Women

Genre: Fiction, Historical Fiction, Women's Lives and Relationships

Publication Date: 1968/1969

Number of Pages: 512

Geographical Setting: New England

Time Period: The second half of the 19th century

Series: Book 1 of the Little Women series

Plot Summary:  Little Women is a young woman's answer to the typical coming of age story. It revolves around the lives of four sisters: Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy, and is set during the American Civil War. With the absence of their father, who is away serving as a minister to the troops, they all struggle to figure out who they are and how they fit into their family. Gently supported by their mother, Marmee, they struggle to grow up as they try to make ends meet. Their struggles and adventures are helped along by their kind and wealthy neighbor, Mr. Laurence, and his high spirited grandson Laurie.

 

Subject Headings: 

 March Family

Nineteenth Century

Sisters/young women/girls --New England -- History -- 19th century

 

Appeal: 

Character Driven

Family Saga

Feel-good

Moving

Similar Authors and Works: 

  

Little Women is book 1 out of 4 and all the rest are well worth reading. In order they are:

• Good Wives
• Little Men: Life at Plumfield with Jo's Boys
• Jo's Boys: and how they turned out

 

•   The Penderwicks - Jeanne Birdsall -- While vacationing with their widowed father in the Berkshire Mountains, four lovable sisters, ages four through twelve, share adventures with a local boy, much to the dismay of his snobbish mother.

 

• Dragons of Silk - Laurence Yep --  The last book in a series, this book tells the story of four generations of Chinese and Chinese-American girls that are all bound together by the family tradition of raising silkworms.

• The Five Little Peppers and How They Grew - Margaret Sidney -- Book 1 in a series, it tells the story of the widowed Mrs. Peppers and her five children. The book follows the struggles they face as they try to keep fed and clothed, etc, but also the great love they have for each other as a family. Any of the books in this series would be a great read-alike

 

Other notes: On the one hand this isn't the type of book I usually read. There is no splash of magic. There are no space battles. It is the simple story of four sisters and how they go about balancing the needs of their family with their own need to grow up and find themselves. But at the same time, it is very similar to what I read in that it is a detailed, realistic, character driven novel. I think that was what made me love it as a child and what still makes me love it today.

On a totally different note, however, there was something I noticed when rereading this book as a fully grown adult with other concerns besides simply if I like the story and characters or not. In a lot of ways that my fantasy and SciFi books are not, this book is easy to read. It's relaxing. Because I don't have to sit here and wonder if this novel is going to pass the Bechdel Test. I don't have to take a second and cringe because the main female character has just done something completely stereotypical and dumb because OF COURSE the main male character has to be allowed to save her dramatically at least once. How else is she supposed to go from hating him to falling in love with him? Honestly, Women's Lives and Relationships is a genre I kind of wish didn't exist because I wish it didn't need to exist. Because it makes it feel like, well if all the women's stories are in this genre, then all of the other genres are mostly going to be men's stories and that sucks.