Little Women.

I never read Louisa May Alcott’s classic, Little Women, as a teenager. All I knew about it was what I had seen in the movie years ago [which I loved as a teenager because I thought Christian Bale was dreamy]. In recent years, I also make Friends connections to Little Women. Joey reads the novel, trading his The Shining with Rachel, after first asking, “How little are these women?” When he starts to get sad -as one likely does while reading Little Women – he puts the book in the freezer.

I started reading it on the kindle because it was free and a classic and something I had never read. It started out a bit slow but then, suddenly, I found myself drawn in. I was hooked. In fact, there was one morning while I was on vacation that I read for a good three hours, unable to put it down because Beth was sick and Laurie about to propose his love to Jo. [“I’ve loved you ever since I’ve known you, Jo, couldn’t help it, you’ve been so good to me. I’ve tried to show it, but you wouldn’t let me; no, I’m going to make you hear, and give me an answer, for I can’t go on so any longer.”]

I think a lot of my attraction to the book is that I want to be Jo. Jo is the second oldest, brave, independent, speak-your-mind sister of the four. She’s a writer and dreams of a life of happiness instead of money. Jo doesn’t need money, though she’ll sell her hair in order to give money to those who need it. She goes off to New York, a new city, by herself and finds herself having adventure, meeting new friends, and learning much about who she is. We have similar views on potential futures of marriage [“An old maid, that’s what I’m to be. A literary spinster, with a pen for a spouse, a family of stories for children, and twenty years hence a morsel of fame, perhaps …”] until she meets her German professor. [I’ll keep looking for mine.] I’m simply fascinated by her character.

After I finished the book, I watched the movie again. It’s been years since I’d seen it and Emma gave it to me for Christmas. Foregoing book-to-movie comparisons, it’s as good as I remember. Theodore Lawrence is still pretty dreamy and it still bothers me how Amy is played by two different actresses [to show span of time I suppose] while the other three sisters are not.

Having read and loved Little Women, I wonder what other classic novels I’m missing out on. Recommendations? I might take this list to the next level – I’ve only read three of them. I downloaded Wuthering Heights today which only brings me to another Friends reference … you know, about the robots in the novel.