With our hectic lives and all of the new books that we are trying to keep on top of, we can often forget about the classics, those books that we loved to re-visit or the books that we just haven’t got to quite yet. Every week, we pick a classic book of the week that is a favourite of ours in the office. This week, we will be looking at the classic, Little Women.
“I’ve got the key to my castle in the air, but whether I can unlock the door remains to be seen.”
Written by Louisa May Alcott and originally published in 1868 as two separate parts, the first copies of Little Women sold out rapidly. One of the most widely read books of all time, Little Women is often credited, by both its critics and supporters, for influencing womens’ positions, challenging the roles that women hold in society and discussing quite openly women’s rights. The book often makes it into the Top 100 lists for best read and has been listed as a best read for children by teachers by BBC. The second volume of Little Women sold an astonishing 50,00 copies before it was even published!
Revolving around four sisters Meg, Jo, Beth and little Amy, Little Women examines the four girls lives at various stages after their father goes off to become a Civil War hero. The girls themselves are based on figures from Alcott’s life, with the author associating herself most with the character of Jo. The girls, along with their mother, face various trials and tribulations while trying to survive during wartime. However, the real story that everyone clung on to was the love story between Jo and their next door neighbour, Laurie.
Little Women is a glorious read, sometimes so sad you actually want to curl up in a ball and cry, uplifting, dramatic but most of all, endearing. If you haven’t read this before it is certainly one of the classics of modern literature, if you have, we’re pretty sure that you will have read it more than once. These are no normal women of the time, they think for themselves, they are ambitious and they break social conventions to a certain extent. Looking back now, this is hard to believe, but at the time, Little Women would have been slightly shocking in its approach.
And that loss? Well, it will just floor you!
