Date: 23 October 2016
Location: Joyce
About a dozen Bookers convened on a beautiful fall Sunday to discuss the classic novel Little Women. Six of us read, or re-read, the coming-of-age story of Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy which is set in a small New England town in the 1860s. I believe that all the female Bookers had previously read the book at least once while growing up, and it appears that none of the men had read it before.
The novel is recognized as a semi-autobiographical work based on Louisa May Alcott’s own life growing up in Concord, MA. She had three sisters and her family was actually quite poor, probably worse off than the March family of the novel. Alcott is most closely associated with the second oldest of the sisters, the tomboy Jo, who was the writer of the four sisters. It is interesting to note that, in the novel, Jo wrote trashy stories to earn money and felt slightly guilty about it. Apparently, Alcott herself wrote as many as 30 “sensational” novels under the pseudonym A.M. Barnard; and this was kept secret, especially after the financial success of Little Women and her later works based on the same characters.
Several of us found Little Women to be something of a slog to get through. Alcott’s writing style was not that appealing to most of us, and the book was a little too moralistic, maybe even preachy. However, you can’t argue with its enduring success. For over 150 years it has been read and loved by generations of girls and young women. It has been published in numerous editions for readers of all ages, and there have been several movies and even a Broadway musical based on the novel. It has become part of our literary and cultural heritage and can be appreciated for that fact alone.
— Bob