Little Women by Louisa M. Alcott

Originally published 1868; this edition 1991

Publisher: Exart Pty Ltd

G

(L, D)

Minor Coarse Language

Minor Drug Use

Representations

Gender:

Almost all the characters are female, leading to thorough Bechdel-passing. Notions of ideal womanhood are strongly tied to self-denial and sacrifice for others, and duty. Jo struck me as rather delightfully genderqueer (at least), and very disappointed to see her praised for gradually losing this aspect of herself.

Sex:

Implicitly heterosexual only.

Race & Ethnicity:

When I read the book I had a strong suspicion their maid is black, but I did not notice any direct indication or acknowledgement of race or ethnicity, apart from some US-English rivalry in which the English characters unsurprisingly came off worse.

Disability, Physical Diversity and Health:

One character suffers a serious illness during the course of the story.

I was rather puzzled when I finished reading this (on New Year's Eve, at Sydney Harbour waiting for the fireworks), because much of what I had picked up about the book from popular culture did not seem to be present. A possible reason presented itself when I tried to add the book to my library on LibraryThing - despite claiming on the cover to be 'complete and unabridged', the copy I read was missing the sequel volume Good Wives, which seems to be pretty consistently packaged together as part of the same novel, to which further volumes are considered sequels. So, it could be that much of what I thought would happen actually takes place in that volume.

While I often enjoyed the characters and their interactions, and especially Jo, I don't think I'd like to read any further of this. The moral thread of the story was a bit too dissonant for me to want more.