Give them all of my dear love and a kiss. Tell them I think of them by day, pray for them by night, and find my best comfort in their affection at all times. A year seems very long to wait before I see them, but remind them that while we wait we may all work, so that these hard days need not be wasted. I know they will remember all I said to them, that they will be loving children to you, will do their duty faithfully, fight their bosom enemies bravely, and conquer themselves so beautifully that when I come back to them I may be fonder and prouder than ever of my little women.Yes, Little Women might be old-fashioned and sentimental, but what Mark Twain did for little boys with Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn, Louisa May Alcott has surely done for little girls here with Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy March: captured a passed moment in time with all of its prejudices, duties, and customs. Alcott had been pressured by her publisher into writing Little Women, and with her heart not in the project, she hurriedly wrote out several chapters that even she found dull. It was apparently a huge surprise, therefore, when young girls found it "splendid" and clamoured for sequels; surely the girls of the time are the best judges of the truth held between the covers.
I first read Little Women when young myself, but it didn't leave a lasting impression (I only remembered Jo selling her hair and Beth's illnesses. I might have read an abridged, juvenile version?). This time, I found many parts hilarious, I was repeatedly touched by scenes between the girls and their Marmee, and was brought to tears by the reunion with their father (and while I knew he had been off at the Civil War, I didn't remember he had served as a chaplain and that rather changes my perspective on the religious tone of the family home). I thoroughly enjoyed Little Women this time around and respect it as a slightly idealised and romantic historical record.
Now and then, in this workaday world, things do happen in the delightful storybook fashion, and what a comfort that is.
I reread Little Women in order to remind myself of the story in case I soon get around to reading Geraldine Brooks' March; the Pulitzer Prize winning account of the March girls' father's time at war. I truly thought that was the end goal, but am delighted to have gotten better acquainted with the little women themselves.
