Louisa May Alcott said, “Some books are so familiar that reading them is like being home again,” and I’d affirm that about her books. Little Women was my touchstone in childhood, the book by which all others were judged.
Strangely enough, my parents didn’t often give us books, even though both were educators. (We did get many from aunts.) But one summer day they came home from Nashville and gave me a book they’d bought me for no particular reason—Little Women. I started on it right away, reading into the night. The next day was rainy and we couldn’t work in the garden, so I had some free time in the afternoon. I remember escaping my noisy younger brothers and going to the car to read.
The rain fell as did my tears when I read of Beth’s death. I kept re-reading the end of that chapter, hoping I’d misinterpreted. Even though Alcott included “she quietly drew her last,” she ended that the family “thanked God that Beth was well at last.” I clung to that phrase, but finally had to admit that the gentle Beth was dead. I was mad at Louise May Alcott for killing off her sweetest sister, but there it was.
That disappointment did not keep me from loving the book so much that over the next few years I re-read it again and again. For me, it was like “being home” again, even in days when I wasn’t crazy about being in my own home. I read the book eight times in all and don’t regret it. I related to Jo, her main character, who was much like Alcott herself.
Louisa May Alcott inspired me to be a writer. I read her biography and knew her book was based on her own life, more or less, and that she first started writing when she was very young. So I decided I’d start a novel, too. I wrote about four pages and realized what a gargantuan task it would be. I tucked it away then and threw it away years later. It wasn’t worth saving.
She was born on November 29, 1832, and lived only 55 years. Though in her books Jo fell in love and was happily married, as shown in Little Men and Jo’s Boys, the real Louisa May never married. That is the beauty of writing fiction; the writer can make life turn out as the reader wants it to, even if it is different from real life. She was acknowledged, however, in her time as an outstanding writer. A woman before her time, she was a feminist and abolitionist.
I’d read the book several times before I realized that it was set during the American Civil War! The mentions of why Father was away were vague and I, by then reading Gone with the Wind and other Civil War novels, hadn’t put the two together. Finally, when I read her biography, I saw clearly what I’d overlooked. I was so taken with the adventures of the teen-aged girls that I ignored the references to soldiers and war.
So if you’ve never read Little Women, I strongly recommend it. It’s a good read at any age. Maybe today it would be called a “chick book,” so maybe my recommendation should be mainly for women. (And seeing one of the many movies is NOT the same, in case you’re wondering.)
If you haven’t googled anything today, please do. The graphic honoring Louisa May Alcott is adorable.
I’m delighted that I still have my old, battered copy of Little Women by Louisa May Alcott. Have you ever re-read a book? What book holds sentimental value for you?





