A review by forstarrynights
Little Women Abroad: The Alcott Sisters' Letters from Europe, 1870-1871 by Daniel Shealy, Louisa May Alcott, May Alcott Nieriker

4.0

Rereading Little Women as an adult was a really fascinating endeavor. A lot of what I loved about it as a kid is still there — the beautifully crafted and thoughtful relationships all the March sisters have with each other and with Marmee, the ways they work at addressing their foibles, the playfulness and cheerfulness they share — but there's a lot that I didn't pick up on when I was 10. The book is steeped in 19th century New England protestantism and the Protestant Work Ethic and an extremely uncomfortable relationship with money and wealth. We had a lot of discussion about this in our book club that I don't think I'll rehash here, but it boiled down to it being okay to be rich, as long as you're the right kind of rich, but wanting to be rich or desiring material possessions is terrible. It's much better to be poor, as long as you're the right kind of poor (and ideally have rich friends and family to employ you/take you on trips/cover your emergency expenses/marry you).

Overall, while I really enjoyed this reread and I think a lot of the morals (and oh boy are there so many morals) are good, I've been struggling a lot with whether I'd encourage a hypothetical future child to read it. Probably 3.5 stars, graded up for nostalgia and because the stuff about working every day to be a good person really resonated with me and my worldview.