Little Women - love or hate?

I am just reading, or rather, listening to "Little Women". I remember that some of you loved it, while others despised it, so I thought I'd make a poll out of this.

I personally love the story and the characters, although I am now reading it for the first time - I've known one of the movie versions for quite some time, and always loved that, so I wanted to give the novel a shot. Why do you love/like/hate it?

While I'm forced to admit that Little Women is a well-constructed, interesting and well-written piece of work, it just doesn't click for me. Most of the characters irritate the heck out of me. Beth, with all her redeeming qualities, is a pushover and nearly kills herself because she doesn't want to worry anyone. Jo is usually big-hearted, but can be snobby and hard when the mood strikes her.(for the record, Beth and Jo are my favorites) Meg whines a lot about money, makes a free choice to marry a not-wealthy guy, and spends his money on sprees. Amy is preoccupied with one-upping her classmates, obsessing over her blonde hair, and her oh-so-ugly nose.

Not to negate anyone who likes it. Just isn't my cup of tea. To me, it's a bit of a forerunner of chicklit.

Jewels wrote:

While I'm forced to admit that Little Women is a well-constructed, interesting and well-written piece of work, it just doesn't click for me. Most of the characters irritate the heck out of me. Beth, with all her redeeming qualities, is a pushover and nearly kills herself because she doesn't want to worry anyone. Jo is usually big-hearted, but can be snobby and hard when the mood strikes her.(for the record, Beth and Jo are my favorites) Meg whines a lot about money, makes a free choice to marry a not-wealthy guy, and spends his money on sprees. Amy is preoccupied with one-upping her classmates, obsessing over her blonde hair, and her oh-so-ugly nose.

Not to negate anyone who likes it. Just isn't my cup of tea. To me, it's a bit of a forerunner of chicklit.

I agree that some of the characters are a little challenging at first. But I think that this is what it's all about - they are still growing up, and they have genuine flaws.

On second thoughts, I exclude Amy from the above. She is an annoying little brat, and way too spoiled for the circumstances they live in.

I hated it. It bored me to death. I found that there was so little in there to keep me reading, that 6 times I tried and failed to finish it. It's just not my thing I guess. I didn't find any of the characters that wonderful and the story line itself was lacking, in my opinion.

Ironically, I love the sequal, Little Men. Maybe because it's not really about Jo and the rest of the March sisters.

I started on it about a year ago and somehow forgot. Never finished it. I think I left the book in Manila. I remember it bored me to tears.

I didn't care too much about Little Women (meaning, I didn't mind either way), but I liked Little Wives. Both have excellent characters, and it was nice to see their lives come together in the end, with them overcoming many of their flaws.

Rhea wrote:

I didn't care too much about Little Women (meaning, I didn't mind either way), but I liked Little Wives. Both have excellent characters, and it was nice to see their lives come together in the end, with them overcoming many of their flaws.

I don't know yet if I'll read any of her other works. But if you say it's good, maybe I'll have a look - my Christmas list is growing already

Laura wrote:

Rhea wrote:

I didn't care too much about Little Women (meaning, I didn't mind either way), but I liked Little Wives. Both have excellent characters, and it was nice to see their lives come together in the end, with them overcoming many of their flaws.

I don't know yet if I'll read any of her other works. But if you say it's good, maybe I'll have a look - my Christmas list is growing already

Little Wives is usually part of the same volume as Little Women, and it's often called Little Women: Part II. The characters are the same, but from up there it sounded like they weren't; sorry about that.

I read this book when I was very young, so I can't say I remember the writing too well. I do remember hating all of the characters, especially Beth. I was laughing inwardly when she died. I liked Jo, but I think that's because she was the prettiest on the cover of the book. Again, I was really young when I read this. I should probably try again before judging it too harshly.

I've read Little Wives. The characters sort of continue their lives from the point where Meg accepts John Brooke's proposal.