Little Women

Jo Bryant
Thr first copy I ever owned of Little Women…I still have it.

This was a childhood favourite.

Maybe because my own world was a little topsy turvy did it seems the the world of the March’s was a lovley place to inhabit.

Their trials were there for sure…but the loving unit they presented…it seemed a magical place to inhabit to me.

So it was with great expectations that I opened the first page.

By page two I knew I was in trouble.

A more detailed version.

The characters are still great. I still adore Jo, Beth, Meg and Amy. Mr Lawrence still makes me smile…but.

Perhaps because I am now an adult and cynical the truly GOOD parts of the book seem a little fanciful to me now.

The women I know marry the rich guy and end up bitter and twisted. A beloved sister dying doesn’t open up the writer’s soul in another but sends her in to a drunken spiral.

Yet I was not giving up. Tempted as I was to return to reading the “The Dead Sea Scrolls Deception” I persisted.

Somewhere around Amy falling in to the icy pond and Mr Lawrence delivering his dead daughter’s piano to Beth it began.

The magic.

The March’s world settled lightly upon my mind and its tendrils wound their way in to my soul once more and I remembered.

I struggled with the girls as they tried to be selfless. I understood their questions about what their places in their world meant to them and to others. My heart grasped their great love for their parents and the drive to win their love and approval.

I relearned some old lessons. Not to give up too easily. To search for the shadowy nuances that they can reveal themselves to you. I remembered that there is good everywhere if we push aside the curtain to reveal it to ourselves.

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Thank you for all your support.

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Published by Jo Bryant

I was born in the land of Banjo Paterson, gum trees, and weather extremes. I am a freelance photographer. I love to make images that make people happy. To capture forever a precious moment. I am also a freelance writer/editor. I live in the Bay of Plenty, New Zealand, but still like to claim my Australian heritage. I graduated with a Bachelor of Communications in 2008. I am writing my first novel. I love to write poetry, short stories, and also write for the web. And there is nothing that is on a par with a sunny summer's day spent at Waihi Beach.

29 Comments

  1. Yes, it was wonderful and also I remember I watched a television series based on this book… No one writes something like that anymore… Thank you dear Jo, you took me my memories too… ıt is amazing, from now, 20th April 2012 to the past,.. With my love, nia

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  3. I agree. The beginning of the book, when they are still children seems a little to saccharine to me. But once they start growing up and falling in love and having real problems that magic came back.

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  5. I love this story. Each Christmas, I watch the movie. I’m not sure why since it always makes me cry. This novel is on my list, but I haven’t read it recently. I’m glad you ended up enjoying it–there’s hope for me 🙂 Last year I visited the home where she wrote the story. That was fun.

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      3. I loved it and even sexy Christian Bale played in it…and of course I love Wynona Rhyder. I remember her from Beetlejuice..heheheh

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        1. Ahhhhhhhhhh…Beetlejuice…how I love that movie. it has another favourite of mine – Michael Keaton. The only other man who made anything of the Batman role.

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  7. Hi Jo.. seems you and I read the same books. when I was young. 🙂 read those on your list too.. Little Women always a favourite as was Rebeca Another book too Tom Sawyer, and Uncle Ben’s Cabin! ,, well that last one was my brothers, lol, but I got my hands on it. :-)..
    Enjoy your weekend. Hugs xx Sue

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    1. I think I remember a sob or two when I first read it…who could hold back the tears at Beth’s death. Not even Joey from Friends was immune.

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  9. “I remembered that there is good everywhere if we push aside the curtain to reveal it to ourselves.”

    That is my greatest challenge in life.

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  10. Great post JO. It is so interesting to go back and read a book that meant a lot to us and see it in a different light. I do think that sometimes books affect us different ways depending on where we are in our lives. Sorry to seem so serious after all the humor above! I loved the book too…as well as the Jane Austen books and Wuthering Heights!

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    1. It has been fun so far to delve back in to these old favourites. I am a hopeless Jane Austen fan…love all her work and Wuthering Heights is way up there in being one of my favourite books of all times.

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