What I’ve been reading: September

As I write this, it’s safe to say the rain has well and truly set in – happy autumn everybody! Whilst there’s many things I don’t like about a rainy October, one thing I do like is the chance to snuggle in to my little nest, listen to the rain on my skylight and settle in with my book. With that sentiment in mind, now seems like a perfect time to talk about September’s tried and tested favourite, Little Women.

I hold my hands up here and admit, I well and truly jumped on the bandwagon reading this now it’s a “major motion picture” for the second time. But, still, it’s a classic and there’s a reason they’ve made it into a movie not once, but twice, right?

If there is one word I’d use to describe this novel, though, it’s “nice”. I’m sure there are multiple levels Little Women can be read on. Female independence and agency, class struggles, Christian sentiment and probably a bunch of other stuff all play a massive role in the novel. However, unlike a lot of other literature that I’ve read, the messages aren’t exactly hard hitting, I guess because readers at the time probably wouldn’t have responded so well to out and out feminism. To me, Little Women was just a nice story about a family who love each other very much, and the ups and downs they face along the way.

I realise that this all sounds like a negative, but I can see why it’s a favourite with so many readers. It seems like the literary embodiment of that rainy afternoon, snuggling up with a blanket kind of feeling and that’s no bad thing.