I think Good Wives, the sequel to Little Women, was the first classic novel I ever read. I was seven years old, and I read it in excellent and unabridged Greek translation. I was obsessed with literature since before I could read (I would open books and sit somewhere pretending to read). Thus, I read novels as soon as possible, which for me was the age of seven.
Though I was small and had no idea of sequels or prequels, I sensed that Good Wives was a second book; I sensed that there was an earlier, first, book I did not have. Also, Good Wives was the novel which introduced me to the big, wide world. Reading, I realized that there was a huge and rich world out there, beyond the small place in which I lived. I was fascinated with the artists Amy March admired, with the places she went to, and intrigued with the writers and poets Jo March read.
Nowadays, I think there are many problems with Little Women and Good Wives, e.g. that they all have to marry or die, that Jo never pursues her talents, that Meg's so-called vanity (i.e. love of fashion and lifestyle) has to be quenched and so forth. I do not think that it is a feminist novel, unless this is in a (very) indirect manner.
My favorite little woman was Amy March, and I will say more about her in another post!
I still like the two novels, because they are well-written, honest and lively, whatever their problems. I am looking forward to my Christmas gift. Though decades have passed, and I am not a child anymore (except at heart), Good Wives still has, for me, the mystique of the childhood age, and the pull and mystery of a huge, wide world beyond the everyday and the ordinary.
Little Women famously begins at Christmas, at a particularly tough time for the March family. There are tough enough times in every life; for me, the opening of the novel has something of the universal and true. Have a happy season holiday wherever you are, with beauty always with you!
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