I am not the target readership for Little Women, but ...

I'll take a moment to honor a classic in American literature that I'd never even tried to read, until yesterday, on its 150th anniversary: Louisa May Alcott's Little Women. To say that I am not and never was the target readership for this novel is to put it mildly. And, as expected, I'm not particularly engrossed by this domestic novel of 4 sisters and their inter-relationships, while father is off serving as a chaplain in the Civil War (all closely modeled on the events and wartime situation in the Alcott household in Concord). In fact, I'm completely uninterested in the agonies of choosing what to wear to the neighborhood dance and the niceties of beginning to make conversation with the intelligent and sickly boy next door. And yet: I can definitely see that why young women would be enthralled by much of this novel, in particular by the strong, outspoken lead character, Jo. And I can see that some of the scenes that read awkwardly would translate well into film - e.g., Jo dishing about the fatherly figure living next door while he stands in the doorway unnoticed; the neighbor boy, Laurie (!), playing the piano - and in fact I remember enjoying the movie when I was a kid (2 hours v 700 pp. is quite a difference). what gives the novel its backbone is the wartime setting, so, unlike so many other domestic novels of the 18th and 19th centuries, we see a family truly struggling with financial hardship, need for female self-reliance and independence, responsibility to others, including the impoverished and the men far away at war. (There have been other novels telling the Alcott tale from the POV of the father in service.) Inevitably, Little Women gets compared w/ Austen's work, esp the obvious multi-sororal Pride and Prejudice, and just as inevitably Alcott loses in the comparison (nothing to be ashamed of there), as Austen's with and her occasional narrative asides are far more subtle and nuanced: the Bennett sisters cannot be so easily typecast and labeled - but Alcott holds her own and LW has stood up well over time, esp in comparison w/ the little-read work of most of her once-famous contemporaries (e.g. HB Stowe). I'll give it one more go at least.