[DeepL Translation - needs review] In the mid-19th century, in rural America, there was a family of four sisters and a kind mother who took care of them in the absence of their father, who was away at war. Meg, the beautiful and intelligent eldest, Jo, the wild and fanciful second daughter, Beth, the shy and gentle third sister, and Amy, the lovely and dreamy fourth sister. This is Ms. Olcott's autobiographical masterpiece novel that beautifully depicts how these four sisters, who are poor b...
Excellent translation of a classic!
I came here after watching the (loosely based on this novel) 愛の若草物語 - and what an incredible read this was! The grammar was rather hard for me in places, so I had to read it alongside the original English - which proved very enlightening, and I often found the translation clearer than the antiquated writing style of the original. Interestingly that old timey feel did not carry over to this book - the style is very different than say the shoujo fiction of the early 20th Century (Yoshiya Nobuko, 乙女の港, etc), since this is a 2014 translation. One thing I really loved was the different speech styles of various characters.
The characters are all lovely and balanced, tho sometimes the family even borders on being a bit too innocent & idyllic. But even then, you get to see them make all kinds of mistakes and learn & grow from them. At first the chapters felt a bit too self-contained, but as the book went on, it was clear that later developments in the book related to progress from earlier chapters.
It's a very heartwarming set of stories about a formerly well-off, now lower middle class family, who do their best to be virtuous people in & outside of the home, as they miss their father - who is off fighting in the Civil War. The cast is made up of their pious & loving mother, their maid Hannah, prim and proper eldest sister Meg, tomboy Jo, shy Beth, childish Amy, and their wealthy but cranky aunt - along with their half-Italian neighbor Laurie, his grandfather, and Laurie's tutor Mr. Brooks. There's some really beautiful friendship and adventures, and even some eventual romance mixed in. While the characters are all relatable to some degree, I found Jo & Laurie really stole the spotlight, and I can relate to Jo very much.
Anyway there's so much to learn and appreciate in this book. A lot of it is very 教訓/訓話 (but not oppressively so), and it's easy to see why its first translation 小婦人 was a formative influence on shoujo culture, and why it's still so popular over a century later!