Now, more than 160 years after publication, this book is about to be made into ANOTHER Major Motion Picture.
The latest movie stars Saoirse Ronan, Emma Watson, Florence Pugh, Timothée Chalamet, Meryl Streep and Laura Dern. The movie is in the can but is not scheduled to be released until December 25, 2019.
The book has been adapted previously for cinema; twice as silent film and four times with sound in 1933, 1949, 1978 and 1994. Six television series were made, including four by the BBC--1950, 1958, 1970, and 2017. The 2017 BBC series was supported by PBS, and aired in 2018 as part of the Masterpiece anthology. A musical version opened on Broadway in 2005. An American opera version in 1998 was performed internationally and filmed for broadcast on US television in 2001.
What makes this book so popular?
The four girls are 16, 15, 13 and 12 when the book starts. It seems the girls love their mother and want to protect her. Is this the natural condition? Do not girls usually fight with their mothers through their teen age years.
In America all girls of a certain age have read Little Women. Now, we are able to reach countries in Eastern Europe and Asia where the little girls grew up without having had the opportunity to read Little Women. Imagine that!
There is an increased tendency among some publishers to print books with excessively small type so you need to use a magnifying glass to read the book. We are trying to go in the opposite direction, providing a book in large print that is easier to read.
Four teenaged sisters and their mother, Marmee, live in a new neighborhood based in genteel poverty. Having lost all his money, their father is acting as a pastor, miles from home, involved in the American Civil War. The women face their first Christmas without him.
