Cossette and I are huge fans of Little Women — she’s the Amy to my Jo, and since we’ve both been on a Little Women kick recently (but when are we not), we decided to team up once again to work on a Little Women comparison post! There are mild spoilers for Little Women below, so please proceed with caution!
Little Women (1869) by Louisa May Alcott
Caitlyn:
Reading the original novel honestly feels like coming home. There is something so comforting about the March family and their daily lives. I think that nowadays we can get so caught up in all these big action sequences and flashy gimmicks that we lose sight of what truly matters. Reading about a family who truly and genuinely cares about one another is just such a comfort that I really miss in modern day literature. I always love my time with the March family and find myself wanting to stay in Concord as long as I possibly can.
Cossette:
Little Women is one of the more impressionable books from my childhood, and I can truly attribute my love of reading to it. As an only child, I loved reading about the March family, and the sisterly bond and deep love that the sisters have for one another. I feel like a lot of books that I read don’t really focus on family — not to mention, positive relationships with family — and so Little Women is always a comfort to return to. I recently listened to it again on audiobook, and loved it just as much as all the times I’ve read it before.
So Many Beginnings: A Little Women Remix (2021) by Bethany C. Morrow
Caitlyn:
I really do think that if you are a fan of Little Women, you should read So Many Beginnings: A Little Women Remix. While there were so many things that I enjoyed about So Many Beginnings, there were some shortcomings. Firstly, I wish that it had been longer as I think certain aspects of the book would have benefited from being further developed and explored. The characters were also very different from what I had expected based on the original novel, but I do think that many of the choices made fit with this specific portrayal of the characters. I think my favorite thing about it was that this book really explored life in America in 1863 through a Black lens. There were many discussions about race and white allyship that I found very important and relevant.
Cossette:
So Many Beginnings: A Little Women Remix is a must-read for any Little Women fan. I really appreciated a truer lens of how America was in 1863, and more importantly, a Black lens. I loved reading about the March family, and how they were starting over, and how much love and strength they had. Although, I do wish it was marketed as Little Women inspired, rather than a remix, as a lot of the characters were different from the original, and some of my favorite characters and moments weren’t in this one! Which is more on myself, and my own expectations for a retelling. I also think So Many Beginnings was just very short, and I found myself wishing there was more development, especially as the romance (which isn’t the point of Little Women), and some plotlines felt really rushed and underdeveloped.
Meg & Jo (2019) + Beth & Amy (2021) by Virginia Kantra
Caitlyn:
To be completely honest, I’ve read 100+ books since I last read Meg & Jo, so do I remember most of it? Nope…there were for sure some things that I completely forgot about (Thanks, Cossette for texting me and reminding me). I read Beth & Amy much more recently, and I enjoyed that one much more than I did Meg & Jo. I felt like Beth & Amy had better pacing and I was more interested in the story. Because of my deep love for Little Women, I do always want to read any retelling or book that is inspired by the original, but I know that I will not be revisiting this series. Also why was Laurie’s name “Trey”???? I still can’t get over that one and probably won’t for a while.
Cossette:
Meg & Jo and Beth & Amy were in all honesty, a disappointment. If it wasn’t for this post, and if it wasn’t a quick read, I probably would’ve DNFed both, but my curiosity won out. There were so many cringy lines that I kept texting Caitlyn about (all of them Caitlyn blocked from her memory), I had so many issues with this series, and was off-put by a lot of storylines. I also just want to say that Laurie was named “Trey” in this, and I have so many questions about that. I will say that Beth & Amy was a much more enjoyable read than Meg & Jo, but that also might be more due to my personal love for Amy March.
2017 PBS Mini Series dir. Vanessa Caswill
Caitlyn:
The PBS Mini Series is a lovely adaptation. Cinematically it is stunning and it truly captures the spirit of Little Women. Willa Fitzgerald is Meg March, okay. Her portrayal of Meg is, in my opinion, the best portrayal of Meg – I’m honestly thinking of rewatching it because of how much I love her. Kathryn Newton gives a lovely performance as Amy, though I do with that we had gotten more of her. Of course, I love Amy and Laurie as they’re one of my favorite literary couples, but I do wish that there had been a bit more development between them. I loved the scenes that we got, but I do think that if someone was being introduced to Little Women through this adaptation, people would feel a bit blindsided. As we know, I love Jo, she means so much to me, but I unfortunately was not a fan of Maya Hawke’s Jo March. I love Maya in Stranger Things, but I think the spark that she has in that was severely lacking here. Honestly, I felt like she brought the energy down in every scene instead of being the driving force that Jo is.
Cossette:
I really loved the PBS Mini Series, for many reasons, but mostly: Willa Fitzgerald’s Meg. Willa Fitzgerald’s Meg is definitely my favorite portrayal of Meg; I think she so perfectly emulates Meg’s kindness, and I loved watching her and Kathryn Newton (Amy) play off one another. I really loved the Meg and John dynamics in this one, and found them to be so very sweet. And while I wished we got more scenes between Amy and Laurie, and just more Amy in general, I do really enjoy the scenes we did get — the scene where they get together is one of my favorites, and is so true to the original novel. Kathryn Newton’s Amy was also a highlight for me, and I really enjoyed her take on Amy March. That being said, the biggest drawback of the PBS Mini Series for me, personally, is Maya Hawke’s Jo. While I enjoy Maya Hawke in Stranger Things, I found her portrayal of Jo to be lacking — it simply lacked Jo’s feisty spirit, her drive, and I found her to be whiny, instead of the lovable heroine we all adore.
2019 Film dir. Greta Gerwig
Caitlyn:
Little Women 2019 is 100% my favorite adaptation of Little Women. Before I saw the movie for the first time, I had just finished a reread of the novel, so I went in with all of the details fresh in my mind and was a bit worried that it wouldn’t meet my high expectations, even though everything I had read about the film assured me that it would. Luckily, all of my expectations were met. Just like the novel does, watching the 2019 film feels like coming home. Whenever I am feeling down or upset it’s the first film I turn on and I immediately feel comforted by the March family. I love how true to the novel this adaptation is and THANK YOU Greta Gerwig, for allowing others to recognize what I’ve always known, which is that Amy March is wonderful and undeserving of all the hate that she has received through the years. I truly love this cast and their portrayals of these characters (I have fewer issues with Emma Watson’s Meg than others do, though I do think her portrayal is the weakest of the four girls), and I absolutely loved the screenplay. When I say that I watch this film weekly, I am not kidding.
Cossette:
If you know me at all, you know that the 2019 film adaptation is my favorite of all Little Women films, and that’s because I just love Florence Pugh’s take on Amy. I love Greta Gerwig’s screenplay, and how it allowed for so many people to see Amy March for who she really is. Add in Saoirse Ronan’s Jo, Eliza Scanlen’s Beth, Laura Dern’s Marmee, Timothee Chalamet’s Laurie, and Meryl Streep’s Aunt March? It was pretty much perfect — aside from Emma Watson’s Meg. I truly believe if they had switched out Emma Watson as Meg for anyone else (ahem, Willa Fitzgerald), this would’ve been a perfect film.
2005 Broadway Musical written by Allan Knee, Mini Dickstein, and Jason Howland
Caitlyn:
My little book and musical theatre loving soul is so happy that a Little Women musical exists because it combines two of my favorite things. While I’ve heard more 32 bar audition cuts of Astonishing sung by teenage girls than anyone really needs to, that song never fails to make me feel all of the things. It’s been a hot second since I listened to it last, so I’m going to have to revisit it, but I know that whenever I do, it’ll bring me just as much joy as it did the first time I listened to it.
Cossette:
I’ve actually never seen a production of the Broadway musical, but I do love the cast recording! Some Things are Meant to Be never fails to make me cry, and Astonishing is such a hard song to sing. I also love the Steven Luke Walker’s adaptation of Little Women in concert, which was presented at the Playhouse Theatre in June 2012 — I’m not sure how I stumbled across it, but I did, and I found the songs to be charming.
If you, like Cossette and myself, hold Little Women close to your heart, we hope that you enjoyed this post! We’d love to hear your thoughts on any of the adaptations discussed here – as well as the ones we didn’t cover. Leave a comment and share all of your Little Women opinions!
