Little Women

(Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)

By: Jane Smiley - introduction, Louisa May Alcott

Narrated by: Christina Ricci

Length: 19 hrs and 2 mins

Publisher's summary

Little Women is recognized as one of the best-loved classic children's stories, transcending the boundaries of time and age, making it as popular with adults as it is with young listeners. The beloved story of the March girls is a classic American feminist novel, reflecting the tension between cultural obligation and artistic and personal freedom.

But which of the four March sisters to love best? For every listener must have their favorite. Independent, tomboyish Jo; delicate, loving Beth; pretty, kind Meg; or precocious and beautiful Amy, the baby of the family?

The charming story of these four "little women" and their wise and patient mother, Marmee, enduring hardships and enjoying adventures in Civil War-era New England was an instant success when first published in 1868 and has been adored for generations.

Public Domain (P)2012 Penguin Audio

An American Classic, Made New

Last Christmas, I had a craving for some pre-consumer culture American literature. A friend suggested Little Women. I was working on a big art project at the time, so I put on my headphones and let Christina Ricci read to me. For days.

I think Christina Ricci was a good choice for this book. At times, I felt that a teenaged niece or neighbor was reading to me. While I appreciated her frank modern dialect and total lack of trying to sound historic, she did miss some of the old cadence and seemed to misunderstand some of the old expressions. Overall though, her read was very sweet and very fitting for the subjects.

I had a very minor technical issue throughout: there were a lot of pickups (probably because of mispronunciations) and the audio quality was very different with them, so with good quality headphones it was a little jarring at times.

Also, this is a very long book. If you're like me, you'll want a little time away from the Marsh family by the end of it. But it was a very good way to pass the holidays.

I am a man but this story always makes my cry.

Ms. Ricci is great. Read the book and story follows book to a tee. However, I loved the movie from 1994

Great story, terrible narration

Listening to this, I often wondered if the recording was actually the first time Christina Ricci had ever read the book. Her reading is awkward and comes across less as a professional actor bringing a book to life and more like a disinterested teenager forced to read aloud in class. This could have been so much better with a different reader. What a shame.

Story ruined by narration

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

I would recommend the book by a different narrator.

Who was your favorite character and why?

Jo is my favorite character. Her combination of feminine emotion and boyish ambition is both intriguing and humorous.

What didn’t you like about Christina Ricci’s performance?

Ricci's performance leaves much to be desired. Her interpretation of Professor Bhaer is absurd. I wish there was a review of it before I purchased it.

Wish I'd read it sooner!

I’m not sure why I didn’t read Little Women long before now. Maybe it’s because my mom never read it and neither did any of my school friends when I was young. For similar reasons, I never even watched a Little Women adaptation, so really didn’t know much of anything about what it was about. It wasn’t until around last year that I saw some of my friends on Goodreads talking about LW and it occurred to me that I’d never read it and maybe I should give it a chance.

This was a new-to-me classic that I enjoyed very much. The March family was lovable from the start and it was fun to learn the girls’ different personalities and see life and that period of history through their eyes. Some aspects of it reminded me of the Little House on the Prairie series, which was good since I also enjoyed that series a lot, but it was its own unique story. Even the sad part, though it almost made me cry in a public location, was handled so tenderly that it didn’t tarnish she shine of the rest of the story for me.

I actually don’t feel like I have a favorite character because I liked the majority of them for different reasons, though I did have a soft spot for the pearls of wisdom Mrs. March would drop where appropriate.

I am *slightly* conflicted about a certain plot point related to a certain relationship a lot of readers seem to wish had turned out differently. I’m not sure how to talk about this without spoilers, and since I’m not aware of a way to do spoiler code here on Audible, I guess I’ll be vague here: I didn’t hate what happened with that relationship, but also am not sure I’m okay with the attitude Alcott apparently had behind the reason she had this relationship turn out the way it did. I almost wish that if she had that much problem with people wanting these characters to be together, she would have bucked the norm and had character in question not marry at all rather than spite the readers by putting her with someone else. *shrug*

That being the only thing I really had any issues with, though, I’m giving this book 4.5 stars, which rounds up to 5 stars since we can’t do half stars. I really enjoyed it.

On the topic of the audio performance, I thought Christina Ricci did an excellent job. She reads clearly, putting appropriate emotion in her voice where needed, and I also appreciate that she sounds close to the ages the sisters were supposed to be (as apposed to a much older voice actress trying to sound younger, which sometimes works and sometimes doesn’t). She was a great choice of narrator for this story.

Happy

My favourite book!! Christina Ricci is an excellent narrator! She is able to bring the characters alive. It's a joy to listen to her read "Little Women"!!

Christina Ricci’s performance is my favorite

The story has been dear to me for decades, and this version is the only one that feels true to the original.

I didn't know if I'd like it, but I did.

I didn't know if I'd like it, but it was both a compelling and thought provoking novel.

Young, inexperienced narrator.

The narration ruined the feeling of the story. No pace or inflection. I bought a different version of this title and it was wonderful.
Audiobooks are about the story. This didn't get me involved.

Such a beautiful story, 10 out of 10!

I love it so much, this was so great. And CR did such an incredible job reading this. I had no idea she would be this great to listen to.

Really AWFUL reading of the story :(

Would you try another book written by Louisa May Alcott and Jane Smiley (introduction) or narrated by Christina Ricci?

No. Christina Ricci is hands down the worst narrator I've ever listened to. Her speech and timing is irregular, she drops in and out of accents and her reading is monotone. Really, really bad.

How did the narrator detract from the book?

See above- the story is lovely, and could be humorous in some places, but the narrator killed the enjoyment of it.

OKAY

The story is very nice but the narration is very annoying overall quite nice

Give it a go

couldn't finish and returned

hated the narration, haven't read before but can see why the author considered it moralistic dross. maybe a different reader would have bought it to life and made it more enjoyable but it wasn't for me

really irritating voice

I really couldn't bare the voive of the reader, so I didn't finish the book

Beautiful Listen

I had always wanted to read Little Women but never had the time with work and children. I searched for this after joining audible and listened to it on my daily commute. This really is a beautiful story wonderfully told. I've laughed and cried on the train and bus as it's such a captivating and moving story. I'm a fan of Pride and Prejudice and really enjoyed this.

I really enjoyed

The narrator is fantastic. A really pleasant voice and easy to listen to. It took me a little while to get into this book, however eventually I learned more about the characters and started to really enjoy it.

My review.

I loved the performance. I loved the story. I liked
all the pieces of music.

Lovely reading of a great classic

I loved it, even cried in certain sections. The only but that I would give was that I personally wasn’t a fan of the voice she gave to Mr.Bear, I feel like it would have been fine without the German accent. Still, the whole reading was lovely and the music at the end of each chapter was very appreciated.

Incredible story

Life-enriching story. The world would be better if more people read this book. Narration is very good.

Wonderful trip down Memory Lane

Reminder of special moments i read as a child, but also interesting to listen to strong women in a very different age make their mark and I did not appreciate those hurdles in the same way as a young reader some 50 years ago.