Little Women v Pride and Prejudice

For the penultimate RUSC Literary Challenge editorial, I have doubled up a couple of classics, simply because after reading / listening to them, I couldn't help but draw parallels between the two.

Little Women was written by American author, Louisa May Alcott, in 1868, whilst Pride and Prejudice was written by English author, Jane Austen, in 1813.

I remember reading Louisa May Alcott's classic back when I was full of teenage angst and certainly didn't take it seriously. It was not cool for a boy to be interested in a goofy story about women... However it must have sunk in somewhere, as when I listened to Pride and Prejudice, I was reminded of it. 

There are many similarities between the two novels, and although I'd always believed Louisa May Alcott's story to be strongly autobiographical, I wonder if she'd maybe been inspired by Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, which had been published many years before.

Both of the families were lower middle class, with several daughters who are going through the transition from being young girls to women. At the time of writing both novels, there were still distinct gender constraints, and it was a certain belief widely subscribed to by mothers at the turn of the 18th century that they must do all they can to find suitable husbands for their daughters as soon as they came of age. 

In Mrs Bennett's case, suitable means wealthy. From the outset of the novel, it is clear that it is her single goal in life to set up each of her five daughters with the first wealthy, single man who happens to cross their path.

In Mrs March's case, she also encourages marriage, but advocates an emotional connection, rather than a hefty purse as the recipe for happiness in her four daughters' futures.

For the daughters of both tales, it's a tale of love, family, sisterhood, friendship, and the importance of upbringing which truly develops their individual characters and morality.

There have been several other dramatizations of both Little Women, and Pride and Prejudice which are available to download or listen to online. I have listed the links to these below:-

The final editorial for the RUSC Literary Challenge will be in the next few days, and it will be another 'double'... Can you guess which novels they will be? Please, do feel free to comment below!

Happy listening my friends,