It is good for children today to get in touch with such a world of no corruption.
- by ハムなしソーセージ,
2023/05/13
5.0/
5stars
There has been an argument about whether it is no problem for children to read “Barefoot Gen” by Kenji Nakazawa. I cannot give my opinion on that matter, because I haven’t read it. But I think that there are types of books which it is better to read when one is a child. Most people get a fair amount of fun out of their lives, but on balance life is suffering. It is true and we know the truth when we grow old. You know, as we grow older, we get more desperate about ourselves and the society we live in and eventually we get more pessimistic.But I don’t think that children before going to the society need to be pessimistic. Children had better be optimistic and positive and have more hope for the future. Most of all, they had better not be contaminated by evil, even though they may be contaminated by evil when they grow up.The people in “Little Women” may be mildly ridiculous, but they are uncorrupted. They have something that is perhaps best described as integrity, or good morale, founded partly on an unthinking piety. It is a matter of course that everyone attends church on Sunday morning and says grace before meals and prayers at bedtime; to amuse the children one tells them Bible stories.For example, an old man James Laurence sends a letter of gratitude to a little neighbor Beth March who made a pair of slippers for him.“I have had many pairs of slippers in my life, but I never had any that suited me so well as yours. ‘Heart’s-ease is my favorite flower, and these will always remind me of the gentle giver. I like to pay my debts, so I know you will allow ‘the old gentleman’ to send you something which once belonged to the little granddaughter he lost. With hearty thanks, and best wishes, I remain, ‘Your grateful friend and humble servant, James Laurence.' ”It seems unlikely that an old man should send such a courteous letter to a little girl in these days. But I think that it is good for young children today to know that an old man could write such a letter to a young girl. All through the novel, one can detect an underlying confidence in the future, and belief in fellow creatures. At least, it is good for children today to get in touch with such a world of no corruption. It is true that there are vice, wickedness, cruelty and oppression in this world, but I think that fiction for children is better employed in showing how much beauty, kindness, self-sacrifice, generosity and heroism there is in this world.Even though I know of no strictly literary test which would show where the superiority lies, I would like to back “Little Women” to outlive the complete works of Virginia Woolf or George Moore.By the way, in the 1949 film version directed by Mervyn LeRoy, Mrs. March says to Jo March who sold her hair to help finance the trip to Washington, where Mr. March was hospitalized.“Jo, your hair will grow back, and it’ll be as lovely as ever. But you will never be more beautiful than you are now.”This beautiful dialogue is not in the novel. This is a wonderful invention of the film.
Oxford University Press should have done its proper job.
- by KWTNB,
2023/05/12
1.0/
5stars
This review is for the Kindle Edition of Little Women published by Oxford University Press.I paid for this edition because it reproduces Explanatory Notes and other materials from the original World's Classics.But it contains TOO MANY TYPOS not in the original.BEWARE. OUP on its cover doesn't necessarily mean it is an excellent edition.