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

6 people found this helpful

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.

9 people found this helpful

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.

3 people found this helpful

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.

2 people found this helpful

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"!!

1 person found this helpful

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.

3 people found this helpful

Best Book Best Story Line. A true classi

what a wonderfully written book and a wonderful story. I just couldnt get enough and will read again. a must read for all girls

My first Audiobook

As this is my first time I was able to get through an audiobook, I can say this was an amazing audiobook experience. I read along with the audio and some of the text didn’t match my physical copy but it was nothing major.
My one complain would be Mr. Bhaer’s voice.... it was horrifying and had to read those chapters on my own.
Overall, it helped me read through this book so quickly. I read it at 1.5-1.6 speed and was able to understand it all still. Love this book!

Best version available for now

Christina Ricci as reader does the best version of the ones I sampled, and this is the complete book. However, it may not sync with any Kindle version, as far as I could tell, if you want to seamlessly go back and forth. The whispersync version I originally bought was only the first half of the book, so I exchanged it for this complete version.

Always a favorite!

One of my favorite books narrated by one of my favorite actresses?! Yes please!!
A wonderful performance.