Who would have thought it? Little Women is on the American bestseller list again, with the name 'Winona Ryder' over the title instead of Louisa May Alcott, as if she had written the book. But maybe Ryder deserves top billing, for pulling people into the movies to see Alcott's March sisters updated for the Nineties. Directed by Gillian Armstrong of My Brilliant Career, with Susan Sarandon as Marmee, the film has made Alcott not only relevant but even exciting for a new generation. In the wake of its success in the States, there are a slew of novelisations, adaptations for very young readers, and even a brand-new Alcott novel on the way - an unpublished thriller called A Long Fatal Love Chase, written in 1866 and rejected then as too sensational.

LRB 23 March 1995 | PDF Download