This week, some classics for everyone to have a look at!

Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

“Some people seemed to get all sunshine, and some all shadow…”

Written by Louisa May Alcott in 1868, the novel is about how the characters in the story stay connected in times of despair and all of the efforts they had to put in order to endure in New England during the Civil War.

Alcott based this novel mainly on her life as a child. Her father, a freethinking reformer and abolitionist was very well known throughout the nation. A lot of the household chores were done by her and her sisters who did all of the “woman’s work” which included acting as a domestic servant, cooking, doing laundry, and also sewing.

Soon Alcott realized that writing could earn her a lot more wealth and fame. By writing about things everyone could relate to, she became very well known in a short amount of time. Her book consisted of various themes including war and peace, love and death, the clash between personal goals and family obligations, and finally the conflict between the European culture and the culture in America.

1984

“Perhaps one did not want to be loved so much as to be understood.”

Written by George Orwell in 1949, it is a rare piece of writing that discusses how futuristic suffering is developing and becoming more real. Orwell’s nightmare vision of a totalitarian and authoritative world and one’s pursuit to find their own individual personality has been shared in the novel.

Though this novel discusses the hardships, it also discusses the foresight of modern life and life in the future — “the ubiquity of television, the distortion of the language — and his ability to construct such a version of hell.” The values of civilized life have been greatly discussed and the vulnerability of these values in the middle of various powerful States have also been explored.

These books are great to read if you want a change from novels based in the present. They offer a great view of how life was in the past and how things have changed over time.