A Man Reads ‘Little Women’ (Continued)

Rossano Brazzi as Professor Bhaer in the 1949 film, with June Allyson as Jo

As I wrote two weeks back, I began reading Little Women to see what it was all about, and became increasingly interested in what the March sisters had read, or what the author wanted us to know her narrator had read.

Two writers loom over Alcott’s novel. The first is John Bunyan, 17th-century allegorist par excellence and author of Pilgrim’s Progress, which if you haven’t read it is a bit like a cleaned up Children’s Il...