Category Archives: Little Women

Researcher uncovers a new body of work believed to be by Louisa May Alcott

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Academic suggests seven short stories, five poems and one non-fiction work were written by the Little Women author under the name EH Gould

A researcher has uncovered a trove of stories and poems he believes to have been written under a pseudonym by Little Women author Louisa May Alcott.

In late 2021, American academic Max Chapnick read about a story, The Phantom, while working on his PhD. The story is known to be Alcott’s – it features in the lists the writer made of her works – but had not yet been found.

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Little Women scene stolen by water bottles spotted in background

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Greta Gerwig remake of 19th century novel features not one, but two, very modern items

Louisa May Alcott’s classic 1868 novel Little Women is known for being forward thinking – but not so forward thinking that it predicted the invention of plastic water bottles or Hydro Flasks.

Both were spied in the background of a scene in Greta Gerwig’s 2019 film adaptation of the classic American coming-of-age tale, in echoes of an incident earlier last year in which a takeaway coffee cup was spotted in the background of a shot in the final season of fantasy epic Game of Thrones.

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Oscars 2020: Brad Pitt wins best supporting actor – live!

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Follow all the action from Hollywood as we find out who’s wearing what, who’s winning what and whose acceptance speech is dropping jaws


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Now for best animated feature. Beanie Feldstein just introduced Mindy Kaling. Is that how this is going to work without a host? A person announces a person who announces a winner? That seems like at least one step too many.

We already have a news story about Brad Pitt winning. Not that anyone was expecting it or anything.

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Oscars ad time to be hacked by protest against lack of female director nods

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Non-profit initiative Giver Her A Break creates online portal to replace commercials with showcase for female film-makers

The Oscars ceremony is no stranger to the act of protest, but this year will see arguably its most unique demonstration yet, because it won’t be taking place outside the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles but inside the telecast itself.

Non-profit initiative Give Her A Break has created an online portal that allows viewers to watch the awards as normal, but one with one key difference: every ad break will be replaced with a showcase for a female-directed film.

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Happy ever after: why writers are falling out of love with marriage

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From Sally Rooney and Ottessa Moshfegh to the author of this year’s hit debut, Kiley Reid, a new generation of novelists is turning the marriage plot on its head

Greta Gerwig’s film adaptation of Louisa May Alcott’s 1868 classic Little Women begins with an adult Jo March entering the smoke-filled, man-filled offices of a New York publisher in hopes of selling a story. “If the main character’s a girl make sure she’s married by the end,” the editor decrees. “Or dead, either way.”

Alcott herself never married and thought that Jo “should have remained a literary spinster”. But after publication of the first volume of the book, covering the March sisters’ childhood, Alcott was flooded with letters from fans demanding to know whom the little women had married. In rebellion, Alcott “made a funny match” for Jo, forgoing the obvious choice of Laurie in favour of Professor Bhaer, a middle-aged German, “neither rich nor great, young nor handsome, in no respect what is called fascinating, imposing, or brilliant”.

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Oscars 2020: Joker leads pack – but Academy just trumps Baftas for diversity

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  • Joker nominated for 11 awards
  • 1917, The Irishman, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood up for 10
  • Little Women and Parasite take six nominations
  • Cynthia Erivo sole non-white acting nominee
  • Oscar nominations: full list for 2020

Less than a week since Bafta’s strikingly white and male awards shortlist met with widespread criticism – including from the organisation’s own chief executive – the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has released a set of nominations whose small concessions to diversity seem striking by contrast.

Cynthia Erivo is nominated for best actress for her role in a biopic of abolitionist Harriet Tubman, and Parasite – Bong Joon-ho’s acclaimed South Korean black comedy – is up for six awards, including best director and best picture.

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Golden Globes: who will win and who should win the film awards? | Peter Bradshaw

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Will The Irishman clean up? Or Marriage Story? And how will Once Upon a Time in Hollywood fare? Peter Bradshaw offers a lowdown of the main categories and his predictions and omissions

The best film category is dominated – just like everything else in the cultural conversation around movies – by Netflix, which has the majority of the nominees: Martin Scorsese’s The Irishman, Noah Baumbach’s Marriage Story and Fernando Meirelles’s The Two Popes.

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Battle of the sexes: why this year’s Oscars will be a gender war

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From Little Women and Bombshell on one side and The Irishman and The Two Popes on the other, the Academy will have to tread a careful line picking this year’s nominations

British politicians are not the only people preparing for the campaign trail; Hollywood’s awards-season schmooze offensive has also begun. Gala ball dates are being added to diaries, academy voters are being targeted and a clutch of frontrunners is emerging. Trends – most of them worrying – are also appearing.

In summary, this year it is “boy films” v “girl films”. A gaping gender divide seems to have split the field. On the girls’ side, we have two well-received titles: Bombshell, dramatising the sexual harassment scandal at Fox News, and Greta Gerwig’s adaptation of Little Women. Both are stories of female defiance at the male-dominated status quo, and are cast with an embarrassment of awards-bait: Little Women features Meryl Streep, Saoirse Ronan, Florence Pugh, Emma Watson and Laura Dern; Bombshell has Nicole Kidman, Charlize Theron, Margot Robbie and Allison Janney.

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