3.5

Me apetecía leer algo de Louisa May Alcott distinto de "Mujercitas", y apareció "Bajo las lilas" por alguna carpeta de libros electrónicos. Aunque admito que en su contra juegan una edición y una traducción un poco reguleras, creo que si esto no hubiera sido un problema, la novela tampoco habría sido santo de mi devoción.
Cuenta la historia de dos niñas hermanas, ambas tremendamente buenas y trabajadoras, que encuentran a un niño vagabundo (que luego será tremendamente bueno y trabajador) que junto con su perro increíblemente amaestrado se ha escapado del maltrato que sufría en un circo.
Para mi gusto los personajes son demasiado buenos, demasiado nobles, demasiado perfectos y toda la escritura destila una intención moralista que, aunque con algún toque interesante para la época, a mí me echa bastante para atrás.

I was a little worried that I would be comparing this to Little Women which is my favorite book of all time. Little Women it certainly was not. However, it is a lovely little story that has its own merits. Very similar to Little Women in that it could also be a collection of short stories (each chapter has a situation, a climax and is more or less resolved very shortly with the main plot loosely tying it all together) rather than a novel, it follows Betty, Bab & Ben on many little adventures. Alcott teaches all kind of lessons throughout in her typical way. Her lessons focus more on the Golden Rule than spouting religion. And I love her writing. You can hear the children giggling while they play together. I cannot wait to read all of her children's stories to my children one day!

"If one wedding were not quite enough for a child's story, we might here hint what no one dreamed of then, that before the year came round again Ben had found a mother, Bab and Betty a father, and Mr. Brown's hat was quite at home behind the kitchen door. But, on the whole, it is best not to say a word about it."

Sweet and true to Alcott, although dull in comparison to Little Women

A cute, light-hearted read full of quaint settings and lovable characters.

This is my least favorite of the main LMA canon. I think that's because it's mainly about little kids -- I can relate better to the books about adolescents and young adults (wait, am I getting too old to say that?).

This was an audio book.

The story was about a young boy who had no family.

Of course, it was well written and an enjoyable tale. Through the whole book, I kept thinking about where our American society is today in its practice of our language or more so, I should say, the lack of it. This children's story had words in it that I didn't even know what the words meant. It was so beautifully written; yet, I doubt many people these days would stick with it, and I doubt many children would attempt to read it.

Nevertheless, it was a very nice story.