From "Little Women" by Louisa May Alcott to "Quatre filles du docteur March" - French translations of a novel for female readers

This article examines seven French translations and adaptations of Little Women by Louisa May Alcott (1868), nowadays available to young female readers in bookstores or in libraries. In order to study the representations of womanhood for the French-speaking readership, the analysis focuses on the character of Jo, the anti-conformist heroine who openly rejects the constraints imposed on women. It seems that most of the French versions depict a Jo March who has been significantly expurgated; her physical and psychological descriptions are distorted, as are her speech and actions.