Louisa May Alcott is My Passion
Begun in 2010, this blog offers analysis and reflection by Susan Bailey on the life, works and legacy of Louisa May Alcott and her family. Susan is an active member and supporter of the Louisa May Alcott Society, the Fruitlands Museum and Louisa May Alcott's Orchard House.
The Friends of Sleepy Hollow Cemetery are holding their 14th annual Breakfast Event at the Colonial Inn on April 4th, 8:30am to 10am. The featured speaker is Tim Gorman, Location Manager for the Oscar-winning Little Women movie. As you know, it was filmed entirely in MA -- Mr. Gorman will describe the various settings and …
Continue reading "A behind-the-scenes view of the Little Women movie"
I am pleased to have been interviewed for this story for BookTrib on the new Little Women movie plus previous adaptations: Here's a tease - the article is by Joanna Poncavage: Young women of every generation, at some point, will stare at themselves in a mirror and ask: Who am I, who will I become? …
**SPOILER ALERT** Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women has been a staple in family libraries for the last 150 years, passed down from generation to generation. Emerging from the story are timeless themes: becoming your best self, sisterhood and the bonds of family, and the difficult passage from childhood to adulthood. Beneath the seemingly mundane exploits …
Great article with lots of pictures. I think the movie looks promising but I remain cautious after the Masterpiece version. What do you think? Exclusive First Look: Greta Gerwig and Saoirse Ronan’s Little Women from Vanity Fair
From the LW150 blog: What a wonderful post by NY Times best-selling author of the Penderwick family novels Jeanne Birdsall!
By Jeanne Birdsall
Louisa settled at her desk, preparing to slog through another chapter of Little Women, this book she was writing only for the money. It was meant to be read by girls, which meant she needed to stay away from high drama and thunder, her usual ways to advance a story. She rubbed her temples—a headache threatened—unwittingly mussing her hair. Who was she to write for girls? A woman who’d never been a conventional girl, who barely knew what such girls talked about and wished for.
Stop fussing, she told herself, and get to work. Where was she in the story? The mother of the March family, Marmee, had just rushed home from Washington, where she’d been nursing the girls’ father, to find that Beth had miraculously escaped death from scarlet fever. The chapter needed to begin with quiet joy and gratitude. Louisa picked up her pen…
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from the LW 150 blog: “Amy’s Will” – very interesting account of Amy’s Catholic moment.
By Monika Elbert
I am interested in Catholicism and the rosary’s presence within this very New England novel. In “Amy’s Will,” the Gothic momentarily intrudes in Aunt March’s household, where poor Amy is a captive slave in her role as attendant to the old woman. Aunt March’s maid, Esther, the “French woman” who is forced to change her name from the more Frenchified “Estelle”—“on condition that she was never asked to change her religion”—brings a sense of exoticism with “odd stories of her life in France” (192) and with her Catholic customs. Amy goes through Aunt March’s treasure trove of jewelry and chances upon a rosary, which she mistakes for a fine piece of jewelry. Indeed, it is the piece she most desires: she looks “with great admiration at a string of gold and ebony beads, from which hung a heavy cross of the same” (193). Esther concedes that she “covets” it as well…
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The concluding talk of the series was by Gabrielle Donnelly who gave a most informative and entertaining presentation on literary aunts, beginning with Aunt March from Little Women. Not often talked about, Gabrielle was inspired to examine Aunt March after Angela Lansbury’s iconic portrayal in the Little Women Masterpiece series. Aunt March Gabrielle maintained that …
I apologize for the raw format of this post – these are the original notes I took while watching Little Women on my computer. I am under a lot of deadlines right now and don’t have the time to fashion this as I would like. But I did want to share my thoughts with you. …
Continue reading "Little Women on Masterpiece: Final thoughts"
Little Women on Masterpiece is a series that grew on me; it took two viewings to fully appreciate it. As mentioned in my previous post, this is an adaption worthy of reflection and study for there is much beneath the surface. In listening to Heidi Thomas describe her reading of Little Women, I was struck …
Continue reading "Review: Little Women on Masterpiece, Part One (spoiler alert)"
The reviews are coming in fast and furious! Here are some I have seen so far: CNN Entertainment 'Little Women' gets a 21st-century makeover https://www.cnn.com/2018/05/11/entertainment/little-women-review/index.html NY Times ‘Little Women,’ Through British Eyes https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/11/arts/television/little-women-review-pbs-masterpiece.html Valley News Adaptation of ‘Little Women’ Starts Slowly, but Rises on Its Stars http://www.vnews.com/A-new--Little-Women--stumbles-on-the-path-to-2018-but-it-eventually-gets-there-17457911 Vaniety Fair Why the Cult of Jo March …
Continue reading "Reviews of the Little Women Masterpiece series (warning — spoilers!)"
Louisa May Alcott is My Passion 