A lovely post about Jo's first meetup with Laurie, and reminder to us all to be good neighbors.
Chapter V. Being Neighborly
A Tale of Two Editors: the makings of The Little Women Legacy
A great interview by Trix Wilkins of the Much Ado about Little Women blog with Merry Gordon and Marnae Kelly of Pink Umbrella Books and their newest release, “Alcott’s Imaginary Heroes: The Little Women Legacy.”
I had to ask: Team Laurence or Team Bhaer? Editors Merry Gordon and Marnae Kelly talk Jo March’s ending, how they’d put the March sisters to work at Pink Umbrella Books (not just work of course – they’d go on holiday too), and surprises for fans in the to-be-released anthology, Alcott’s Imaginary Heroes: The Little Women Legacy.
Jo March’s ending – Jo with Friedrich Bhaer, Jo with Theodore Laurence, Jo single, or something else?
MERRY: I’m Team Friedrich. Unpopular opinion, perhaps, but Laurie is such a puppy.
MARNAE: I’m a big Bhaer fan because of the equality of minds in that relationship and the opportunities for growth in both characters.
Who of all the March sisters would you go on holiday with, where would you go, and why?
MERRY: I’d take an English holiday with Jo – specifically to hit up the literary landmarks, as we are kindred spirits that way.
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A conversation with Anne Boyd Rioux on “Meg, Jo, Beth, Amy: The Story of Little Women and Why It Still Matters”
Back in July at the Summer Conversational Series at Louisa May Alcott's Orchard House, I had the privilege of conversing with author and Alcott scholar Anne Boyd Rioux about her new book, Meg, Jo, Beth, Amy: The Story of Little Women and Why It Still Matters. You can listen in as I fashioned it into a …
Chapter IV. Burdens
From the new Little Women 150 blog reflecting each week on a chapter in Alcott’s classic, here is chapter four: Little Women 150 By Sandra Harbert Petrulionis The central concerns of “Burdens” may be character development and self-education, but within its domestic lessons, this chapter also foregrounds the inequities of Civil War- era America. It …
Chapter III. The Laurence Boy
From the new Little Women 150 blog reflecting each week on a chapter in Alcott’s classic, here is chapter three:
We are going to experiment this week by offering two different perspectives on the same chapter, both by distinguished Alcott scholars. The ways they complement each other, intersect, and diverge are fascinating. Enjoy!
Take One
By Eve LaPlante
In the gender-bending world of Little Women, the Laurence boy plays an important role. A lovely, compassionate, accommodating young man with a girl’s name, Laurie serves as a mirror to our heroine, Jo, a daring and ambitious young woman with a “gentlemanly demeanor” and a male-sounding name. It’s clear from the start that Laurie and Jo are a pair, two cross-gendered friends who seem more typical of the modern era than a century and a half in the past.
It seems fair to ask – given that Jo and her sisters were inspired by the four Alcott girls and that no Alcott boy existed (much to the dismay of Louisa’s father, Bronson) –…
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Chapter II. A Merry Christmas
From the new Little Women 150 blog reflecting each week on a chapter in Alcott’s classic, here is chapter two:
By Katherine Paterson
Of course I wanted to be Jo. There’s nothing unusual about that. Is there a single woman’s writer of my generation that didn’t identify with her? Meg was dutiful and a bit prim, Amy was self-centered and a flibberty-gibbit. And Beth, well, of course we cried when she died, but, honestly, just between us, wasn’t she a bit tediously angelic? But Jo! She actually did things.
I remember coming into the house one day after a bout of street football with the neighborhood boys. In the living room my mother was entertaining at tea. As I listened to the cacophony of soprano voices I was struck with a sudden horror. I might have to grow up and be a woman. And all they did was talk.
In addition to her Tomboy ways, Jo was a great reader, which I certainly was, and a writer, which I didn’t think…
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Chapter I. Playing Pilgrims
From the new Little Women 150 blog reflecting each week on a chapter in Alcott’s classic, here is chapter one:
By Jan Turnquist
I love the opening lines of Little Women. “Christmas won’t be Christmas without any presents,” may not be on a list of “Best Opening Lines,” but it is on my personal list of favorites. From the very start, this chapter offers a feeling of optimism and life even while introducing the four sisters in the midst of a difficult moment. This first chapter, “Playing Pilgrims,” establishes the personalities of Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy as refreshingly real and imperfect. They tease and squabble as siblings do. But they are also warm companions in a home that is a safe refuge from a cold and dangerous world set against the backdrop of the Civil War. Right from the beginning the reader can experience that Little Women is a story based on love.
My experience at Orchard House has blended inexorably with my experience of the book itself. Because
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Summer Conversational Series 2018: Gabrielle Donnelly “Peppery Old Ladies: Aunt March’s Literary Line from Betsey Trotwood to Aunt Petunia”
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 …
Summer Conversational Series: Using the Masterpiece Little Women series in the classroom
Cyrisse Jaffee, Editorial Manager for the Educational Department for WGBH--TV presented on the materials developed for teachers for the recent Little Women series for Masterpiece. Jaffee, who had always had a passion for reading and history, loved Little Women as a child and has visited Orchard House with her family many times. She studied literature …
Summer Conversational Series 2018: Cathlin Davis “Learning to Be Herself: Alcott’s Lessons in Peer Pressure”
Note: This is a long post of over 3000 words. It’s also a core topic of Little Women’s relevancy for teenagers especially when it comes to conformity versus non-conformity, and peer pressure. It’s well worth the read for those of us who wish to pass down Little Women to our daughters and sons, nieces and …
Louisa May Alcott is My Passion 