I am glad that I somehow got the idea from another blog that Mac and Rose did not get together. It pained me to see how Mac wooed her and she would not give in. When he shared his Thoreau essays with her and found them well received, it pained me again. So you can …
2014 Summer Conversational Series: Margaret Fuller and the Problem of Female Genius
The Conversational series welcomed back a perennial favorite in John Matteson whose Pulitzer-prize winning book Eden’s Outcasts is a standard in Alcott scholarship. He has also written a fine book on Margaret Fuller called The Lives of Margaret Fuller; she was the focus of his presentation entitled “ ‘The Mind in the Full Glow of …
Alcott Immersion Warning: the wondrous things that can happen when you study too much!
After four years of constant reading, study, writing and pondering on one family, I think I understand now how actors prepare for their roles, and the subsequent consequences of their immersion into their characters. Taking on the Louisa persona I'm acquainted with a couple of people (Jan Turnquist and Marianne Donnelly) who, as actresses, take …
Greetings from the Beyond
You may recall the last post I wrote about Work: A Story of Experience where I reiterated the religious importance of this autobiographical novel by Louisa May Alcott. I was moved by the consolation Christie Devon received as described in chapter 19, "Little Hearts-Ease." She heard husband David's "voice" as the breeze blew near his flute. …
Wrapping up Work A Story of Experience: The Spiritual Subplot
I acknowledge that Work: A Story of Experience is an important feminist work (see previous post). It was groundbreaking in that respect and makes it a relevant book for today in understanding the condition of single working women in the nineteen century. Work would be an especially valuable read for women of the Millennial generation who …
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A feminist manifesto: wrapping up Work A Story of Experience (part two)
“…Work is an expression of Alcott’s feminist principles and a major effort toward synthesizing in popular, readable form the broad set of beliefs encompassing family, education, suffrage, labor and the moral reform of social life that defined feminist ideology in the nineteenth century.” (pg. 191 from Critical Essays on Louisa May Alcott edited by Madeleine …
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A tale of two books: wrapping up Work A Story of Experience (part one)
Several months ago I started reading Work: A Story of Experience, one of Louisa’s few adult novels. The story, like Little Women, is a thinly disguised, romanticized yet gritty autobiography coupled with wishes Louisa might have had regarding the course of her life. First, my impressions In this first of three planned posts on this …
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Announcing the Poet’s Corner Virtual Book Club selection: “Work: A Story of Experience” by Louisa May Alcott
I would like to begin a discussion of Work: A Story of Experience by Louisa May Alcott, the newest selection from Poet's Corner Virtual Book Club. Don't remember how the book club works? Here's the original post about it. Yes, I know, the last time we tried this with Eight Cousins, I didn't finish. I promise …
Was Thoreau a romantic? Final thoughts on “Walking”
Much has been said about how unconventional Henry David Thoreau was. Although brilliant he was solitary, decidedly different, very blunt, not especially attractive physically, and he was prone to "queer" habits such as climbing trees, imitating bird calls and the like. Yet women did find Thoreau attractive. Louisa May Alcott had a schoolgirl crush on …
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Louisa May Alcott is My Passion 