From the LW 150 blog: This is the second of two takes on the chapter, "Experiments." This is a truly unique insight!
Chapter XI. Experiments
Chapter XI. Experiments
From LW 150 blog: Not one, but TWO very different takes on this great chapter in Little Women. Here’s the first one.
We are experimenting again this week with two very different looks at the same amazing chapter, one of the richest, wisest, and funniest in the book. Enjoy!
Melissa McFarland Pennell
I did not read Little Women until I was an adult, but since that first encounter, I’ve enjoyed rereading the novel many times and often include it as a text in one of my courses. Perhaps that is why when asked which might be my favorite chapter, I picked “Experiments” –a chapter about lessons learned and the value of trial and error. It is also a chapter about work, presenting some forms of paid employment that women held in the nineteenth century, but also speaking to much of the invisible work that women did and continue to do. For me the key to the chapter is in Marmee’s commentary near its end that “Work . . . gives us a…
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Happy 150th Birthday Little Women!
Sunday September 30, 2018 will live in my memory for a long time. This day we celebrated the 150th birthday of Little Women by Louisa May Alcott. The sparkling Autumn day was the backdrop for scores of Little Women fans -- young and old, men and women, and all the lovely activities making for quite …
Little Women Legacy: News from New Jersey with Lauren Cutrone, Featured Author
From Pink Umbrella Books: Alcott’s Imaginary Heroes contributor Lauren Cutrone’s essay, “Little Women, Feminism and a New Definition of Beauty” points out yet another reason this book can speak to girls today. And it was written at her Louisa May Alcott desk!
In this blog post series, we’ll feature contributing authors from our new anthology, Alcott’s Imaginary Heroes: The Little Women Legacy. Today we’ll catch up with Lauren Cutrone, writer, publishing professional, and Jersey girl.
Lauren Cutrone reads Little Women in New Jersey.
What is your favorite scene from Little Women?
There is a very tiny, seemingly insignificant scene that always comes to me first. In Good Wives, there is a scene where Jo is stuck. She’s in Concord but finds that it’s no longer serving her. She wants to leave, but she has no idea where to go. This leads to Marmee helping Jo to make her way to New York City, but this scene of rare stillness for Jo always sticks out to me. This is such a pivotal moment where Jo decides who she is and who she wants to be. Whenever I feel “stuck,” I remember…
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Chapter X. The P. C. and P. O.
from LW150 – The P.C. and the P.O
By Lorinda B. Cohoon
“The P. C. and P. O.” chapter recounts a deepening of the friendship between the March family and the Laurence family through Laurie’s admission to the secret society of the Pickwick Club. Both Meg and Amy have reservations about admitting a boy to the club–Mr. Winkle reminds the club members that “[t]his is a ladies’ club, and we wish to be private and proper” (90). Despite these objections, Laurie is voted in as “Sam Weller” once Jo, as Mr. Snodgrass, draws attention to all the ways the members of the Pickwick Club have benefited from the Laurences’ wealth and position: “We can do so little for him, and he does so much for us, I think the best we can do is to offer him a place here, and make him welcome, if he comes” (90). The martin house post office Laurie provides becomes the site…
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Little Women Legacy: An Idaho Interlude with Marlowe Daly, Featured Author
From Pink Umbrella Books: contributor Marlowe Daly’s essay, “Literary Lessons” showed to me the heart of a teacher, one who loves both her students and her subject. And Little Women.
In this blog post series, we’ll feature contributing authors from our new anthology, Alcott’s Imaginary Heroes: The Little Women Legacy. Today we’ll catch up with Marlowe Daly, who teaches literature, writing, and humanities at Idaho’s Lewis-Clark State College.
Marlowe Daly reads Little Women at the Spalding site of Nez Perce National Park near her home in Idaho. Photo by Anahi Galeano.
If the March sisters were employed where you work, what would their jobs be?
Although Jo and Meg do some teaching, I can’t really picture either of them working at the college where I teach. I’m happy to say that my colleagues are deeply devoted to teaching and make great efforts to continually improve their pedagogy and practice. Meg and Jo, on the other hand, seem to lack a passion for teaching. Even later on, in Little Men and Jo’s Boys, Jo seems more interested in the duties that…
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Hitting the Mark: A review of “Little Women” (a modern retelling) starring Lea Thompson
The newest addition to the Little Women movie library is a modern adaptation, bringing the classic story by Louisa May Alcott into the 21st century. Directed by Clare Niederpruem and starring Lea Thompson as Marmee and Sarah Davenport as Jo, “Little Women” is a mixed bag that ultimately hits its mark. There are many liberties …
Little Women Legacy: All Smiles from Silicon Valley with KL Allendoerfer, Featured Author
From Pink Umbrella Books: KL Allendoerfer offers some fascinating insight; and as one introvert to another (and a Beth fan), her essay in Alcott’s Imaginary Heroes presented wonderful reasons to pay attention to the kitten-loving girl with the beat-up dolls.
In this blog post series, we’ll feature contributing authors from our new anthology, Alcott’s Imaginary Heroes: The Little Women Legacy. Today we’ll catch up with KL Allendoerfer, California-based writer, science educator, and musician.
Contributor KL Allendoerfer reads Little Women with “Pie,” the ubiquitous green droid in front of Silicon Valley’s Googleplex.
What is your favorite scene from Little Women?
It would be easy to say my favorite scene is the one I wrote about in my essay, in which Beth thanks Mr. Lawrence for the use of his piano and they become friends. I do love that scene, but there are so many others as well. I think the one that most got under my skin, and that I remembered many years later, was Jo’s disaster of a dinner party when Marmee decides to let the girls run things themselves. It shows Louisa has a wonderful sense of…
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Chapter IX. Meg Goes to Vanity Fair
from LW150 blog: How many of you longed to be part of the cool crowd? “Meg goes to Vanity Fair”
By Dee Anne Anderson
Little Women is the book of my older childhood. Some people have Anne of Green Gables, the Nancy Drew series, or other books about intrepid and plucky young women. But for me, it will always be the March sisters. I read and re-read Volume 1 of the novel throughout upper grade school. (Volume 2 was not as interesting to me at that age, and so I often skipped it and just returned to the beginning.)
Of course, Jo was the character with whom I most closely identified and wanted to imitate. She was brave and fierce and deeply loyal to her sisters. But as I entered those awkward middle school years, one bit of Little Women came to mind often. When “Meg goes to Vanity Fair” in Chapter Nine, I went with her. Meg wanted to fit in with the cool girls, and she wanted…
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Little Women Legacy: Alcott in the Big Apple with Lorraine Tosiello, Featured Author
From Pink Umbrella Books: interview with contributor Lorraine Tosiello; her essay is called “Piccole Donne” (Little Women in Italian). If you love Little Women, Louisa, the Beatles, Italian families and sisters, you will love this wonderful essay.
In this blog post series, we’ll feature contributing authors from our new anthology, Alcott’s Imaginary Heroes: The Little Women Legacy. Today we’ll catch up with Lorraine Tosiello, physician, writer, and lifelong Little Women aficionado.
Contributor Lorraine Tosiello reads Little Women under the watchful eye of her “neighbor,” the Empire State Building.
What is your favorite scene from Little Women?
For me, there’s no scene in the book that comes anywhere near the betrothal scene “under the umbrella” between Jo and Professor Bhaer. It is wise and sentimental, humorous and poignant, ridiculous and powerful all at once. Jo rushes downtown to find Friedrich, she finds him and he says he is leaving town, she stifles her emotions, he gets confused, they shop for everyone else but themselves, and she blubbers, “You are going away!” And then come my two favorite images in the whole book: Friedrich says that he…
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Louisa May Alcott is My Passion 