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.
What did Jo March mean when she said she wanted to create something "spendid?" Perhaps gaining recognition for her writing. Maybe even being hailed as a great writer. Writing a book of artistic merit and universality that would stand the test of time. Yet we find in Little Women that Jo's goals would evolve from that solitary …
Continue reading "Jo’s evolution as a creative, and as a woman"
Little did Louisa May Alcott know that when she wrote Little Women, her classic book based upon her own family life and their “queer” adventures, she was writing the story that was on the heart of all Americans. Universal family It was time when American yearned for its own literature, its own family. The March …
Results of True/False Quiz I see some of you tried the True/False quiz of what was real and what was made up in Little Women. No one got 100% but you were very close! Here are the answers: Hannah the servant FALSE - The Alcotts could not afford any servants in those days The Christmas …
Little Women has been called autobiographical because Louisa May Alcott used so many episodes from her own childhood and that of her family to create the story. But where does fact end and fiction begin? Or does it even work like that? Stern says, “Fact was embedded in fiction, and a domestic novel begun in …
Louisa May Alcott was never bashful about borrowing from previous stories to flesh out Little Women. Several short stories set the stage for the classic: “The Sisters’ Trial” (four sisters, Leonore, Agnes, Ella and Amy facing going out to work to deal with the family’s poverty), “A Modern Cinderella” (depicting Anna and John as Nan …
I have always maintained that Madeleine B. Stern’s Louisa May Alcott: A Biography is the standard bearer. Tracing the life of Louisa the writer, Stern gives penetrating insight not only into Louisa’s life, but her very essence as a writer. As a writer myself, I have found much wisdom in these pages and have marveled …
Chapter 46 of Little Women, "Under the Umbrella," should have been a glorious chapter for me since Jo and Fritz finally decided to get married. Instead, it was incredibly frustrating, though it wasn't all Louisa's fault. 🙂 I've been listening to an audio book during my long commute and the reader for that particular chapter …
I finished reading Little Women last week and will comment on that in the last post that I do on this book. But first, I wanted to address how Louisa brought about the pairing of Amy and Laurie. I wish that I had not known that Amy married Laurie because I could never feel the …
Continue reading "Wrapping up Little Women Part One – Amy and Laurie"
Before I begin, I must say that right now I am positively swooning over the reading I am doing! Little Women is (sadly) winding down but surely going out with a bang. At the same time, Gone with the Wind is ramping up! It's so cool reading two books about the Civil War era (my …
Chapter 38 of Little Women, "On the Shelf" again showed me what a keen observer Louisa was. She never married nor bore any children yet her description of Meg and John's adjustment to parenthood was dead on. I listened to the audio book with my mouth open just about the whole time, in awe at …
Continue reading "Motherhood, Marriage, and Keen Observations"
Louisa May Alcott is My Passion 