In my opinion, a truly new reflection on Beth and the loveliest I have ever read. Thank you Sandra Burr!
Chapter VI. Beth Finds the Palace Beautiful
Chapter V. Being Neighborly
A lovely post about Jo’s first meetup with Laurie, and reminder to us all to be good neighbors.
By Sarah Wadsworth
Looking through the clear plastic dust jacket of my childhood copy of Little Women is like peering through a window: behind the transparent “pane,” Marmee plays the piano while the girls joyously sing. Inside, a bookplate signed in my neatest thirteen-year-old hand takes me from the Marches’ parlor to my own family home. I turn the page and an inscription—”December 1976 / Merry Christmas Sarah”—calls to mind the kindness of the giver to a book-loving girl growing up, like Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy, in a home defined by a father’s absence as well as a mother’s presence.
In “Being Neighborly,” kindness is key. The adjective “kind” appears four times, “kindly” three times, and “kinder” once. Kindness is made manifest in acts of thoughtful generosity, each one begetting reciprocal acts in kind. Eager to make friends, Jo arrives at the Laurence house bearing three kittens from Beth…
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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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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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Enough Little Women reboots — how about a full-length movie about the author?
The recent article in the Atlantic titled “The Lie of Little Women” by Sophie Gilbert (September 2018 issue) got me to thinking: when will someone step up and make a film about the real-life Jo March, Louisa May Alcott? I am not talking about another documentary; the American Masters film made by Nancy Porter and …
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Summer Conversational Series 2018: Anne Boyd Rioux: “Meg, Jo, Beth, Amy: The Story of Little Women and Why It Still Matters”
The last lecture of the day was given by Anne Boyd Rioux on her new book, Meg, Jo, Beth, Amy: The Story of Little Women and Why It Still Matters. First encounter with Little Women Anne did not read Little Women as a child; it had not given to her by her mother or grandmother. …
Summer Conversational Series 2018: John Matteson: “Little Women at 150: A conversation”
The day began with a conversation with the venerable, entertaining and much-loved Pultizer-prize-winning Alcott author and scholar John Matteson. He remarked on his good fortune to have this association with Orchard House and everyone present admitting that “I come here and I don’t feel worthy.” The kindness, goodness, and dedication that he feels every time …
Louisa May Alcott is My Passion 