LYNNE BARRETT
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Little Women, published this day, 1868

9/30/2013

7 Comments

 
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The first volume of Little Women was published on this date—Sept. 30, 1868—and was an immediate, roaring success.

Once, when I was in a writing group of women, all of us just beginning to publish, we went around the room saying what books had made us want to be writers. Little Women was the only one on everyone's list, and for me the first I thought of. I read it dozens of times, growing up, and reread it, not long ago.

I think it’s easy for a contemporary reader to miss how powerfully subversive this book was and is. It's a great example of how the actions of characters can play against the accepted mores of the time. Yes, there are characters who preach (Marmee, nicely; others less so) about the way young women should suppress critical thoughts, envy, ambition, anger, desire, and need. (Really, how much has this changed?) But what the reader remembers is how Jo's actions show the path of daring (warning: plot spoilers ahead): selling her hair to get money to help her mother, writing dramatic short stories and making money at it, walking from Concord to Boston to see an editor, rejecting the rich man she doesn’t love and choosing the poor man she wants.

PictureLouisa May Alcott, at about 25.
Beth, the sweetest and most selfless sister, dies. While this section meets all the Victorian standards for a heart-wringing deathbed (and I cried, every time I read it, as a girl, and sometimes would put it off for a few days, till I was ready), I can’t help but see now that the author kills off the self-sacrificing sister, assigns the domestic one, Meg, a placid marriage, but gives Amy, the selfish, vain one, a life of art and a kind, handsome, rich husband. On rereading, I noticed Aunt March's role much more: she's a sort of Yankee Lady Catherine de Burgh: she claims to want docility from others, but she is herself willful and controlling, and able to be so because she is single and wealthy.  Having such a character to battle with—and being stuck tending to her—helps to sharpen and define Jo, as she navigates the difficult path between being selfish and selfless.

Louisa May Alcott herself lived a life with a large share of selflessness. When Little Women was published, she was 35 and in ill-health after typhoid contracted while nursing during the Civil War. To earn money for the family’s support (because none of her philosopher father Bronson Alcott’s idealistic schemes paid), Louisa had from an early age been sewing, teaching, and writing under her own name. By the mid 1860s she was also, under a pseudonym, writing sensationalist stories full of drama (and notably ruthless characters).  Little Women paid off the family debts., and Alcott ultimately published 30 books.  Little Women (and its successors, like Jo’s Boys) also opened up a category of writing that centered on recognizable American young people coming of age in recognizable American places. Tom Sawyer, 1876, seems to me to owe some debt to Alcott, and the same could be said for the whole rich tradition of American Young Adult fiction.

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In Concord, I've visited Orchard House, where the Alcotts lived, sometimes on my own and on other occasions with the excuse of bringing visitors. I’m always bowled over by how many people come, from as far away as Japan. And often there are families where the mother and daughter have led the way, and men, who usually have never read Alcott, are there, in tow. I’m always struck by how powerful the draw of a world the writer created on the page can be, how deeply readers feel they “know” the characters, and how often girls identify with the less “good” characters, the artists, Amy and Jo.

PictureIn Louisa's chamber, half moon desk at left and a later desk—not very big either—at right.
My favorite part of the tour, always, is the bedroom called “Louisa’s chamber.” There, she wrote Little Women at a little half-moon desk, a “shelf desk” built into the wall between two windows, just a small half circle of wood. When I was a girl, I had a copy of the book that included a photo of Alcott,  older, famous, at her desk (which seemed to be no more than a shelf, too, but rectangular).  It’s the only image of a woman writer I can remember seeing, till many years later, and from it I learned: a woman can write a great book, if she has at least a desk big enough to lean her elbow on and get the job done.

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7 Comments
sara stites
9/30/2013 06:13:54 am

...and she was wearing those constricting clothes that look like they made noise when she moved....still, makes me want to go back and read Little Women - not sure I made it all the way through.

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cecilia fernandez link
9/30/2013 01:39:56 pm

How do I subscribe to your blog to get it thru email?

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Sandi
9/30/2013 08:55:48 pm

Hi Lynne, just want you to know what a wonderful writer you are. Sadly for me the first complete book I read was not until I was out of high school. Now, however, I read often and love every second of each story or subject. Since I have only seen the movie of Little Women (often and all of them through the years)... I found your insight of Ms. Alcott and this story compelling me to read the book. Thanks!

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Annie Lux
10/1/2013 02:35:17 am

Wonderful essay, Lynne! Will definitely share it!

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Lynne Barrett link
10/1/2013 04:34:02 am

Thank you all for your comments and for sharing the link with anyone you think might be interested.

Sandi: That's wonderful, that you've found the joy of reading. (And it's too bad schools so often make it seem drudgery.)

Cecilia: I don't have a feed set up here, but if you simply follow me on Goodreads (the link is on the Contact page here), I post on my blog there when there's something of interest, which includes my (not that frequent so far) blog posts here as well as publications and interviews, so you'd be notified that way.

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Beatriz link
10/6/2013 10:58:26 am

Lynne, If you read Harriet Reisen's 2009 biography of Alcott, _Louisa May Alcott: The Woman Behind Little Women_, I'd love to hear your opinion of it. I found it fascinating and learned so much about Alcott that I didn't know.

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Kylie Y link
1/9/2021 11:58:30 am

Great reead thanks

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    Lynne Barrett

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