March and the real-life Amos Bronson Alcott, Louisa’s father, both had progressive attitudes toward women’s education and equality. Jo’s sisters and mother were fictionalized versions of Alcott’s own family. If not for her own lineage, family life, and surroundings, Alcott might never have delivered such a compelling portrayal of life in the March household. This is a book that will show you what your options are and to help you find yourself.” It’s a book that’s been considered a rite of passage, I think, in growing up for girls. Instead it’s been part of the underground, shadow canon, if you will, for female writers. “It’s never been called the great American novel or anything like that, although it should be considered for that. ![]() “It’s really about mothers, grandmothers, aunts, teachers, librarians passing this book down to the younger generation,” says Anne Boyd Rioux, a professor of English at the University of New Orleans and the author of 2018’s Meg, Jo, Beth, Amy: The Story of Little Women and Why It Still Matters. Today the house is a museum, a powerful time capsule of 19th-century life, and the fact that it continues to thrive is another testament to Alcott’s long-lasting appeal. The story is beloved by readers around the world who have embraced Alcott’s deeply moral, emotionally complex tale, and many of whom have traveled to visit Orchard House, the Massachusetts home where she wrote Little Women. The novel has touched every corner of American culture, inspiring books, movies, plays, operas, and various other sorts of interpretations and adaptations-including Oscar-nominated director and screenwriter Greta Gerwig’s new movie, with Saoirse Ronan in the role of Jo. It’s rare to find a novel that has spoken so strongly to so many disparate thinkers. Alcott has become the godmother of some of modern culture’s most significant voices: Simone de Beauvoir, Gloria Steinem, J.K. Jo’s hunger for life, her principled recalcitrance, and her determination to live on her own terms have resonated across the ages in ways the author could never have anticipated. ![]() At the story’s heart is the rebellious Jo, an aspiring writer who resents the notion that she should marry and instead longs to pursue her creative passions she remains indelible among literary heroines. Taking the inner lives of girls seriously at that time amounted to a revolutionary act, and her nuanced, sensitive depiction of each of the sisters is part of what has led to the book’s remarkable staying power. With that, Alcott created a runaway best-seller-the book was written in two parts the first installment was so successful when it was published in 1868 that Alcott quickly produced a follow-up that was released the next year.Īlcott also forever changed the landscape of literary fiction. The issue revisits the roots of the Little Women story, explores the many wonderful incarnations of the story on film (and stage) and shows why the story remains as relevant today as it ever was.ĭrawing inspiration from her own life with three sisters, Alcott-who was born in 1832 and lived in an environment of financial tenuousness, burgeoning philosophical ideas, and then the Civil War-presented an honest, insightful collection of anecdotes that chronicled the passage from adolescence into adulthood for these four girls (and their mother, Marmee), each of whom presented her own distinctive model of womanhood. Then there are the heartbreaking tragedies and daily hardships that befall the girls: death, for one thing, as well as the daunting challenges of marriage and motherhood, fraught relationships, and unrequited romantic love.Īll of that and much more is brought to life in the beautiful special edition of LIFE, Little Women: A Story for Every Generation, which is available here. And there are the comically combative encounters with their wealthy, outspoken Aunt March, who has no compunction about expressing her disapproval over their somewhat unconventional lifestyle. ![]() There are the amateur dramatic productions the sisters stage inside their humble home-swashbuckling tales of high adventure. Or the time young, artistic Amy accidentally plasters herself into a bucket as she’s attempting to make a cast of her foot. Ask a fan of Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women to identify a favorite moment in the book, and you might get any number of responses. There’s the time Jo accidentally singes the hair off her older sister, Meg, as she’s helping Meg prepare for a social engagement.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Details
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |