Little women (1868) novel (Original Version)

Product Information

Heimberg, Martha (July 21, 2019). "TheaterJones | FIT Review: Jo & Louisa | Festival of Independent Theatres". TheaterJones.com . Retrieved September 26, 2019. Hannah Mullet – The March family maid and cook, their only servant. She is of Irish descent and very dear to the family. She is treated more like a member of the family than a servant.

Little Women has been one of the most widely read novels, noted by Stern from a 1927 report in The New York Times and cited in Little Women and the Feminist Imagination: Criticism, Controversy, Personal Essays. [45] Ruth MacDonald argued that "Louisa May Alcott stands as one of the great American practitioners of the girls' novel and the family story." [46] This graphic novel is a modern retelling of 'Little Women' and features a blended family". NBC News . Retrieved November 28, 2020.Miss Norton – A friendly, well-to-do tenant living in Mrs. Kirke's boarding house. She occasionally invites Jo to accompany her to lectures and concerts. Like the fictional Jo March, Alcott was the second of four daughters. She was born in Pennsylvania but spent most of her life in Concord, Massachusetts, where her father, Bronson, associated with Transcendentalist thinkers Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau. The liberal attitudes of the Transcendentalists left a strong mark on Louisa May Alcott. Her father started a school based on Transcendentalist teachings, but after six years it failed, and he was left unable to support the family. Louisa dedicated most of her life and writing to supporting her family. In 1852, her first story, the Rival Painters: A Tale of Rome, was published in a periodical, and she made a living off sentimental and melodramatic stories over the next two decades. In 1862, she worked as a nurse for Union troops in the Civil War until typhoid fever broke her health. She turned her experiences into Hospital Sketches (1863), which earned her a reputation as a serious literary writer. Beth, 13 when the story starts, is described as kind, gentle, sweet, shy, quiet, honest and musical. She is the shyest March sister and the pianist of the family. [20] :53 Infused with quiet wisdom, she is the peacemaker of the family and gently scolds her sisters when they argue. [21] As her sisters grow up, they begin to leave home, but Beth has no desire to leave her house or family. She is especially close to Jo: when Beth develops scarlet fever after visiting the Hummels, Jo does most of the nursing and rarely leaves her side. Beth recovers from the acute disease but her health is permanently weakened. Jo loves literature, both reading and writing. She composes plays for her sisters to perform and writes short stories. She initially rejects the idea of marriage and romance, feeling that it would break up her family and separate her from the sisters whom she adores. While pursuing a literary career in New York City, she meets Friedrich Bhaer, a German professor. On her return home, Laurie proposes marriage to Jo, which she rejects, thus confirming her independence. Another reason for the rejection is that the love that Laurie has for Jo is more of a sisterly love, rather than romantic love, the difference between which he was unable to understand because he was "just a boy", as said by Alcott in the book.

Marisha Chamberlain [53] [54] and June Lowery [55] have both adapted the novel as a full-length play; the latter play was staged in Luxembourg in 2014. a b c Keyser, Elizabeth Lennox (2000). Little Women: A Family Romance. University of Georgia Press. ISBN 0-8203-2280-6. 'I am Jo, in the principal characteristics, not the good ones.' While Marmee is in Washington, Beth contracts scarlet fever after spending time with a poor family where three children die. As a precaution, Amy is sent to live with Aunt March and replaces Jo as her companion and helper. Jo, who already had scarlet fever, tends to Beth. After many days of illness, the family doctor advises that Marmee be sent for immediately. Beth recovers, but never fully regains her health and energy. While "Alcott never questioned the value of domesticity", she challenged the social constructs that made spinsters obscure and fringe members of society solely because they were not married. [7] :193 " Little Women indisputably enlarges the myth of American womanhood by insisting that the home and the women's sphere cherish individuality and thus produce young adults who can make their way in the world while preserving a critical distance from its social arrangements." As with all youth, the March girls had to grow up. These sisters, and in particular Jo, were apprehensive about adulthood because they were afraid that, by conforming to what society wanted, they would lose their special individuality. [7] :199a b c LaPlante, Eve (2013). Marmee & Louisa: The Untold Story of Louisa May Alcott and Her Mother. Simon and Schuster. ISBN 978-1-4516-2067-2.

Four sisters and their mother, whom they call Marmee, live in a new neighborhood (loosely based on Concord) in Massachusetts in genteel poverty. Having lost all his money, their father is serving as a chaplain for the Union Army in the American Civil War, far from home. The mother and daughters face their first Christmas without him. When Marmee asks her daughters to give their Christmas breakfast away to an impoverished family, the girls and their mother venture into town laden with baskets to feed the hungry children. When they return, they discover their wealthy, elderly neighbor Mr. Laurence has sent over a decadent surprise dinner to make up for their breakfast. The two families become acquainted following these acts of kindness. George Cukor directed the first sound adaptation of Little Women, starring Katharine Hepburn as Jo, Joan Bennett as Amy, Frances Dee as Meg, and Jean Parker as Beth. The film was released in 1933 and was followed by an adaptation of Little Men the following year. [ citation needed] Margaret "Marmee" March – The girls' mother and head of household while her husband is away. She engages in charitable works and lovingly guides her girls' morals and their characters. She once confesses to Jo that her temper is as volatile as Jo's, but that she has learned to control it. [25] :130 Somewhat modeled after the author's own mother, she is the focus around which the girls' lives unfold as they grow. [25] :2 Cheney, Ednah Dow, ed. (1889). Louisa May Alcott: Her Life, Letters, and Journals. Boston: Applewood Books. p.190. ISBN 978-1-4290-4460-8.Susina, Jan (1999). "Men and Little Women Notes of a Resisting (Male) Reader". In Alberghene, Janice M.; Clark, Beverly Lyon (eds.). Little Women and the Feminist Imagination: Criticism, Controversy, Personal Essays. Psychology Press. pp.161–70. ISBN 978-0-8153-2049-4. Hermeling, Ines (2010). The Image of Society and Women in Louisa May Alcott's "Little Women". GRIN Verlag. p.8. ISBN 978-3-640-59122-0. In May 1868, Alcott wrote in her journal: "Niles, partner of Roberts, asked me to write a girl's book. I said I'd try." [8] :36 Alcott set her novel in an imaginary Orchard House modeled on her own residence of the same name, where she wrote the novel. [4] :xiii She later recalled that she did not think she could write a successful book for girls and did not enjoy writing it. [9] :335- "I plod away," she wrote in her diary, "although I don't enjoy this sort of things." [8] :37 From left) Emma Watson, Florence Pugh, Saoirse Ronan, and Eliza Scanlen in Little Women (2019), directed by Greta Gerwig. (more)