Good Wives

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Second Part of Little Women, or Good Wives, published in 1869 and afterward published together with Little Women. Guide to Louisa May Alcott additional papers, 1845–1945, MS Am 1817 at Houghton Library, Harvard University Mother and I are going to wait for John. There are some last things to settle,” said Meg, bustling away. The Vaughans – English friends of Laurie's who come to visit him. Kate is the oldest of the Vaughan siblings, and prim and proper Grace is the youngest. The middle siblings, Fred and Frank, are twins; Frank is the younger twin.

Humanity, Said Edgar Allan Poe, Is Divided Into Men, Women, And Margaret Fuller". American Heritage . Retrieved December 28, 2022. Alcott, Louisa May. “Aunt Jo's Scrap Bag.” The Project Gutenberg EBook of Aunt Jo's Scrap Bag, by Louisa M. Alcott., www.gutenberg.org/files/26041/26041-h/26041-h.htm. Lizzie was buried in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery in Concord, Massachusetts, on a patch of land she’d chosen before her death. Thoreau and Emerson served as pallbearers. “Emerson told the officiating minister, who did not know the family well, that Lizzie was a good, unselfish, patient child, who made friends even in death,” John Matteson wrote in Eden’s Outcasts. “Everyone seemed to forget that they were not burying a child but a woman of twenty-two.” In the late 20th century, some scholars criticized the novel. Sarah Elbert, for instance, wrote that Little Women was the beginning of "a decline in the radical power of women's fiction", partly because women's fiction was being ideal Poverty made it necessary for Alcott to go to work at an early age as a teacher, seamstress, governess, domestic helper, and writer. Her sisters also supported the family, working as seamstresses, while their mother took on social work among the Irish immigrants. Only the youngest, Abigail, was able to attend public school. Due to all of these pressures, writing became a creative and emotional outlet for Alcott. [8] Her first book was Flower Fables (1849), a selection of tales originally written for Ellen Emerson, daughter of Ralph Waldo Emerson. [11] Alcott is quoted as saying "I wish I was rich, I was good, and we were all a happy family this day" [13] and was driven in life not to be poor.In the first chapter of Little Women, when Louisa May Alcott is doling out archetypes to the siblings, Beth asks, “If Jo is a tomboy and Amy a goose, what am I, please?”

John Brooke – During his employment as a tutor to Laurie, he falls in love with Meg. He accompanies Mrs. March to Washington D.C. when her husband is ill with pneumonia. When Laurie leaves for college, Brooke continues his employment with Mr. Laurence as a bookkeeper. When Aunt March overhears Meg accepting John's declaration of love, she threatens Meg with disinheritance because she suspects that Brooke is only interested in Meg's future prospects. Eventually, Meg admits her feelings to Brooke, they defy Aunt March (who ends up accepting the marriage), and they are engaged. Brooke serves in the Union Army for a year and is sent home as an invalid when he is wounded. Brooke marries Meg a few years later when the war has ended and she has turned twenty. Brooke was modeled after John Bridge Pratt, Alcott's sister Anna's husband. [27]Transcendental Wild Oats (1873) A short piece about Alcott's family and the Transcendental Movement. Little Women inspired film versions in 1933, 1949, 1994, 2018, and 2019. The novel also inspired television series in 1958, 1970, 1978, and 2017, anime versions in 1981 and 1987, and a 2005 musical. The three years that have passed have brought but few changes to the quiet family. The war is over, and Mr. March safely at home, busy with his books and the small parish which found in him a minister by nature as by grace–a quiet, studious man, rich in the wisdom that is better than learning, the charity which calls all mankind “brother,” the piety that blossoms into character, making it august and lovely. Toodles is coming,” cried Jo from below; and they all went to meet Laurie, whose weekly visit was an Important event in their quiet lives. Mrs. March is as brisk and cheery, though rather grayer, than when we saw her last, and just now so absorbed in Meg’s affairs that the hospitals and homes, still full of wounded “boys” and soldiers’ widows, decidedly miss the motherly missionary’s visits.

These attributes, in spite of poverty and the strict integrity, which shut him out from the more worldly successes, attracted to him many admirable persons, as naturally as sweet herbs draw bees, and as naturally he gave them the honey into which fifty years of hard experience had distilled no bitter drop. Earnest young men found the gray-headed scholar as young at heart as they; thoughtful or troubled women instinctively brought their doubts and sorrows to him, sure of finding the gentlest sympathy, the wisest counsel; sinners told their sins to the pure-hearted old man, and were both rebuked and saved; gifted men found a companion in him; ambitious men caught glimpses of nobler ambitions than their own; and even worldlings confessed that his beliefs were beautiful and true, although “they wouldn’t pay.” Powell, K. (n.d.). Louisa May Alcott Family Tree and Genealogy – ThoughtCo.. Retrieved March 20, 2018 [ permanent dead link]Alcott was an abolitionist and a feminist and remained unmarried throughout her life. She also spent her life active in such reform movements as temperance and women's suffrage. [5] She died from a stroke in Boston on March 6, 1888, just two days after her father had died.

Martin, Lauren (November 29, 2016). "Louisa May Alcott's Quotes That Lived 184 Years". Words of Women. Archived from the original on June 3, 2019 . Retrieved June 3, 2019. Guide to Louisa May Alcott additional papers, 1839–1888, MS Am 2114 at Houghton Library, Harvard UniversityHis sister, Elizabeth, was 40 years old and suffered from neuralgia. [19] Elizabeth was shy and did not seem to have much use for Alcott. [19] Instead, Richardson spent hours reading her poetry and treating her like his confidant and companion, sharing his personal thoughts and feelings with her. [19] Alcott reminded Richardson that she was supposed to be Elizabeth's companion, not his, and she was tired of listening to his "philosophical, metaphysical, and sentimental rubbish." [19] He responded by assigning her more laborious duties, including chopping wood and scrubbing the floors. [19] What’s the last joke? Undo the bundle and see, Meg,” said Beth, eying the knobby parcel with curiosity. Then don’t go and be suspicious. I only want some money,” said Laurie, walking on again, appeased by her hearty tone. Other films based on Alcott novels and stories are An Old-Fashioned Girl (1949), The Inheritance (1997), and An Old Fashioned Thanksgiving (2008). In 2009 PBS produced an American Masters episode titled "Louisa May Alcott – The Woman Behind 'Little Women' ". In 2016 a Google Doodle of the author was created by Google artist Sophie Diao. [55]