Generations of readers young and old, male and female, have fallen in love with the March sisters of Louisa May Alcott’s most popular and enduring novel, Little Women. Here are talented tomboy and author-to-be Jo, tragically frail Beth, beautiful Meg, and romantic, spoiled Amy, united in their devotion to each other and their struggles to survive in New England during the Civil...
Generations of readers young and old, male and female, have fallen in love with the March sisters of Louisa May Alcott’s most popular and enduring novel, Little Women. Here are talented tomboy and author-to-be Jo, tragically frail Beth, beautiful Meg, and romantic, spoiled Amy, united in their devotion to each other and their struggles to survive in New England during the Civil War.
It is no secret that Alcott based Little Women on her own early life. While her father, the freethinking reformer and abolitionist Bronson Alcott, hobnobbed with such eminent male authors as Emerson, Thoreau, and Hawthorne, Louisa supported herself and her sisters with �woman’s work,” including sewing, doing laundry, and acting as a domestic servant. But she soon discovered she could make more money writing. Little Women brought her lasting fame and fortune, and far from being the �girl’s book” her publisher requested, it explores such timeless themes as love and death, war and peace, the conflict between personal ambition and family responsibilities, and the clash of cultures between Europe and America.
Louisa May Alcott was born in Germantown, Pennsylvania on November 29, 1832. She and her three sisters, Anna, Elizabeth and May were educated by their father, philosopher/ teacher, Bronson Alcott and raised on the practical Christianity of their mother, Abigail May.
Louisa spent her childhood in Boston and in Concord, Massachusetts, where her days were enlightened by visits to ...
Louisa May Alcott was born in Germantown, Pennsylvania on November 29, 1832. She and her three sisters, Anna, Elizabeth and May were educated by their father, philosopher/ teacher, Bronson Alcott and raised on the practical Christianity of their mother, Abigail May.
Louisa spent her childhood in Boston and in Concord, Massachusetts, where her days were enlightened by visits to Ralph Waldo Emerson’s library, excursions into nature with Henry David Thoreau and theatricals in the barn at Hillside (now Hawthorne’s "Wayside").
Like her character, Jo March in Little Women, young Louisa was a tomboy: "No boy could be my friend till I had beaten him in a race," she claimed, " and no girl if she refused to climb trees, leap fences...."
For Louisa, writing was an early passion. She had a rich imagination and often her stories became melodramas that she and her sisters would act out for friends. Louisa preferred to play the "lurid" parts in these plays, "the villains, ghosts, bandits, and disdainful queens."
At age 15, troubled by the poverty that plagued her family, she vowed: "I will do something by and by. Don’t care what, teach, sew, act, write, anything to help the family; and I’ll be rich and famous and happy before I die, see if I won’t!"
Confronting a society that offered little opportunity to women seeking employment, Louisa determined "...I will make a battering-ram of my head and make my way through this rough and tumble world." Whether as a teacher, seamstress, governess, or household servant, for many years Louisa did any work she could find.
Louisa’s career as an author began with poetry and short stories that appeared in popular magazines. In 1854, when she was 22, her first book Flower Fables was published. A milestone along her literary path was Hospital Sketches (1863) based on the letters she had written home from her post as a nurse in Washington, DC as a nurse during the Civil War.
When Louisa was 35 years old, her publisher Thomas Niles in Boston asked her to write "a book for girls." Little Women was written at Orchard House from May to July 1868. The novel is based on Louisa and her sisters’ coming of age and is set in Civil War New England. Jo March was the first American juvenile heroine to act from her own individuality; a living, breathing person rather than the idealized stereotype then prevalent in children’s fiction.
In all, Louisa published over 30 books and collections of stories. She died on March 6, 1888, only two days after her father, and is buried in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery in Concord.
" ... I only loved you all the more, and I worked hard to please you, and I gave up billiards and everything you didn't like, and waited and never complained, for I hoped you'd love me, though I'm not half good enough - " ...
"Yes, you are; you're a great deal too good for me, and I'm so grateful to you, and so proud and fond of you, I don't see why I can't love you as you want me to, I've tried, but I can't change the feeling, and it would be a lie to say I do when I don't." (查看原文)
Old-fashioned writing style with life trifles. Compulsory preach tune. Teddy and Jo, how lovely. Author let Jo chose Mr. B just to prove she is high-hearted. God, I hate this book.
![[美国] 路易莎·梅·奥尔科特](https://img9.doubanio.com/view/personage/m/public/aba0073fdf5567d0ae07f4606fa9b455.jpg)
路易莎·梅·奥尔科特 作者
陌歌
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木已成粥
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黄油小熊的拿铁
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诺桑觉寺
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青文非
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暖暖_jm
1 有用 妖妖木 2017-02-20 09:42:41
Old-fashioned writing style with life trifles. Compulsory preach tune. Teddy and Jo, how lovely. Author let Jo chose Mr. B just to prove she is high-hearted. God, I hate this book.
1 有用 free night 2012-05-02 11:42:19
建议读完Part I既可，Part II 成了言情片片。
2 有用 你做了错饭 2020-12-04 00:09:18
挺失望的..Jo明明有鸿鹄大志，却还是走了大多数人走的路。书里也隐约透露女人要为男人服务让步的思想..结局的时候Amy还说和Jo不一样，她没有放弃艺术家事业，也没有像Jo一样为了他人限制自己..或许作者不写个完美结局不能出版，但这真的和我设想的不一样。Jo应该好好写作，去其他国家闯荡，可她怎么也因为寂寞就和教授在一起了。这难道是注定的结局吗？我一开始就很喜欢Jo，也认为自己会成为Jo那样野心勃勃敢... 挺失望的..Jo明明有鸿鹄大志，却还是走了大多数人走的路。书里也隐约透露女人要为男人服务让步的思想..结局的时候Amy还说和Jo不一样，她没有放弃艺术家事业，也没有像Jo一样为了他人限制自己..或许作者不写个完美结局不能出版，但这真的和我设想的不一样。Jo应该好好写作，去其他国家闯荡，可她怎么也因为寂寞就和教授在一起了。这难道是注定的结局吗？我一开始就很喜欢Jo，也认为自己会成为Jo那样野心勃勃敢想敢做的人，可是看到她依旧结婚，（虽然开了学校帮助孩子），可是搁置了自己写作的梦想啊！！难道我以后也会变成这样吗？我真的在这个里面看到太少的女性独立了。 (展开)
1 有用 阿妍妍妍妍妍 2020-08-14 01:20:31
每个女孩的成长都伴随着castle in the air随现实改变的过程。可以接受结局。
5 有用 Millo 2010-07-23 17:13:28
我是个俗人，没看出什么基督教清教的东西出来。 对Jo没有跟Laurie在一起，而Laurie居然最后跟Amy在一起，最过分的是最后Jo居然沦为一个家庭妇女的结局表示非常非常失望。