Little Women полностью

The story of Louisa Alcott’s life has been, to a certain extent, told by herself in “Little Women.” At least, the character of Jo was drawn from her own experiences and full of her own individuality, but hers throughout was a more notable history than the world knew. A girl, whose earliest teacher was Margaret Fuller; who, at ten years of age, learned to know the seasons in their varied dress and nature in its deepest meanings under Thoreau’s guidance; to whom, men like Emerson, Channing, Ripley, and Hawthorne were every-day company, yet who was brought up almost in poverty, and with the necessity of work at home if not abroad; who had a fund of downright common sense and keen humor underlying all transcendental influence, – is one who, as a woman, might be expected to have made her mark, and she did it by the simplest, kindliest, cheeriest of writing, and the sweetest of companionship and kindness toward others.

– Cosmopolitan (May 1888)

1. Is it possible to formulate just what it is that has made Little Women so popular for so long – or does the answer lie in intangibles?

2. Do you feel Alcott pressuring the reader, no matter how obliquely, to take Jo as a role model?

3. Which of the sisters do you find most congenial? Why? Which of the sisters do you find most admirable? Why? Is this difference significant?

4. What might a man find to interest or move him in Little Women?

Alcott, Louisa May. The Journals of Louisa May Alcott. Edited by Joel Myerson, Daniel Shealy, and Madeleine B. Stern. Boston: Little, Brown, 1989.

–. The Selected Letters of Louisa May Alcott. Edited by Joel Myerson, Daniel Shealy, and Madeleine B. Stern. Boston: Little, Brown, 1987.

Bedell, Madelon. The Alcotts: Biography of a Family. New York: Clarkson Potter, 1980.

Cheney, Ednah Dow, ed. Louisa May Alcott: Her Life, Letters and Journals. Boston: Little, Brown, 1928.

Elbert, Sarah. A Hunger for Home: Louisa May Alcott and Little Women. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press, 1984.

Saxton, Martha. Louisa May: A Modern Biography of Louisa May Alcott. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1977.

Stern, Madeleine B. Louisa May Alcott: A Biography. Boston: Northeastern University Press, 1999. A new edition of the standard Alcott biography.

–. Louisa May Alcott: From Blood & Thunder to Hearth & Home. Boston: Northeastern University Press, 1998.

Eiselein, Gregory, and Anne K. Phillips, eds. The Louisa May Alcott Encyclopedia. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2001.

Payne, Alma J. Louisa May Alcott: A Reference Guide. Boston: G. K. Hall, 1980.

Alternative Alcott. Edited and with an introduction by Elaine Showalter. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1988. Includes selections from Hospital Sketches, An Old-Fashioned Girl, Work, and many others.

The Feminist Alcott: Stories of a Woman’s Power. Edited and with an introduction by Madeleine B. Stem. Boston: Northeastern University Press, 1996. Includes “Pauline’s Passion and Punishment,” “V.V.: or, Plots and Counterplots,” “Behind a Mask: or, A Woman’s Power,” and “Taming a Tartar.”

The Inheritance. Edited by Joel Myerson and Daniel Shealy. New York: Penguin, 1998. Alcott’s first novel, written when she was seventeen years old.

A Long Fatal Love Chase. Edited by Kent Bicknell. New York: Dell, 1995. Unpublished as too sensational during Alcott’s lifetime.

A Marble Woman: Unknown Thrillers of Louisa May Alcott. Edited by Madeleine B. Stern. New York: Avon, 1976. Includes letters between Alcott and her publisher, “V.V.: or, Plots and Counterplots,” “A Marble Woman: or, The Mysterious Model,” “The Skeleton in the Closet,” “A Whisper in the Dark,” and “Perilous Play.”

Alberghene, Janice M. and Beverly Lyon Clark, eds. Little Women and the Feminist Imagination: Criticism, Controversy, Personal Essays. New York: Garland Publishing, 1999. Collected essays and commentary by scholars.