Summary of Little Women by Louisa May Alcott , livre ebook

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Little Women is many things: a coming-of-age story; a collection of anecdotes illustrating life in Civil War-era America; a pastiche of domestic and didactic fictions; a reflection on living morally and a proto-feminist critique of 19th-century “separate spheres” ideology. Louisa May Alcott’s best-known, beloved novel draws readers into the world of the four March sisters – Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy – and their mother, Marmee, and follows the girls as they grow from impulsive teens into mature young women. Alcott’s episodic narrative showcases the girls’ individuality and ambitions, their triumphs and trials, their shortcomings and evolving characters, and their relationships with one another, with their mother and with society at large. Its voice is in a manner that is, alternatingly, humorous, uplifting and, sometimes, heartbreaking. Alcott’s novel doesn’t resist sentimentality, but it balances, and, ultimately, transcends it with realistic depictions of the challenges inherent in the pursuit of true vocation and true love, the burden of domestic labor, and the effects of social pressures and life’s challenges – including illness – on female ambition.

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Publié par	GetAbstract AG
Date de parution	23 décembre 2019
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9798887270494
Langue	English

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0250€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

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Little Women
Louisa May Alcott•First edition: Boston 1868/69

Coming-of-age story
Realism

Take-Aways Alcott’s most well-known and loved novel, Little Women pairs heartwarming life lessons with more radical ideas about women’s roles in 19th-century America. Sisters Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy March learn to bear relative poverty following the warm example of their mother, Marmee, while their father is away at war. Jo, who wants to be a writer, befriends her rich neighbor, a boy named Laurie. Beth becomes ill and never fully recovers her health. Meg marries and has twins. Jo travels to New York and meets the kindly Professor Bhaer. Jo rejects her dear friend Laurie’s proposal. He travels to Europe where, after Beth’s death, he falls for, and marries Amy, an artist, traveling there with her elderly mentor. Jo discovers she loves Mr. Bhaer. They marry and open a boys’ school. Both Alcott’s transcendentalist father and her social activist mother shaped Alcott’s worldview. Alcott wrote Little Women quickly and with reluctance. Both she and her publisher were surprised by its immediate, overwhelming popularity. She followed it with Little Men , about the boys in Jo’s school. It was also excellent but less popular. Alcott drew inspiration for Little Women from her mother’s childhood memories and those of her own. Little Women makes domestic labor highly visible, showing it as necessary and important. Alcott uses both Jo and Laurie to illustrate the sometimes artificial nature of gender norms. Little Women portrays marriage as an equal partnership – a radical notion in its time. Little Women both reflects and critiques the 19th-century “separate spheres” ideology, that men and women inhabit different realms. This idea all but barred women from public life and encouraged submissive, domestically minded femininity. “I’ve got the key to my castle in the air, but whether I can unlock the door remains to be seen.” (Jo)

What It’s About
The Trials and Triumphs of Coming-of-Age
Little Women is many things: a coming-of-age story; a collection of anecdotes illustrating life in Civil War-era America; a pastiche of domestic and didactic fictions; a reflection on living morally and a proto-feminist critique of 19th-century “separate spheres” ideology. Louisa May Alcott’s best-known, beloved novel draws readers into the world of the four March sisters – Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy – and their mother, Marmee, and follows the girls as they grow from impulsive teens into mature young women. Alcott’s episodic narrative showcases the girls’ individuality and ambitions, their triumphs and trials, their shortcomings and evolving characters, and their relationships with one another, with their mother and with society at large. Its voice is in a manner that is, alternatingly, humorous, uplifting and, sometimes, heartbreaking. Alcott’s novel doesn’t resist sentimentality, but it balances, and, ultimately, transcends it with realistic depictions of the challenges inherent in the pursuit of true vocation and true love, the burden of domestic labor, and the effects of social pressures and life’s challenges – including illness – on female ambition.

Summary
Holiday Adventures
On a snowy December evening, the March sisters – pretty Meg , boyish Jo , gentle Beth , and prim Amy – sit together and bemoan their family’s poverty. Meg, who works as a governess, and Jo, who acts as a companion to their Aunt March , complain about the difficulties of their jobs, while Beth frets about housework and Amy worries about school. But after their mother, Marmee , returns home with a letter from their father – who is serving as a chaplain in the Civil War – the girls resolve to stop complaining.
On Christmas morning, Marmee asks the girls if they would be willing to give their breakfast to the all-but-starving Hummel family . They agree and find joy in being unselfish. That night, the girls perform a play Jo wrote and enjoy treats sent by their wealthy neighbor, Mr. Laurence . After Christmas, Jo and Meg receive an invitation to a New Year’s Eve party. During the party, Jo hides in a curtained area where she meets Mr. Lawrence’s nephew, Laurie . The two bond quickly. When Meg sprains her ankle, Laurie offers his carriage to take them home.
“I want to do something splendid…that won’t be forgotten after I’m dead.

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