Jo, meantime, devoted herself to literature and Beth, who remained delicate, long after the fever was a thing of the past. The stories are moral heavy and the writing isn’t particularly outstanding or quote worthy for a classic, but it will warm your soul and comfort your heart as if it had been placed by a crackling fire. I remember feeling so keenly with Meg when she has the unexpected dinner guest and hoping I could be a quarter as good a mother as Mrs March!

While Marmee is in Washington, Beth contracts scarlet fever after spending time with a poor family where three children die.

It was play then but there came a time when I was truly grateful that I not only possessed the will but the power to cook wholesome food for my little girls, and help myself when I could no longer afford to hire help. 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. Alcott delivered the manuscript for the second volume on New Year's Day 1869, just three months after publication of part one. You wouldn’t have me let that fine fellow work himself to death, just for the want of a little help, when he is worth a dozen of us lazy chaps, would you?

Binding reasonably firm, general edge-wear, lean to text-block, all page edges gilt, rear-outer-hinge holding but fraying, minor innocuous repairs to inner-hinges. While "Alcott never questioned the value of domesticity", she challenged the social co

And here let me premise, that if any of the elders think there is too much “lovering” in the story, as I fear they may (I’m not afraid the young folks will make that objection), I can only say with Mrs. So, it was much to my surprise that a few chapters in, I found myself rather enchanted, and subsequently made my way through the second book Good Wives as well within a space of a week.

Curl up with this timeless classic, and your new best friends – Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy, the four March sisters whose lives will bring tears to your eyes and warmth to your heart, and whose stories will stay with you forever. Adult elements of women's fiction in Little Women included "a change of heart necessary" for the female protagonist to evolve in the story. I remember you saying that you preferred Good Wives, which is interesting, as we often rate books mostly the same. I believe that if I had read this as one book, it would have reached 5 stars for me, but I am glad I was able to judge this as a separate text.Oh you are too kind – I am just the same- always making resolutions and five minutes later, there I am, mouth open, impatient ramblings issuing forth. The four March girls are all dreamers striving for success, but they have a lot to learn, and the book follows their successes and many failures, some academic, but mostly moral, as they learn to grow up with good womanly values. However, Amy's morality does appear to develop throughout her adolescence and early adulthood, and she can confidently and justly put Laurie in his place when she believes he is wasting his life on pleasurable activities. Bhaer has all the qualities Bronson Alcott lacked: warmth, intimacy, and a tender capacity for expressing his affection—the feminine attributes Alcott admired and hoped men could acquire in a rational, feminist world. Alcott glorifiziert in diesen Büchern zwar das Familienleben und die weiblichen Wünsche" nach Ehemann und Familie, gleichzeitig schaffte sie es jedoch, ihre eigene, eher liberale Einstellung und den Wunsch nach Unabhängigkeit zu vermitteln.