Little Women (Chapters 1 - 10) by Louisa May Alcott

Posted by Marzie's Reads November 28, 2019

Little Women (Chapters 1 - 10) by Louisa May Alcott

Welcome to my Book Fairy readathon of Louisa May Alcott's best-known novel, "Little Women." I am participating in the Book Fairy International plan of reading this book in full before the December 25th release of actress and director Greta Gerwig's adaptation of the novel for film. You're welcome to join in with thoughts and comments.

Louisa May Alcott was born in Germantown, Pennsylvania on November 29, 1932. She was the second daughter in a family of four girls. Her parents, Abigail May and Amos Bronson Alcott were transcendentalists, following in the tradition of Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau, who were family friends. (Emerson once loaned the Alcotts the funds to purchase a home in Concord, Massachusetts, though it was not Orchard House, the home most famously associated with Louisa May Alcott. The home was later acquired by family friend Nathaniel Hawthorne.) Transcendentalism had a broad influence on the Alcott family and upon Louisa May's writing. Jo March's love of nature, desire for justice, and resolve to improve herself exemplifies her transcendentalist thinking. You can see more about the role of transcendentalism in her life on PBS. Although her early works of fiction were not successful, when her publisher asked her to write a novel about girls, Alcott's chosen model for the March sisters and their family was her own family. It was the authenticity of this family story (continued in Little Men and Jo's Boys) that yielded her most celebrated work. Her older sister Anna was her model for the excellent Meg. Her sister Abigail May was the model for her youngest sister, the sometimes difficult and spoiled Amy. And Elizabeth or "Lizzie," who died at twenty-two, was her Beth March. The novel Little Women, while dated in some respects, retains much of its freshness due to its depiction of sisterly love and often painful sisterly anger. The relationship between the March girls, each so different from the other, each so bound in the love for each other, feels real because the basis for the characters was real.

Many readers do not know that Little Women, as we read it today, was actually originally published as two separate novels. The first volume was titled Little Women, while the second was titled Good Wives. If you want to read the full version of the book we today call Little Women, you should be sure you're getting both because many publishers and even some audiobook producers only give you book one. Your book should have at least five hundred pages, and your audiobook would be at least fifteen hours long.

Little Women, Chapters 1 -10

It's been decades since I read Little Women, and the first thing that strikes me when I read today is the religiosity of the March family. (I have wondered if those of non-Christian faiths might find the overtly religious nature of some portions of the novel might be somewhat off-putting.) The novel opens with the March girls lamenting the Christmas holiday and the fact that they won't be receiving presents. We are introduced to Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy March and their mother, Margaret March, or as they call her, Marmee. Each of the sisters possesses a unique manner and character. Meg, the oldest, is polished and responsible. Jo, the writer of the family, is hot-tempered and something of a tomboy. (It is ironic, as Karen Quimby has pointed out, that Jo, who is disappointed to be a girl, has one of the most celebrated girlhoods in American fiction.) Beth is shy, quiet, and very good-hearted. Amy, the youngest, has artistic skills, and, in that way that youngest children are often portrayed, is a spoiled and selfish child. As we are introduced to the girls, we see how their characters differ yet they all love their mother dearly and recognize her charitable nature. Marmee thinks of others before she thinks of herself. Her daughters, especially Meg and Beth, aspire to emulate this quality. So on Christmas morning, it is no surprise that when Marmee asks the girls to give up their beautiful Christmas breakfast for a poor family, where the mother is ill and the children are cold and starving in a poorly insulated home, the girls agree without much obvious disappointment. It is this sacrifice that brings them to the attention of their kind neighbor, the wealthy Mr. Laurence, and thus brings his grandson Laurie into the lives of the March family.

The early chapters of the book capture the diversions (play-acting, games, writing, drawing, singing, and playing the piano) that are the core of the March sisters' family life. Theodore Laurence, aka Laurie, or Teddy as Jo sometimes calls him, is about Jo's same age, and has been leading a lonely and sheltered life. The March sisters change his life with their good-natured family. His closest friend among the sisters is undoubtedly Jo, with whom he shares an ebullient nature, a streak of mischief, and a rather hot-tempered disposition. Speaking of temper, in these early chapters we also see the occasional fierce anger and jealousy between siblings, for example Amy, in a fit of anger, burns Jo's only copy of a novel she's been working on for over a year. Yet, when days later Amy falls through melting ice and almost drowns, Jo is beside herself for the role she played in the accident by ignoring her younger sister's safety. Amy also finds herself in trouble at school for flouting the rules, and her sisters rally to her support for what is viewed as inappropriate and excessive punishment. All in all, these chapters give us a warm introduction into the world of the March sisters.

Let's see where the March family goes from here in the next ten chapters. And, in the coming weeks, I plan to post photos from Louisa May Alcott's family home, Orchard House, which is now a museum in Concord, Massachusetts. I want to visit when we have snow, to get my own photos like this one below, and get the feel of Orchard House at the opening of Little Women.