Little Women (Chapters 11 - 23) by Louisa May Alcott

Posted by Marzie's Reads December 01, 2019

Little Women (Chapters 11 - 23) 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.

Before we get into the next portion of the book, I thought it might be interesting to look at the lives of the Alcott sisters who inspired Louisa May Alcott's Little Women. For this week's installment, I look at Anna Bronson Alcott Pratt, the inspiration for Meg.

Little Women's Meg

Louisa May Alcott's older sister Anna Bronson Alcott was born in 1831, about a year and a half before Louisa May. Though primarily home educated, she also attended her father's Temple School in Boston. She opened her own school, with 20 students, in 1850 but then departed for a teaching position in Syracuse, NY in 1853. In 1858, the year the Alcott family moved to Orchard House in Concord, Massachusetts, Anna met John Bridge Pratt (the inspiration for Little Women's John Brooke, while playing opposite him in the Concord Dramatic Union that she and Louisa formed. Anna was a great lover of the performing arts and longed to be an actress. From an early age, Anna and Louisa created romantic and comedic plays. In 1858, the year the Alcott family moved to Orchard House in Concord, Massachusetts, Anna met John Bridge Pratt (the inspiration for Little Women's John Brooke, while playing opposite him in the Concord Dramatic Union that she and Louisa formed. They were married at Orchard House in 1860 and had two sons, Frederick Alcott Pratt and John Sewell Pratt (later John Alcott), who both became publishers. Sadly, John Pratt, Anna's husband, died suddenly in 1870, after only ten years of marriage. Anna moved into the Thoreau-Alcott home (owned by first by Henry David Thoreau, then purchased for the widowed Anna Alcott Pratt by her sister Louisa). Louisa and their father also eventually lived in the home with Anna, and it was in this home, rather than Orchard House, that Louisa May Alcott wrote Jo's Boys, the sequel to Little Women and Little Men. Sadly, though, the oldest sibling, Anna, outlived all her sisters. She remained in the Thoreau-Alcott house until her death in 1893. She was buried with the Alcott family in Sleepy Hollow Cemetary (not the Sleepy Hollow of Washington Irving fame) along with some of the great American writers of the era, including Nathaniel Hawthorne, Henry David Thoreau, and Ralph Waldo Emerson.

Little Women, Chapters 11 - 23

In these chapters, we see the March sisters becoming even more defined as to character and see Marmee March's clever way of teaching her girls life lessons. In Chapter 11, Marmee allows the girls to take a complete vacation, with no work at the house or outside at all. The "experiment" is a disaster, especially for Beth's dear little bird Pip, who goes neglected with the cessation of the usual routines and responsibilities and dies from thirst and starvation. Everything in the household becomes a snarl, and the girls learn that even vacation time needs to have some structure. As a child, I recall the death of Pip had a profound effect on me. (Even as an adult, all my fears of neglecting the care of small mammals or birds can be linked back to Pip's sad fate.)

Meanwhile, Jo March has been working on her challenges, which would be her hot temper and her impetuousness. She's making gains, and her mother lets her know she sees these improvements and encourages her. Beth, whose relationship with Laurie's grandfather has grown after she overcame her fear of him and started playing on his grand piano, is now routinely entertaining him. Laurie invites all the March sisters over to the Laurence home when he has guests, the Vaughns. Meg is made acutely aware of their social and economic class differences when she and Kate Vaughn discuss schooling and governesses. It is during this visit that Laurie's tutor Mr. Brooke's interest and admiration for Meg surfaces.

Jo March's desire to become a published writer takes a step forward with the publication of her story "The Rival Painters." Her sisters and mother are very proud of her accomplishments. Jo receives a great deal of support from Laurie for her writing, and this has deepened their friendship. That friendship becomes increasingly crucial for Amy as well, in the coming weeks.

Not long after these happy times, Marmee receives a telegram from Washington, calling her to Mr. March's bedside, for he is gravely ill. Calling on help from Aunt March and Mr. Laurence, Marmee readies herself for her trip to Washington. Since Jo knows Marmee is very short on funds she makes a great sacrifice- selling her beautiful hair to provide her mother with additional funds to keep her father comfortable. Mr. Laurence sends John Brooke, Laurie's tutor, to Washington, to help Mrs. March. Once Marmee is gone, Beth takes up her mother's charitable work of visiting poor families. However, Beth's constitution is not that of her mother, a woman who has safely given birth to four children and nursed countless others. Beth watches the very ill Hummel baby for Mrs. Hummel, the poor German mother we met in the Christmas Breakfast episode, while the mother goes for a doctor she can ill afford. The Hummel baby dies in Beth's arms, but worse still, dies from scarlet fever. (Scarlet fever is a severe form of strep throat in which the bacteria causing the infection to produce a toxin that causes a distinctive rash and severe inflammation and potentially lasting organ damage. It is still a disease seen in present times.) After her many days of visiting the Hummels, it is no surprise that Beth becomes acutely ill. The March housekeeper Hannah, left in charge of the March sisters, is left with the terrible choice of calling Mrs. March back from her husband's bedside or helping conceal Beth's illness in hopes she recovers quickly. Since Amy has never had scarlet fever, she is sent away to stay with Aunt March. Amy is very upset about this and only agrees to go because Laurie offers to come to visit her every day, to take her out for excursions, and keep her abreast of the situation with Beth's health. Laurie is incredibly good with Amy and makes her time with Aunt March, who has a soft spot for him, more endurable. For a time, this delicate balancing act works, but as Beth's condition steadily worsens, much to the horror of Hannah, Meg, and Jo, difficult decisions are made. Ultimately, Mr. Laurence notifies Mrs. March of the severity of Beth's illness even before Hannah, and the girls do, and Marmee returns home, leaving her husband in the care of the able Mr. Brooke. Beth manages to survive scarlet fever, but her health has been greatly compromised by the illness, as we shall see in the coming years. Not long afterward, Mr. March returns home.

One of the consequences of Mr. Brooke's going with Mrs. March to care for Mr. March is that he becomes more ensconced in the March family. He's been carrying a torch for Meg March since he first met her (Laurie reveals to Jo that Brooke has a missing glove of Meg's and carries it with him everywhere in a coat pocket) and Mrs. March begins to grow quite fond of the young man. Mr. March also thinks highly of him. Jo is very upset by all this because the growing likelihood of a match between John Brooke and her beloved Meg means a lasting change to the little group of March sisters is imminent, and it's not a change Jo wants to contemplate. Laurie senses something is wrong and in a prank, writes to Meg in John Brooke's name, creating a very embarrassing situation when Meg writes back to John. This is the first truly serious fight that Jo and Laurie have, not least because initially Jo is blamed when, in fact, it's just that Laurie surmises enough of what is going on to play an ungentlemanly prank on Meg. His grandfather, who doesn't know the details, is furious with him, and we begin to learn more about Laurie's character and some of the bitter legacy of his dead father's fight with Laurie's grandfather. It's an interesting, if brief, look at the Laurence family dynamics and Mr. Laurence trying to break a cycle of events where fathers (or father figures) and sons break irretrievably apart.

Beth's illness has a profound effect on Amy March and proves a turning point in her maturation and ability to think of others before herself. Marmee notes that Amy has become less vain, more patient, and kinder. The March family draws closer once they are reunited, though the atmosphere surrounding the growing affection between Meg and John frustrates both Meg and Jo, for differing reasons. Meg recognizes that she is too young to marry and seems ready to declare this to Brooke. However, her Aunt March's interference, her insults about John Brooke (Cook, Book, Rook!), and her threats to cut Meg out of her inheritance have the opposite effect, confirming her regard for John and sealing her commitment to become engaged to him. The events of this chapter close out the first part of the book we now call Little Women. Our next installment in this readathon will open with the second part, Good Wives.