Joy lacking

"Rose and her Aunts", frontispiece illustration to the first edition, Roberts Bros, Boston, 1875 (Wikipedia)

Early in the book, there were several reasons why Rose was a timid, teary child (the untimely death of her dear father, too many “cooks in the kitchen” with all her aunts, etc.). Much of the joy had been taken out of her life and most especially in her education.

Too preachy?

Bronson Alcott’s presence is strongly felt in Louisa’s commentary on Rose’s education. Eight Cousins seems to be full of such commentaries (remember chapter 5, A Belt and a Box). I can see why readers complain about the preachy nature of her books for children.

The “Miss Power” approach to education

Illustration by Robert Doremus

Rose loved studying with her father but found the boarding school and Miss Power oppressive:

“I used to understand a great deal better when papa taught me a few lessons than when Miss Power hurried me through so many . . .”

Uncle Alec chose a wonderful way to describe the problem:

“ . . . I find and I dare say it would be if the benighted lady did not think it necessary to cram her pupils like Thanksgiving turkeys, instead of feeding them in a natural and wholesome way. It is the fault with most American schools, and the poor little heads will go on aching till we learn better.”

The voice of Bronson

Uncle Alec is obviously the mouthpiece of Louisa’s own father who proposed many educational reforms. Louisa has a talent for taking the often obtuse way Bronson would record his ideas and making them understandable for children.

A gift of gab

Fred Willis & Louisa; Illustration by Flora Smith

A frequent boarder with the Alcotts, Frederick Llewellyn Willis (who became like a brother to the girls) wrote in his Alcott Memoirs that “Mr. Alcott’s table talks were constantly delightful . . . he took especial care to so discourse that the youngest listener might comprehend and fully understand.” He quotes a child as saying, “I love to hear him talk. He is so plain and tells me so much I didn’t know, fastening it on to what I know.”

Talk doesn’t translate into writing

Perhaps this is how Louisa was able to distill her father’s philosophy of education into simpler form. It’s a shame that Bronson’s writing could not capture the magic of his dialog with children!

Everyday lessons

Like Bronson, Uncle Alec uses the experiences of everyday life to teach Rose her lessons:

• A boat trip out on the harbor ends with a visit to a ship in from Hong Kong where Rose meets two men from China and soaks up the local color.
• Alec helps Rose sort through her account book to teach her how to manage her financial affairs. Rose has a terrible time with figures but swears she will “hunt up her old arithmetic and perfect herself in the first four rules, before she read any more fairy tales.”
• Rose reads aloud to her uncle who feigns tiredness; he is so enchanted with her skill that he asks her to read some more.

Enter the dreaded Aunt Jane

When Aunt Jane stops in to visit, she is very critical of Alec’s methods (although she is judging without having actually seen them). Jane is the very strict member of the Aunt-Hill; she is a great believer of the Miss Powers method of teaching, bragging that her sons hit the books all day long.

Rose shows her!

Jane assumes that Rose has been petted to death by her uncle and wasting her time reading “trash” with him, but Rose has the last laugh when asked about her lessons:

“I’ve had five to-day, ma’am . . . Navigation, geography, grammar, arithmetic, and keeping my temper.”

Aunt Jane blown away!

She then proceeds to show off her knowledge of China after her visit to the boat from Hong Kong which shocks Jane:

“The effect of this remarkable burst was immense . . . it entirely took the wind out of Aunt Jane’s sails; it was so sudden, so varied and unexpected, that she had not a word to say. The glasses remained fixed full upon Rose for a moment, and then, with a hasty ‘Oh, indeed!’ the excellent lady bundled into her carriage and drove away, somewhat bewildered and very much disturbed”

A triumph indeed!

Needless to say, Alec and Rose enjoyed their triumph thoroughly:

“She would have been more so if she had seen her reprehensible brother-in-law dancing a triumphal polka down the hall with Rose in honour of having silenced the enemy’s battery for once”

Bronson, I’m sure, would have been quite pleased as well.

This book is fun but . . . do you find Eight Cousins to be preachy? Does it bother you?

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The question was, “Do you know of any information about what Louisa and her mother taught about fashionable clothing? Do you know if she was reading doctors or feminists who were revealing the deleterious nature of fashion?” (thanks to Sarah).

Did Louisa read up on fashion? Apparently …

I belong to the Louisa May Alcott Society and posted the question to members. Melissa M. Pennell, Ph.D., professor of English at UMass Lowell responded with the following:

“There was lots being discussed about women and dress reform in New England – you might like to consult some of the writing done by Mary Livermore and Elizabeth Stuart Phelps*, as well as Amelia Bloomer. LMA and her mother were certainly aware of the work of these writers.  There are also a number of items that appear in the “medical” and advice literature of the time.”

From left to right, Mary Lvermore, Elizabeth Stuart Phelps and Amelia Bloomer

I haven’t had the opportunity to look up the opinions of these writers on fashion, perhaps some of you have. I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Interesting tidbit

*Elizabeth Stuart Phelps was an author, writing for children as well as adults. I found this line from an online biography rather interesting (bold emphasis is mine):

“Phelps also wrote the four-volume Gypsy Brenton series, her best-known juvenile work. One commentary notes that Gypsy, a more tomboyish figure than the characters in the Tiny series, “set the pattern for the engaging tomboy heroine [later popularized by Alcott's Little Women, Susan Coolidge's What Katy Did, and subsequent characters such as Carol Ryrie Brink's Caddie Woodlawn and Wilder's Laura Ingalls] and demonstrated the popularity of the tomboy’s story.” (click here to read the entire bio).

Here are a couple of the books:

Gypsy Breynton by Elizabeth Stuart Phelps
Gypsy’s Cousin Joy by Elizabeth Stuart Phelps

Outright dangers

Sarah, the poser of the question, posted something on her blog,  Frigate to Utopia, developing the comment she made earlier about the role of Seventh Day Adventist Ellen White. There are wonderful pictures and descriptions of fashions of the time, I highly recommend you read this post! Talk about suffering for beauty – strikes me as rather sadistic on the part of men (and masochistic for women) to adhere to these fashion trends. The corset was pretty dangerous but I wonder – is the 5″ heel any less dangerous?

Hidden Dangers

On another fashion tangent, one of my favorite blogs, the Two Nerdy History Girls blog, ran a post about a hidden danger that rose up due to the mass-production of clothing. Here’s a teaser:

Godey's Fashions for January, 1866

By the middle of the 19th c., more and more clothing was being mass-produced rather than individually hand-sewn for the wearer, with technological advances such as sewing machines and high-speed textile looms bringing the industrial revolution to fashion . . . In 1856, an eighteen-year-old chemistry student named William Henry Perkin (1838-1907) accidentally created the first aniline dye, a vivid purple dubbed mauveine, and from this sprang a whole spectrum of colors . . . There was only one catch: that lovely, brilliant shade of Perkin green (one of the most popular of the new colors) contained arsenic . . .

Click here to read the entire post.

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Loved even spiders??

Anna’s passages were direct and sweet (I made sure to copy them exactly rather than correct spelling or grammatical errors). Always her father’s daughter, she demonstrated his (and her) love of all of God’s creatures: “We watched a little spider and gave it some water to drink.”

What  made Anna tick?

These next two passages helped me understand what made Anna tick (note: bold is my emphasis):

“Mother went to Boston and Louisa and I cleaned house all day. I love order above all things and I take great pleasure in seeing all neat about the house.”

 “I find I accomplish so much more when I have a plan and certain times for certain things. I never can do things without order. I like to have something planned for every moment of the day, so that when I get up in the morning I may know what to do.”

May wasn’t the only sister to appreciate beauty

Like Meg, Anna appreciated beauty in many forms. In this entry, referring to a book called Miss Bremer’s Brothers and Sisters, Anna writes,

“It is most beautiful such a happy family. I think Miss Bremer would make a lovely mother the mothers in her books are so sweet and she has beautiful ideas about family’s. I love to read natural stories.”

Anna’s appreciation for beauty transcended material things (not so obvious with Meg):

“I read one of Krummacher’s parables in German. I think they are very beautiful, the language is so elegant. I love to hear beautiful words and these stories are told so simply and are full of such sweet thought.”

Vanity, vanity …

A touch of vanity is revealed as she lamented about turning old someday:

“I think it is a dreadful thing to grow old and not be able to fly about . . . it is horrid to think about being an old woman wrinkled and blind. I wish I could keep young forever. I should love to live among those I love and be with them all the time.”

“Silly Stories”

I can see here why Louisa would keep her potboilers a secret from all members of her family:

” . . . Louisa read me a very silly story called “The Golden Cup.” I think there is a great deal of nonsense written now a days, the papers are full of silly stories.”

Dreams and …

Anna, like many pre-teen girls, had her dreams:

“I sometimes have strange feelings, a sort of longing after something I don’t know what it is. I have a great many wishes. I spent the day in the usual manner, sewing and studying. In the evening Louisa and I walked through the lane and talked about how we should like to live and dress and imagined all kinds of beautiful things.”

… Aspirations

In a separate entry,

“As for me I am perfect in nothing. I have no genius. I know a little of music, a little of French, German and Drawing, but none of them well. I have a foolish wish to be something great and I shall probably spend my life in a kitchen and die in the poor-house. I want to be Jenny Lind or Mrs. Seguin and I can’t and so I cry.”

Jenny Lind (L) and Mrs. Sequin (R)

A woman of her time

Anna did end up becoming a “household drudge” (her words) but embraced the life willingly. She grew into a graceful, serene and loving wife and mother, fitting easily into the life of women of her time. Memoirs penned by friends (Clara Gowing, Llewellyn Frederick Willis) emphasized again and again her giving nature, her value as a friend, her loyalty as a daughter, and her commitment to her boys.

Love above all

Whether she was raising her children, caring for her aging father and ailing sister, or dealing with a public eager to see “Miss Alcott” or learn from the Sage of Concord, Anna did it all with great love and without complaint, earning the esteem of all who knew her.

Anna ultimately lived the life she chose to live.

If you want to learn more about Anna Alcott Pratt, here are some interesting links:

• Anna’s biography on the Orchard House website
• A letter from Anna to fans of Little Women (from Alcott in Her Own Time by Daniel Shealy)
• “A Visit with Anna  Alcott Pratt” (snippet view – you would to get a copy of Alcott in Her Own Time by Daniel Shealy to read the whole letter)
• Anna’s obituary from the New York Times

Were you surprised at Anna’s ambitions? Do you think the character of Meg March does her justice?

About Meg

In Little Women, Meg is the oldest of the March sisters and in all respects, the most mainstream member of the family. She is pretty, dutiful and virtuous, almost old for her age.

Fancy dress

Meg’s major flaw is her yearning for material wealth now that her family is poor. She is cured of this desire when she visits her wealthy friends Sallie Gardiner and the Moffat girls and indulges in the shallow life of the well-to-do. All dolled up for a party, she faces the disapproval of Laurie and recognizes the hollowness of vanity and the value of simpler living.

Meg marries a man as virtuous as herself – hard-working poor John Brooke. They have two children and create a loving home; Meg lives the life of the quintessential 19th century Victorian woman.

Based upon Louisa May Alcott’s oldest sister Anna Alcott Pratt, Meg is prettier but her real-life counterpart was more interesting.

Getting to know you

Born on March 16, 1831 and the eldest of the Alcott sisters, Anna was the most studied baby in history. Her philosopher-educator father Bronson, eager to prove his theory about the divine nature of children, observed her in a scientific way, recording her physical, emotional, intellectual and spiritual development in the minutest fashion.

Pleasing her father

Infant Anna, always eager to please, picked up on this vibe; her mother Abba noted that Anna “seems as if she is conscious of his observations, and were desirous of furnishing him with an item for his record.” (The Alcotts As I Knew Them, Clara Gowing, p. 43).

Love of acting

Anna inherited her father’s peaceful nature with such a retiring manner that “no one meeting her casually would ever imagine the amount of sentiment and romance in her nature.” (Gowing, p. 107). She loved the theatre and could have been an accomplished actress had she the ambition (partial deafness later in life made acting very difficult though she never lost of love of it).

She and Louisa shared this love of acting, writing plays together and entertaining the family with tableaux and original melodramatic plays such as “Norna, or The Witch’s Curse.”

Unexpected rewards

Although she never pursued acting professionally, it still granted her many rewards, the best being meeting her future husband, John Bridge Pratt. They played the romantic leads in “The Loan of a Lover” and soon became lovers themselves.

Both she and Louisa were powerhouses on the stage but Anna faded into the background once off the stage. She preferred to defer to others and bask in their success.

Love of words

writing

Anna’s abilities weren’t limited to acting. Several books mention her writing skill and her ability to easily learn foreign languages. In Eden’s Outcasts, John Matteson quotes family friend Llewellyn Frederick Willis (from his Alcott Memoirs ) regarding Anna, “Skilled in learning languages and a thoughtful writer, she perhaps exceeded all her sisters in terms of her pure intellectual gifts.”

Anna however, lacked ambition. Matteson continues, “Unlike Louisa, however, she lacked the confidence to try to publish them. Her excellent mind was ‘shown more in the appreciation of others than in the expression of herself.’ ” (p. 210 of the ebook).

A quick portrait

Matteson also writes of Anna,

“She was the most even-tempered and amiable of the four. Her sense of humor was keen but without Louisa’s tartness. While she partook enthusiastically in the game of her friends and sisters, her zest was tempered with a sense of dignity. She was more beautiful in her graceful bearing than in her physical features.”

More to come …

In my next post, I will share lesser-known facts about Anna including journal entries she made as a girl that reveal a dreamy pre-teen full of yearning (and even a desire to be famous). We’ll find out in part, what made Anna tick.

Are you finding Anna to be more interesting than Meg March? What did you think of Meg as a character in Little Women?

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You will have a choice of three different ways to take the quiz (the questions are the same for all 3 choices).

Click here to begin and let us know how you do!

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Getting to know you . . .

Chapters 6 and 7  of Eight Cousins build on the budding relationship between Rose and Uncle Alec. I bet a lot of readers would have loved to have had an uncle or dad like Dr. Alec (I imagine Louisa probably wished her father was more like Alec). He’s so steady and sure of himself which made him a wonderful parent figure for Rose. He took his responsibilities toward her seriously and yet he also had a sense of fun. He surely loved Rose and relished the role he was privileged to playi in her life.

A mysterious room

In chapter 6, Alec shows Rose a special room, a room that she believes belongs to him. Louisa’s description of this room is delicious and made me want to make it my own:

“This chamber . . . had three windows one to the east, that overlooked the bay; one to the south, where the horse chestnuts waved their green fans; and one to the west, towards the hill and the evening sky. A ruddy sunset burned there now, filling the room with an enchanted glow; the soft murmur of the sea was heard, and a robin chirped ‘Good-night!’ among the budding trees.”

The view alone is worth the trip! There were other details . . .

This room is dreamy . . .

Could Rose's toilet table have resembed this one? From the Victorian Interiors and More blog (click on picture to visit)

“Then her eye went on to the tall cabinet, where a half-open door revealed a tempting array of the drawers, shelves and ‘cubby holes’ which so delight the heart of children . . . A round old-fashioned mirror hung over it [the toilet table], with a guilt eagle a-top, holding in his beak the knot of blue ribbon that tied up a curtain of muslin falling on either side of the table, where appeared little ivory-handled brushes, two slender silver candle-stocks, a porcelain match-box, several pretty trays for small matters, and most imposing of all, a plump blue silk cushion, coquettishly with lace, and pink rosebuds at the corners . . .”

The room is mine??

Needless to say, Rose was enchanted. So you can imagine her delight when Uncle Alec announced that the room in fact was not his, but hers! The room was “part of the cure,” giving her “plenty of sun, fresh air, and cold water; also cheerful surroundings . . .” Work (also part of the cure) would be required to keep the room neat and clean.

This sounds like Louisa’s dream room. I wonder if in fact she had a room like that in her life?

A special haven

I remember as a child being allowed by my parents to completely redecorate my room. The bed was moved from the traditional center to the corner and I got to hang a very typical late 1960s lamp from the ceiling surrounded with red tassles and covered with the same flowered cloth that lay on the little round table below it. While moving the bed made the room a lot bigger, the cozy corner with special hanging lamp and table created a special place where I could think, journal, moon over my French teacher, listen to the Beatles and Joni Mitchell, learn to play my guitar, and stay up half the night writing songs.

Lucky girl

That room was so special to me  and I appreciated the fact that my parents allowed me to put my own touch on it. It became a haven and I thought of it when I pictured Rose in her wonderful room created and decorated with such love and care by her uncle.

What a lucky girl Rose was! I was too.

Did you have a special room of your own when you were young? If not, did you have some other haven you could retreat to?

I will get to chapter 7 in the the next post . . .

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I’ve been considering submiting a proposal to Orchard House’s annual Summer Conversational Series, the theme being “Legacy of a Powerful Voice.” There is no doubt Louisa’s voice has been powerful in my life but I never could really pinpoint why.

Anthony’s biography reminded me, especially with the chapter on Louisa’s years at Hillside.

The happy years

The Wayside, then known as Hillside, drawn by Bronson Alcott in 1845.

Hillside has always been my favorite period in Louisa’s life. There was stability, harmony, joy and freedom, even some normalcy in the life of the family. She herself refers to the Hillside years as the happiest. It is during this period that I see parallels between her and me that explain why she speaks to my heart so powerfully.

A room of one’s own

The first was Louisa getting her own room. A space to call one’s own was important to both of us. I finally got my own room at around the same age and it meant the world to me. Going through my “horse phase” at the time unlocked my creativity and I expressed it in a variety of ways, beginning with filling my new room with pictures of horses that I drew.

illustration by Flora Smith from The Story of Louisa May Alcott by Joan Howard

Black Beauty by Anna Sewell was my favorite book and love of that story spurred me on to write my own sequel. It was such fun writing that book that I wrote others. I had also discovered my other favorite book, The Story of Louisa May Alcott by Joan Howard and I pictured the illustration of Louisa sitting in her “Poet’s Corner” writing stories. I felt a kinship with her.

Best friends

Anthony mentions that one of Louisa’s best friends was a neighborhood boy, Cyrus Hosmer whom she had met earlier while staying at the Hosmer Cottage. Louisa spoke of him fondly saying, “Cy was a comrade after my own heart.” My first best friend was also a boy who lived next door. While Louisa and Cyrus enjoyed wild physical escapades, Dolph and I enjoyed our adventures through our imaginations. Dolph was exceedingly intelligent,  having an imagination that just wouldn’t quit. We could entertain each other for hours on end. Every other friend seemed boring by comparison.

Playacting

Louisa first started acting back at Still River (just after Fruitlands). Illustration by Flora Smith.

Like Louisa I loved putting on plays.  I organized all the theatricals and while we didn’t have Hillside’s barn, we did have our basement.. We’d stage our favorite fairy tales  (mine was Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs where I played the Wicked Queen).

Spies, stories and fashion

As I grew older, this playacting continued through a friendship with the smartest girl in the school who matched Dolph in the imagination department. The other kids made fun of her (and I had too) because she was so unusual but once I got to know her, I knew we would enjoy many an adventure. Playing the part of exotic British spies a la Diana Rigg in The Avengers, Kathy and I would spend whole days acting out impromptu TV episodes. We wrote plays together, and we pretended we were fashion designers, designing our own book of exotic clothes.

Tomboy in name only

I only wished I had been athletically inclined like Louisa. I wasn’t well coordinated and it made me very cautious when it came to climbing trees and other physical activities. I envied Louisa’s daring but alas, could only live her escapades in my dreams.

Hillside as a haven

illustration by Flora Smith from The Story of Louisa May Alcott by Joan Howard

After re-reading Katharine Anthony’s biography, I could see why Louisa counted her years at Hillside as her happiest. It was the one time in her life when she could truly be herself, and it was before she would take on the heavy mantle of family provider.

Anthony used the words “fierce,” “hoyden,” and “wild” to describe Louisa; I would say she had a personality that was bigger than life. She was permitted to live a life that freed her as much as possible from convention and duty. Free to run and romp, she had the license to work out her physical and emotional energies. She was also given space to indulge in her rich inner life which produced a flurry of stories and plays. Nature’s expanse and beauty continually revived her spirits, and best of all, her dear family was living in harmony.

I too had those advantages. Around the same age as Louisa, I reveled in mine as she did in hers.

Joan Howard’s biography became very dog-eared. Every time I read the chapter on Hillside I would relive those happy memories. I would then finish the book and dream bigger dreams.

What’s your connection to Louisa?
How has her voice been powerful in your life?

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Rose goes through the goodies in the box Uncle Alec gave her; Aunt Peace looks on. Illustration by Robert Doremus (1955)

Just a quickie today from Eight Cousins, chapter 5, “A Belt and a Box.”

First, the Belt

Uncle Alec jumped right in with regards to Rose’s health and welfare by suggesting that she take a run. He noticed her panting and suggested she loosen her belt so that she could breathe more deeply. It turned into a treatise about about true beauty and happiness as he compared her to Phebe, the girl from the poorhouse whom she was so attracted to (and who was very robust):

“If you dear little girls would only learn what real beauty is, and not pinch and starve and bleach yourselves out so, you’d save an immense deal of time and money and pain. A happy soul in a healthy body makes the best sort of beauty for man or woman.” (bold italic is my emphasis)

Suffering for beauty

Doesn’t that sound like something straight out of today’s headlines regarding teenage girls and anorexia/bulimia? Nothing much has changed, has it? And on a smaller scale, think of the 3 to 5 inch heels women wear (and endure) so their legs will look better. Remember Madonna stumbling on her heels during the Super Bowl half time show?

I suppose this shouldn’t surprise me – women doing extreme things to themselves in order to achieve a certain kind of beauty (and all of this approved of and encouraged by society) has been going on since women came to be! I’ve said it before but I’ll say it again: Louisa had an uncanny ability to tap into about topics that transcend time. It’s no wonder new generations of readers keep finding her.

The voice of the author

Alec really does have Louisa’s voice. It makes  sense since she thought more in male terms rather than female (although she definitely had her own vanities, especially regarding clothes and hair). Sometimes I think I do too even though I never had the physical ability to live the life of a tomboy (I just lived it in my head).

And then, the Box

Later, we come upon the “box” where Rose is showered with treasures. She thinks of her new friend Phebe and wants to share her goodies with her as if Phebe were her sister. “Adoption” is the way and Phebe is deeply touched by the gesture. Sure, it’s a corny scene but Rose’s impulsive generosity and affection for Phebe is very cool.

Do you think Alec is Louisa in male form? What did you think of his advice to Rose?

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Illustration by Robert Doremus (1955)

Greetings to the Poet’s Corner Virtual Book Club: Eight Cousins

Eight Cousins (or The Aunt-Hill) introduces us to a new kind of heroine from Louisa May Alcott. Rose, blond and blue-eyed, comes from wealth. In past stories, it’s been the wealthy girls who have proven to be the antagonists (Sallie Moffat from Little Women, Fanny Shaw from An Old-Fashioned Girl); now that Louisa herself is wealthy, she is perhaps more comfortable in having her main character enjoy the same.

Was Rose based upon a real person?

It’s been suggested by Clara Gowing (The Alcotts as I Knew Them) and Katharine Anthony (Louisa May Alcott) that Rose was based on May.  Certainly in appearance this is so, but the character is nothing like the spoiled and headstrong Amy. Rose is meek, timid and decidedly sad being without a mother for some time and having recently lost her dear father.

Illustration by Robert Doremus (1955)

Setting

The story begins with Rose living in the mansion with her 6 aunts after coming back from boarding school. Her father has been dead for a year and Rose is in the throes of grief.

The Aunt-Hill

Henry James criticizes Eight Cousins for its “smart, satirical tone” and you can immediately see this in both the title (Aunt-Hill) and the plethora of aunts in this story. It’s almost allegorical in nature with each aunt representing, as Charles Strickland puts it, “the failing of American mothers” (Victorian Domesticity, p. 126).

"Rose and her Aunts", frontispiece illustration to the first edition, Roberts Bros, Boston, 1875 (Wikipedia)

We have:

• Aunt Jane, severe to a fault
• Aunt Myra, morbidly sentimental, convinced that Rose is dying of some mysterious malady and dosing her with medicines
• Aunt Plenty, bustling, generous and old-fashioned, she resembles Martha of the Martha and Mary story from the Bible
• Aunt Peace (representing Mary from the same story), a loving and tragic character whose husband-to-be died hours before the wedding years ago
• Aunt Clara, the quintessential “fashionable mother” whose only aspiration for Rose is that she attend finishing school
• Aunt Jessie, the common-sense Aunt but definitely outgunned

Rescue from Aunt-Hill

Enter 40 year-old Uncle Alec, Rose’s legal guardian, who immediately recognizes the plight of his ward in the midst of the Aunt-Hill and swoops down to rescue her.

Bronson Alcott Pratt portraying Mr. March in 1932 in Concord's production of Little Women.

Louisa is pointedly affirming the need for and value of men in the raising of their daughters. She has, of course, already made the case for mothers in Little Women with Marmee. What’s interesting is that I’ve yet to read a book where both father and mother have an equal hand in child-rearing (although I haven’t read her entire library yet). Mr. March is nearly invisible in Little Women although Louisa makes a case for his quiet ruling presence:

“To outsiders the five energetic women seemed to rule the house, and so they did in many things, but the quiet scholar, sitting among his books, was still the head of the family, the household conscience, anchor, and comforter, for to him the busy, anxious women always turned in troublous times, finding him, in the truest sense of those sacred words, husband and father.” (from chapter 24) (photo from http://www.concordma.com/magazine/maraprmay02/littlewomenshow.html)

Strong father figure

Uncle Alec, however, intends to be front and center in Rose’s life, making sweeping changes in her diet (taking away her precious coffee as a start, ouch!) and routine. He is convinced that the influence of the Aunt-Hill has created a near invalid in Rose and he seeks to change her into a vibrant, healthy young woman.

Timely story

As always, Louisa’s stories transcend time. Certainly the value of fatherhood needs to be preached as more and more women are raising their children alone. It’s often been suggested that women end up marrying a prototype of their father – how vital then that the father provide the right role model!

I’m up to chapter 4 in Eight Cousins, how about you? What do you think of the story so far? What do you think of Rose?  Can you imagine having to live with 6 aunts? Goodness! How about her 7 boisterous male cousins who seem to overwhelm her?

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