Last fall, I read Little Women, and while I didn’t totally hate it, I didn’t totally love it either. For which I got chastised a bit by commenters. 🙂 At any rate, one person (Inkling) said she preferred Louisa May Alcott’s other books better, especially Eight Cousins (and its companion Rose in Bloom), to Little Women. Given that Inkling usually gives good recommendations, I jumped at the chance to read another Alcott for the Classics Challenge.
The verdict? I liked it. It was enjoyable, in a quaint sort of way. It did get preachy at points (like the chapters when Rose “reforms” her cousins, and one of the aunts sets into the boys about reading dime novels), which was mildly annoying and distracting (even if I agreed). But even the preachiness (which is actually quite modern-thinking: no corsets, healthy exercise and dieting and moderation in everything) in the end, came off being quaint.
The basic plot: Rose’s parents have died, and she’s been left to the guardianship of her father’s brother, Dr. Alec. But he’s been away at sea, and she’s been living at Aunt Hill (after trying, and being miserable at, a boarding school) until he comes back. Once he does, he sets her on a regiment to fix her “poor constitution” (Aunt Myra said that — she thinks everyone is just about ready to pop off) and get her to enjoy life. And (of course) he succeeds. She’s a perfect little angel (again — even when she’s “bad” it’s really not bad at all — though I don’t know what I’d do if my daughters got their ears pierced by a friend!) who’s helpful, kind, inquisitive, earnest and loving, and above all that, a thoroughly likable character. And of course Dr. Alec succeeds in winning over Rose, and improving her health, and expanding her mind, and even getting all the Aunts (who originally disapproved) to agree with what he was doing.
Finally, my favorite bit of “medicine” from Dr. Alec: “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.”
Oh, I should probably add… this was my second book for the Classics Challenge. Only three more to go.
The Book Nut 
Are you going to try Rose in Bloom?
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I haven’t read that book since I was about fifteen–my mom used to read Alcott out loud to me when I was home sick, and they sort of became my home for a day in bed books. I ought to read it again and see what I think now. I think I had a crush on both Mac and Uncle Alec, and I definitely wanted to be Phoebe.
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I don’t know if I’m going to read Rose in Bloom. I liked the first part of Little Women, too, but felt that Alcott just didn’t do romance justice. So, I don’t know if I really want to read about Rose growing up. I kind of liked her as a young teenager and don’t want to spoil it.
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I just recently read Eight Cousins and didn’t like it nearly as much as Little Women. I felt that Eight Cousins had a sterile simplistic feel to it — a book for little kiddies. Whereas Little Women, okay, I’ll grant you it has some smarmy aspects, but there’s a kind of grittiness to Jo’s struggles to fit in with her society that I find very moving. Alcott may not have done justice to romance, but she did a great job with sorrow, depression and restlessness.
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Well, hmm. Perhaps then you both (Julie and Melissa) should try Rose in Bloom, because I always thought it was much more romantic than Little Women. Again, maybe that’s my teenage memory talking: Rose and Phoebe’s beauxs definitely influenced my romantic ideals (although I didn’t marry anyone remotely like either of them, either time!) The smarminess is there, of course; it was what people liked at the time, perhaps the way we are so into “witty, offbeat narrators” now.
On the topic of husbands, Melissa, I just visited your husband’s blog for the first time. Holy cow! What a brain that man has!
And on the topic of books: I need to get that post up.
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I’m also thinking it would be fun to reread Jack and Jill. If I recall correctly, that’s the one where they’re next-door neighbors, both sick in bed, and they rig up ropes and pulleys to make a little mailbox they send back and forth. Or did I dream this? I don’t know, but it sounds quite romantic.
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i am reading this book for a classic novel report, and i really dont get it, but htis helped me out a lot. Thank you.
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