It's Not The First...It Won't Be The Last!

Every now and then I get the urge to read Louisa May Alcott.  This time I chose Rose in Bloom, the sequel to Eight Cousins.

Source:  http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/76624.Eight_Cousins

Source:  http://www.goodreads.com/

From the Back Cover...
"Rose in Bloom is a novel about a 19th century girl, Rose Campbell, the heroine of the story, who is trying to find her way in society.  This story is the sequel to Eight Cousins and was published for the first time in 1876."

PREFACE

As authors may be supposed to know better than anyone else what they intended to do when writing a book, I beg leave to say that there is no moral to this story.  Rose is not designed for a model girl, and the Sequel was simply written in fulfillment of a promise, hoping to afford some amusement, and perhaps here and there a helpful hint, to other roses getting ready to bloom.

L.M. Alcott

September 1876

Source:  http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/1315.Louisa_May_Alcott



I know this is not my first blog post about Louisa May Alcott and her books, and I'm sure it won't be the last.  I love her books.  They make me feel warm and safe and happy.  They are familiar and every time I read one it's like visiting an old friend.  Rose in Bloom does not disappoint.  If you enjoy reading Louisa May Alcott you'll love this book.

"Some stories are so familiar its like going home."
— Louisa May Alcott

(Source:  Goodreads)

The 3rd Shelf And It's All About Women

I'm still doing book inventory and I've made it to the third shelf of my book shelf, and it's devoted to women authors only.  I haven't read all of these books, so I'll put an asterisk in front of the books I've read.

*Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl by Harriet Jacobs
A Jury of Her Peers: Celebrating American Women Writers from Anne Bradstreet to Annie Proulx
---By Elaine Showalter
*The Ghost in the Little House: A Life of Rose Wilder Lane by William Holtz
*Jane Austen: The Complete Novels
*Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
*Three Complete Books:  The Secret Garden, A Little Princess, Little Lord Fauntleroy
Moods by Louisa May Alcott
Work: A Story of Experience by Louisa May Alcott
*Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
*Little Men by Louisa May Alcott
*Jo's Boy's by Louisa May Alcott
*Civil War Hospital Sketches by Louisa May Alcott
*An Old Fashioned Girl by Louisa May Alcott
*Under the Lilacs by Louisa May Alcott
*Eight Cousins by Louisa May Alcott
Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf

To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf

*A Room of One's Own by Virginia Woolf

*Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte

*Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

*Twilight by Stephenie Meyer

*New Moon by Stephenie Meyer

*Eclipse by Stephenie Meyer

*Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer

Sister's Choice by Emilie Richards

---I'm very interested in this one, and I'll be reading it soon.  Here's the Goodreads synopsis...

" Kendra and Jamie were never storybook sisters. But after a long estrangement, Jamie has offered Kendra and her husband their ultimate dream—a child of their own.

Despite some lingering misgivings about her once-wayward younger sister, Kendra agrees, and Jamie, a promising architect and single mother, becomes a gestational surrogate for Kendra and Isaac. In addition to this amazing gift of life, Jamie designs a house for the couple on Isaac's ancestral property along the Shenandoah River. She hopes Kendra will finally see the woman she has become.
But when a medical crisis threatens Jamie's health and her budding relationship with Kendra's builder, the enigmatic Cash Rosslyn, Jamie learns that the most difficult choice in her life is still ahead, and its cost may be beyond calculation."

Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel
*The Time Travelers Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
*Oh My Stars by Lorna Landvik
Scarlett by Alexandra Ripley
*Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie
*My Story by Marilyn Monroe

So there are the books on shelf number three, 33 books in all.

Here are some quotes by some of the women listed in today's post...

"I want to do something splendid…
Something heroic or wonderful that won’t be forgotten after I’m dead…
I think I shall write books."
— Louisa May Alcott
(Source:  www.goodreads.com)

Louisa May Alcott
11/29/1832-3/6/1888
Source:  www.goodreads.com

___________________________________

"Lock up your libraries if you like, but there is no gate, no lock, no bolt that you can set upon the freedom of my mind."
— Virginia Woolf (A Room of One's Own (Bloomsbury Classic))
(Source:  www.goodreads.com)

Virginia Woolf
1/25/1882-3/28/1941
Source:  www.goodreads.com

__________________________________________

"Reader, did you ever hate? I hope not. I never did but once; and I trust I never shall again. Somebody has called it "the atmosphere of hell"; and I believe it is so."
— Harriet Jacobs (Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl)
(Source:  www.goodreads.com)

Harriet Jacobs
1/1/1813-3/7/1897
Source:  www.goodreads.com

______________________________________

 

 

"I am satisfied that if a book is a good one, it is so whatever the sex of the author may be. All novels are or should be written for both men and women to read, and I am at a loss to conceive how a man should permit himself to write anything that would be really disgraceful to a woman, or why a woman should be censured for writing anything that would be proper and becoming for a man."
— Anne Brontë (The Tenant of Wildfell Hall)

(Source:  www.goodreads.com)

 

Anne Bronte
1/17/1820-5/28/1849
Source:  www.goodreads.com

 

An Old Fashioned Girl

Back in February of this year, I read An Old Fashioned Girl by Louisa May Alcott.  Alcott is one of my favorite authors of all time.

Source:  www.goodreads.com

Goodreads summary...

"Polly's friendship with the wealthy Shaws of Boston helps them to build a new life and teaches her the truth about the relationship between happiness and riches."


It's sounds very simple, but it's more than that.  Here's what I wrote in my journal after I finished...
"I just finished An Old Fashioned Girl by LMA.  I'm such a sucker for enduring love.  I like how the book shows how in the end good, simple people are often happier than rich, idle people, though their lives seem harder.  Good will always win out in the end.  It's a perfect illustration of why doing what's right is the most important thing even when it's hard to do, and being true to one's self is the ultimate reward.  I really liked this book and the moral it teaches!"

There is an online version of An Old Fashioned Girl available to read.  View it by clicking HERE

In doing some research for this blog I came across a movie version that was made in 1949.  Starring Gloria Jean.  Gloria Jean was a famous singer/actor in the 40's and 50's.

Source:  www.letmewatchthis.ch

Gloria Jean
Source:  www.allstarpics.com

Although I couldn't find a clip of "An Old Fashioned Girl", I did find a clip of Gloria Jean as Anne Stuart in the movie "Copacabana".  You'll find it below.

Louisa May Alcott: Writer, Feminist, Abolitionist

Book list 171-180
171.Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
172.Oh My Stars by Lorna Landvik  (6/9/2010)
173.Message in a Bottle by Nicholas Sparks
174.Devine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood by Rebecca Wells
175.The Time Travellers Wife by Audrey Neffenegger  (11/1/2010)
176.Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt
177.Sounder by William H. Armstrong
178.Little Women by Louisa May Alcott  (1/16/2011)
179.Little Men by Louisa May Alcott  (1/21/2011)
180.Jo's Boys by Louisa May Alcott  (1/26/2011)

I had seen the movie, "Little Women", years ago and loved it.  I have owned a hardback copy of the book for even longer.  I'd say I've had it for fifteen years, yet I had never read it until this year.  I don't know why really.  My reading list is forever long and always growing, and I guess there was just always something else to read.  Why after fifteen years did I decide to read it this year?  The answer is very simple--my sister read it.  I am very lucky to have a sister who loves books as much as I do.  I can't tell you how many books I've read at her suggestion, and Little Women happens to be one of them.  I'm glad I finally got around to reading it, not only because I love the book, but because it opened the door to a new author that I truly enjoy.

Numbers 178, 179, and 180 on this portion of the list are all Louisa May Alcott books.  This series of books about the March family is one of my favorites of all time.  It's right up there with The Little House and Anne of Green Gables series.



Louisa May Alcott
Source:  www.wikipedia.org



Source:  www.vonniesbooks.blogspot.com

Source:  www.coverbrowser.com

Source:  www.openlibrary.com

Louisa May Alcott was born on November 29, 1832 in Germantown, Pennsylvania.   She was the second of four girls and a tomboy.  Her sisters were Anna, Elizabeth, and May.  Her mother's name was Abigail, and she was educated mostly by her father, Bronson Alcott, who was a noted transcendentalist.  Some of her father's friends were fellow transcendentalists Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Margaret Fuller.  Bronson Alcott along with a friend, founded a commune named Fruitlands.  It was a 90 acre farm with a run down house and barn.  No animal power was used in the growing of their food, they ate no animal substance, drank only water, took cold baths, and used no artificial light.  It lasted seven months.  Louisa May Alcott's book, Wild Oats, is about her time at Fruitlands.

According to Dictionary.com, transcendentalism is...
"A movement in nineteenth-century American literature and thought. It called on people to view the objects in the world as small versions of the whole universe and to trust their individual intuitions. The two most noted American transcendentalists were Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau."
(Source: {http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/transcendentalist})

Bronson Alcott
Source:  www.wikipedia.org

You can learn more about Louisa May Alcott and her father in the book Eden's Outcasts: The Story of Louisa May Alcott and her Father.  I haven't read this one, but it's on my list.  You can also learn more about Bronson Alcott and www.alcott.net.

Source:  http://www.amazon.com/

Louisa May Alcott was a feminist as well as an abolitionist.  She died on March 6, 1888, and is buried in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery.

Louisa May Alcott Grave Site
Source:  www.travelpod.com

Beth from Little Women...
"Love is the only thing we can carry with us when we go, and it makes the end so easy."