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A biography of the author whose Little Women and other popular books were based on the experiences of her family. ... Read more

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The fourth and last book about the March family.Ten years after the school at Plumfield was founded, there is now a college, built with a legacy from old Mr Lawrence. All Jo's original children are grown young men, scattered around the world, and graceful young women with high ambitions. But young men face as many troubles as children do, and they are still 'Jo's boys'. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Printing Errors Galore
This book has approximately one typo per page, which is annoying in itself but also detracts from the flow of the text. It also underlines every occurrence of "store" or "buy." Is this some weird subliminal message? It has a very small font, which is strange given that the target audience for this book would be ages 8-12. The interior pictures were repetitive versions of the ugly cover picture. I remembered this book from my youth and bought it for my daughter, but wouldn't recommend it for anyone. Find another edition and buy that. ... Read more

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The discovery in recent years of Louisa May Alcott's pseudonymous sensation stories has made readers and scholars increasingly aware of her accomplishments beyond her most famous novel, Little Women, one of the great international best-sellers of all time. What has been recovered throws new light on the children's books and asks us to question our assumptions about the suposedly staid and sentimental Alcott. Alternative Alcott includes works never before reprinted, including "How I Went Out to Service," "My Contraband," and "Psyche's Art." It also contains Behind a Mask, her most important sensation story; the full and correct text of her last unfinished novel, Diana and Persis; "Transcendental Wild Oats"; Hospital Sketches; and Alcott's other important texts on nineteenth-century social history.This anthology brings together for the first time a variety of Louisa May Alcott's journalistic, satiric, feminist, and sensation texts. Elaine Showalter has provided an excellent introduction and notes to the collection. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Beach Read?
I rate "Little Women" as one of my favorite books of all time, ever since my early childhood, and I was eager to read Louisa May Alcott's "unknown" stories. (I had already read "Behind A Mask," which is a collection of stories very similar to these.) Frankly, I was disappointed by the quality of the writing. The plots may have been page-turners at that time, but I could see every conceivable twist coming from miles away. After a while, the characters began to bore me to death because every single one was the same.

It seems like Alcott had a story recipe that she followed closely for every story: an amazingly beautiful heroine with a dark secret, at least two or three men who fall desperately in love with her (who have their own dark secrets), a few deaths of some supporting characters along the way whom we don't care about, and a conclusion usually finding the heroine being punished in some way (because underneath her beauty, she is a femme fatale). Every single one of Alcott's heroines has golden tresses, alluring violet eyes, beautiful white arms, and the tiniest daintiest feet. EVERY SINGLE ONE. I had to laugh at how she felt it necessary to describe these attributes over and over and over, and how all of the male characters fell over themselves to be with this cookie-cutter heroine. I think Alcott may also have had a secret fetish for the May-December romance, since in almost all of her stories, there is a theme of the child-bride being married off to a man over 45. She dabbles a bit in drug addiction, incest, mental disability, and plenty of murder and scheming.

STORY 1 "V.V." : Beautiful blond heroine tries to marry a man for his title, but when their marriage falls through, she goes after his cousin. She harbors a dark secret, of course. (Murder, scheming, broken romance)

STORY 2 "A Marble Woman" : Beautiful blond heroine goes to live with her new guardian, who used to be her mom's lover. She eventually marries this man, but discovers that he has a dark secret. (Sort-of incest, opium addiction, May-December romance)

STORY 3 "The Skeleton in the Closet" : Beautiful blond heroine lives alone in a gorgeous house, and she falls in love with the narrator. However, she possesses a dark secret. (Mental illness, suicide, jealousy)

STORY 4 "A Whisper in the Dark" : Beautiful blond heroine who is a wealthy heiress goes to live with her cousin and her uncle, both of whom want her. They try to drive her crazy and steal her fortune. (Mental illness, incest)

I think you get the picture. All in all this is a good beach read or something to pass away the time at, say, a doctor's office or a boring play, but I find Alcott's "sensational" writing to be pretty tedious. ... Read more

Product Description
"Little Women" tells the story of a year in the life of the March family, who all lead interesting lives despite the family's lack of money and their father's absence at the war. "Good Wives" picks up the story of the March girls three years on and chronicles their continuing successes. ... Read more

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Morning Glories was originally published by Horace B. Fuller of Boston in in 1867 and reprinted in An Old-fashioned Thanksgiving - Vol 6 of Aunt Jo's Scrap-bag. Queen Aster was originally published as A Flower Fable in the Feb 26 1887 issue of Woman's Journal, then the named was changed to Queen Aster for publication in The Frost King - Vol 2 of Lulu's Library. Morning Glories is the story of a small girl, Daisy, who has been ill and become petulant and spoiled. One morning she wakes to what sounds like fairy music. In the search for fairies, Daisy and her favorite aunt go on a series of early morning rambles and she rediscovers the joys of nature. Queen Aster is a whimsical little gem about a revolt in the flower garden and its happy ending. There are 2 B&W illustrations by Kennedy on glossy paper. ... Read more

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An early edition of the sequel to Little Women. ... Read more

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The Orchard House Edition has the inside cover pic of the Orchard House in Concord, Massachusetts, now a museum visted every year by hundreds of people. Here lived the real Little Women, Louisa May Alcott and her sisters whose complete story is told in the three books--"Little Women","Little Men" and "Jo's Boys"--The author also penned five other books from this location..--Published by Little Brown and Company out of Boston in 1944, this has always been a favorite edition of the many out there in circulation. Book has a preface adapted from John Bunyan--524 pages of real life... ... Read more

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This volume is produced from digital images created through the University of Michigan University Library's preservation reformatting program. ... Read more