Book Description
This digital document, covering the life and work of Louisa May Alcott, is an entry from Contemporary Authors, a reference volume published by Thompson Gale. The length of the entry is 3662 words. The page length listed above is based on a typical 300-word page. Although the exact content of each entry from this volume can vary, typical entries include the following information:

• Place and date of birth and death (if deceased)
• Family members
• Education
• Professional associations and honors
• Employment
• Writings, including books and periodicals
• A description of the author's work
• References to further readings about the author

Book Description
This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery.Download Description
For a week she enjoyed her liberty heartily, then set about finding something to do. Her wish was to be a governess, that being the usual refuge for respectable girls who have a living to get. But Christie soon found her want of accomplishments a barrier to success in that line, for the mammas thought less of the solid than of the ornamental branches, and wished their little darlings to learn French before English, music before grammar, and drawing before writing. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Kitsch: too many too good people
I like Alcott's novels, but this was too much for me. All characters come out on top, nobody is really bad, and certainly nobody stays bad, everybody is constantly striving to become a saint and overcome any fault they might have. I just couldn't relate to the characters, they were just above and beyond normal human people. I actually found it depressing instead of inspiring. Her other books have some humor and often even sarcasm in them, which is sadly missing here till the very last chapter. The humor has always outbalanced the moralistic streak for me, but here I just felt stuck with a thinly veiled moralistic story, which often glided into pure kitsch. Also I felt I had read many of the elements in her other stories and they were just newly arranged and a little bit redecorated. The story could have done with some serious editing before its publication, as some of the chapters are interesting but are overshadowed by kitsch chapters.
I'm aware that a book from this time will be heavy on morals, try to uplift and inspire improvment in the reader, which I usually don't mind, but in this story it just didn't work for me, it felt to forced. "An old-fashioned Girl" is very similar, but is much more engaging and entertaining and inspires laughs along with the tears.

Just a note on this edition, it is extremly badly edited. There are a great many spelling mistakes which often completely distort the sense like "Clown" instead of "Down" and others. But the most annoying one is that the character Philip Fletcher becomes again and again Mr. Pletcher.

This book is pro-women and pro-abolition.
I ran across this book recently and enjoyed reading it. It is more modern than most Alcott books in one respect: the heroine exactly doesn't "get married and live happily ever after."

Like many of the books at the time, the heroine is an orphan. At the age of 21, she leaves her aunt and uncle to make her fortune in the world -- and, she hopes, her happiness, since marrying a farmer she doesn't love "just to get a living" doesn't seem either honest or wise to her.

The book covers almost twenty years in New England -- about ten years before the Civil War through about five years afterwards. The heroine is energetic, intelligent, determined, and capable. And she WORKS! She is always looking for a way to be useful, to pull her own weight, and to help others. The book chronicles her path through a series of jobs and the emotional, physical, and spiritual ups and downs that come with them.

What is most amazing is that the heroine meets a fugitive slave on her first job and treats her as an equal. Unlike "some of the other girls," she doesn't refuse the job simply because the cook is black.

The touching ending scene, in which a diverse group of women pledge to make a better world for themselves (and perhaps to get the right to vote), includes many of the friends she has encountered along the way, "black and white, rich and poor."

However, this beautiful example -- and for the time, this very daring example of inter-racial cooperation -- is marred somewhat by an unaccountable bigotry against the Irish. The anti-Irish comments are all the more jarring because they are completely gratuitous; they have no bearing on plot or character development.

The best that can be said about this failing is that perhaps the author was unconscious of her bigotry, and that at least the Irish are not mentioned often, although every mention is uniformly disparaging.

An entertaining criticism of conditions for working girls ..
If you've read and reread all of Louisa May Alcott's books, and loved her portrayals of brave girls trying to make their way in a harsh world, you must read this "lost" novel, "Work."It is well-written, engaging and humorous, very much in the same style as her other novels for girls, yet with more of a depth of maturity to her characters.If you've read "An Old Fashioned Girl" you will see a lot of "Polly" in the working girls portrayed in this novel.Read it and rejoice in this "new" Alcott novel! ... Read more

Product Description
The first poem in the book was written when she was eight years old; the final poem, just before the death of her father. ... Read more

Book Description
This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery.Download Description
When Paul spoke in that tone and wore that look, Lillian felt as if they had changed places, and he was the master and she the servant. She wondered over this in her childish mind, but proud and willful as she was, she liked it, and obeyed him with unusual meekness when he suggested that it was time to return. ... Read more

Book Description
This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery. ... Read more

Book Description
This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery. ... Read more

Product Description
HARDBACK NODJ ISSUED, 1864, 1st Edition, 1st Issue, 12mo - Just under 6 34" Tall. GOOD/GOOD- Condition maroon cloth boards. NOJACKET, The Burgundy Maroon with Gold Gilt on Front cloth Cover at vario ... Read more

Book Description
This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery.Download Description
Her eyes came back from their long gaze and settled on him full of an intelligence which deepened his perplexity. "You have not learned to know me yet; death is not more inexorable or time more tireless than I. This week has seemed one of indolent delight to you. To me it has been one of constant vigilance and labor, for scarcely a look, act, or word of mine has been without effect. ... Read more

Book Description
This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery.Download Description
In vain they searched; in vain Marie wailed and Belle declared it must be somewhere; no wreath appeared. It was duly set down in the bill, and a fine sum charged for a head-dress to match the dainty forget-me-nots that looped the fleecy skirts and ornamented the bosom of the dress. It had evidently been forgotten; and mamma despatched Marie at once to try and match the flowers, for Belle would not hear of any other decoration for her beautiful blonde hair. ... Read more

Book Description
This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery.Download Description
Jack and Jill never cared to say much about the night which followed the first coasting party of the season, for it was the saddest and the hardest their short lives had ever known. Jack suffered most in body; for the setting of the broken leg was such a painful job, that it wrung several sharp cries from him, and made Frank, who helped, quite weak and white with sympathy, when it was over. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (9)

Child Life in 1800s New England
While this is not my favorite Alcott novel, I still enjoy reading it as a portrait of the responsibilities and amusements of boys and girls in the 19th century. While Jack and Jill recuperate from their injuries sustained "coasting" on the "lulla," they mature and change, as do their friends, whose small projects to make their life better result in, if not in unimportant monetary wealth or fame, happier times to last them the rest of their lives.

Enjoyable!
Alcott has the amazing knack of entertaining while educating at the same time and you don't know you've been given a good moral to digest until its too late.You've already read and thoroughly enjoyed the book!You never really feel patronized or preached to...this is perhaps second tier in her fine line of literature (for her) but absolutely first tier when looking for wholesome reads for your own children.I highly recommend it.

A warm read for a cold day.
While Jack and Jill might not rate as one of the best Alcott novels, it is not worth dismissing out of hand for that reason. As usual, she crafted a thought provoking and enlightened book that teaches as it entertains and comforts.

Jack and Jill are fast childhood friends who find their lives interrupted by a terrible sledding accident which leaves both of them invalids. As they recover and heal, they and their friends learn important lessons about responsibility, giving and friendship. Jack and Jill should be an immensely satisfying read for pre-teenagers. The sure Alcott hand with character keeps even the most obvious moral lessons from feeling overly preachy.

While the book is ideally suited for younger readers, grown ups will be interested in the larger issues raised here. Alcott firmly asserts the need for individual growth, gender equality, and personal responsbility. Historical discussions about temperance and higher education for women should additionally make this book a good read for history fans.

Lovable, But a Little Childish.
This book is an interesting improvement on the clasic nursery rhyme.With its twist of humor and sadness, Jack and Jill emphasises the value of friendship and the comfort that simple creativity can give.In spite of all these good qualities, I would rate this book as far from Alcott's best. It is too predictable and rather disapointing. Although less "preachy" than many of Alcott's books, the sermons are more direct and lack the pleasing maturity that gives such works as Little Women, An Old Fashoned Girl, and Eight Cousins their originality.All considered it is still a sweet, cuddle-up-by-the-fire book. I recommend to any of Louisa's most-devoted fans, esp those between 9 and 12.

A Quiet Pleaser
I'm sorry to see that this book has been so poorly received by other reviewers.It is not a family book like Little Women or the Rose Duo, but this is a Louisa May Alcott classic that should not be ignored.If nothing else, the interaction between social classes in America, represented by the mothers of Jack and Jill is endlessly fascinating.Also, this book could appeal to both genders.Both boys and girls will be entranced with the train and mechanical images, and it's unusual to read a child's book and have such fresh descriptions...something perhaps owing to the newness of trains at the time.The three girls, Jill, Molly and Merry, and their plans for self-improvementcan be seen in almost every young adult book marketed towards girls.What's refreshing about this one is that they're self-improvement is not for the benefit of their peers or to "get a boy", but rather, Louisa May Alcott has them develop for their own personal growth.In an age when self-help books are on the best seller list, this book shows how it was done before it was a science.In addition, it's novel for it's intrerest in health fads and regiments, new school ideas, and the imporance of an American youth culture.Give this book a chance. ... Read more

Book Description
Although the publication of Little Women in 1868 earned Louisa May Alcott tremendous popularity, for a long time she was thought of as a writer of children's stories and considered--at best--a minor figure in the American literary canon. Now, at the end of the twentieth century, Alcott's vast body of work is being celebrated alongside the greatest American writers, and this collection shows why.

The Portable Louisa May Alcott samples the entire spectrum of Alcott's work: her novels, novellas, children's stories, sensationalist fiction, gothic tales, essays, letters, and journals. Presenting her more daring works, such as Moods and Behind a Mask (both reprinted in their entirety), alongside the familiar heroines of Little Women, this singular collection offers readers a rich and wide-ranging portrait of this talented, prolific, and influential writer. ... Read more