Louisa May Alcott
1832–1888 · United States
“"Christmas won't be Christmas without any presents," grumbled Jo, lying on the rug.”
Peak-work percentile in the canon.
The lineage through Louisa May Alcott
Drew From(2)
who shaped Louisa May Alcott
- Little Women opens "Playing Pilgrims" for a reason — Alcott built the whole first volume as a domesticated retelling of Christian's journey
- In chapter two each sister is given her own copy of Bunyan's book; its language threads through the chapter titles and the girls' private struggles
- Read it first and the March sisters' "burdens" stop being a quaint metaphor and become exactly what Bunyan meant — the load of sin and self you carry toward the Celestial City
via Jane Eyre
- Jo March has a clear literary mother: Brontë's Jane, the heroine the young Alcott loved best
- Alcott called Jane Eyre a favorite and modeled her teenage first novel on it, even studying Charlotte Brontë's life for inspiration
- Read Brontë first to see where the headstrong, plain-spoken heroine begins — the type Alcott then made her own in Jo
Famous Quotes
“I am not afraid of storms, for I am learning how to sail my ship.”
“I'm not afraid of storms, for I'm learning how to sail my ship.”
“I want to do something splendid before I go into my castle,—something heroic, or wonderful,—that won't be forgotten after I'm dead.”
“I am angry nearly every day of my life, Jo; but I have learned not to show it; and I still hope to learn not to feel it, though it may take me another forty years to do so.”
About Louisa May Alcott
American novelist and poet, best known for Little Women, a semi-autobiographical novel about four sisters growing up during the Civil War era. Daughter of transcendentalist philosopher Amos Bronson Alcott, she also wrote thrillers under a pseudonym and was an active abolitionist and women's suffragist.