The Annotated Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

Author:Louisa May Alcott
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Published: 2015-08-25T04:00:00+00:00

May Alcott enlivened the fireplace in Alcott’s room with this screech owl. (Louisa May Alcott Memorial Association; photograph by James E. Coutré)

So grouped the curtain falls upon Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy. Whether it ever rises again, depends upon the reception3 given to the first act of the domestic drama, called “Little Women.”

END OF PART FIRST.

1. “John Brooke is acting dreadfully, and Meg likes it!” Alcott’s reaction to her sister Anna’s romance with John Bridge Pratt was even more intense. In actuality, Anna’s betrothal took place in early April 1858, less than a month after the death of Lizzie. Still reeling from Lizzie’s passing, Alcott wrote, “[A]nother sister is gone. . . . I moaned in private over my great loss, and said I’d never forgive J. for taking Anna from me” (Louisa May Alcott, Journals, p. 89). Taken together, the two events plunged Alcott into a “fit of despair” so profound that she contemplated suicide. Thankfully, she emerged from her depression “braver and more cheerful,” though with a sense that “these experiences have taken a deep hold, and changed or developed me” (Louisa May Alcott, Journals, pp. 92, 91). On Alcott’s birthday that fall, John and Anna sent her a ring of their intertwined hair “as a peace-offering” (Louisa May Alcott, Journals, p. 91).

2. “It seems a year ago.” Indeed, just over a year has passed since the beginning of the story. We have followed the March sisters from December 24, 1861, to December 26, 1862.

3. depends upon the reception. As this concluding paragraph makes clear, Alcott felt far from certain of the reception that Little Women, Part First, would receive from the public. However, when she was sent the proofs of Part First, she wrote, “It reads better than I expected. Not a bit sensational, but simple and true, for we really lived most of it, and if it succeeds that will be the reason of it. Mr. N[iles] likes it better now, and says some girls who have read the manuscripts say it is ‘splendid!’ As it is for them, they are the best critics, so I should be satisfied.” Part First was published on October 1, 1868. Before the end of that month, Alcott’s publisher requested that she write a second volume for spring (Louisa May Alcott, Journals, pp. 166–67).

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