Good Wives

Time has brought changes to the March household -- home of the girls Jo, Amy, Beth and Meg, introduced in Louisa May Alcott's classic novel Little Women. Having returned safely from war, Mr. March has become a trusted and beloved minister in the local parish. Home, too, is young John Brooke, whose plans for a shared life with Meg, however modest and poor that life may turn out to be, make the eldest March girl think herself the happiest soul in Christendom. The young lovers will live in a charming little house dubbed "The Dovecote," with its front lawn the size of a handkerchief. Life promises adventures and fulfillment for the other March girls, as well -- for not only are their talents developing, but they are growing older and more accomplished in the complicated matter of living their own lives. Tomboyish Jo's curly crop is lengthening into long coils, and she is learning to carry herself with ease -- if not quite with grace. Beth has grown slender, pale, and more quiet than ever, with beautiful eyes brimming with kindness. And Amy, the flower of the family, at sixteen already has the air and bearing of a full-gown woman, and exerts an indescribable charm -- especially on young men.

Biography & AutobiographyWomenFamily & RelationshipsMarriage & Long-Term RelationshipsJuvenile FictionClassics

RELEASED2008

PUBLISHERAegypan

LENGTH220

LANGUAGEEN

Louisa May AlcottAmerican novelist (1832–1888)

Louisa May Alcott was born in Germantown, Pennsylvania on November 29, 1832. She and her three sisters, Anna, Elizabeth, and May, were educated by their father, philosopher and teacher Bronson Alcott, and raised on the practical Christianity of their mother, Abigail May. Louisa spent her childhood in Boston and in Concord, Massachusetts, where her days were enlightened by visits to Ralph Waldo Emerson’s library, excursions into nature with Henry David Thoreau, and theatricals in the barn at "Hillside". Like her character, "Jo March" in Little Women, young Louisa was a tomboy. "No boy could be my friend till I had beaten him in a race," she claimed, "and no girl if she refused to climb trees, leap fences ..." For Louisa, writing was an early passion. She had a rich imagination and often her stories became melodramas that she and her sisters would act out for friends. Louisa preferred to play the "lurid" parts in these plays --"the villains, ghosts, bandits, and disdainful queens." At age 15, troubled by the poverty that plagued her family, she vowed: "I will do something by and by. Don’t care what, teach, sew, act, write -- anything to help the family; and I’ll be rich and famous and happy before I die, see if I won’t!"

4.2

Good Wives

by Louisa May Alcott

Time has brought changes to the March household -- home of the girls Jo, Amy, Beth and Meg, introduced in Louisa May Alcott's classic novel Little Women. Having returned safely from war, Mr. March has become a trusted and beloved minister in the local parish. Home, too, is young John Brooke, whose plans for a shared life with Meg, however modest and poor that life may turn out to be, make the eldest March girl think herself the happiest soul in Christendom. The young lovers will live in a charming little house dubbed "The Dovecote," with its front lawn the size of a handkerchief. Life promises adventures and fulfillment for the other March girls, as well -- for not only are their talents developing, but they are growing older and more accomplished in the complicated matter of living their own lives. Tomboyish Jo's curly crop is lengthening into long coils, and she is learning to carry herself with ease -- if not quite with grace. Beth has grown slender, pale, and more quiet than ever, with beautiful eyes brimming with kindness. And Amy, the flower of the family, at sixteen already has the air and bearing of a full-gown woman, and exerts an indescribable charm -- especially on young men.

Biography & AutobiographyWomenFamily & RelationshipsMarriage & Long-Term RelationshipsJuvenile FictionClassicsFamilyGirls & Women

RELEASED2008

PUBLISHERAegypan

LENGTH220

LANGUAGEEN

Louisa May AlcottAmerican novelist (1832–1888)

Louisa May Alcott was born in Germantown, Pennsylvania on November 29, 1832. She and her three sisters, Anna, Elizabeth, and May, were educated by their father, philosopher and teacher Bronson Alcott, and raised on the practical Christianity of their mother, Abigail May. Louisa spent her childhood in Boston and in Concord, Massachusetts, where her days were enlightened by visits to Ralph Waldo Emerson’s library, excursions into nature with Henry David Thoreau, and theatricals in the barn at "Hillside". Like her character, "Jo March" in Little Women, young Louisa was a tomboy. "No boy could be my friend till I had beaten him in a race," she claimed, "and no girl if she refused to climb trees, leap fences ..." For Louisa, writing was an early passion. She had a rich imagination and often her stories became melodramas that she and her sisters would act out for friends. Louisa preferred to play the "lurid" parts in these plays --"the villains, ghosts, bandits, and disdainful queens." At age 15, troubled by the poverty that plagued her family, she vowed: "I will do something by and by. Don’t care what, teach, sew, act, write -- anything to help the family; and I’ll be rich and famous and happy before I die, see if I won’t!"