Louisa May Alcott
Book not yet available in English
Summary:
We know little about Louisa May Alcott beyond what the blurbs on her novels reveal. She is the author of Little Women and its sequels, plus she enjoyed lasting success as a writer of young adult books, mainly girls, during her lifetime. But how did she end up writing the story of a family so similar to her own? And from what narrative vein do her other works spring? What about the dozens and dozens of gothic tales made of “of blood and thunder,” the daring novels and commercial novels, some signed, others published anonymously or under a pseudonym? Retracing her life is like traveling through a complicated world, one that is rich in opportunities for young women but also always ready to call them to order. The aim is to discover a girl who thinks outside the box, dreams of being herself and becomes “a sort of literary nanny who produces moral mush for young people.” A girl who was strong by necessity, raised in a home poor in material goods but rich in ideals, who became a working woman to pay the bills and debts of others. In this book, Alcott’s story resembles that of many other famous writers, always poised between necessity and freedom, and sometimes it intertwines with theirs.
Edited by: Centro MeTRa - Università di Bologna (Italy)
Comment:
“A “sentimental biography” of Louisa May Alcott: the story of her life is linked with the personal and intimate reflections of the author Beatrice Masini. Moreover, towards the end of the book, we discover other writers’ lives who were more or less contemporaries of Alcott herself. This narration constitutes a veritable polyphonic map of women’s literature from the point of view of those writers. Masini’s non-idealizing perspective is particularly remarkable: the lives of women writers, primarily that of Alcott, are described in a disenchanted, sometimes raw manner, highlighting the challenges and discrimination they faced. There is also a particular focus on the correlation between writing and economic gain, the driving force behind much of Alcott’s and many other women’s literary activity. This helps dismantle a well-known taboo that would have us believe that women writers are motivated solely by the sacred fire of art. This book could be very useful in schools, alongside texts written by Alcott herself or even Virginia Woolf’s “A Room of One’s Own” and/or “Professions for Women”, from which it draws on several themes. “