In 1877, shortly after the publication of A Modern Mephistopheles, LMA and Anna bought the Thoreau House for $4,500. She wrote Under the Lilacs there while nursing her mother until her death in November. St. Nicolas magazine paid her $3000 for it, as opposed to the mere $600 she got for the anonymous AMM. While working on it she wrote to Mary Mapes Dodge, the editor, 'I am daily waiting with anxiety for an illumination of some sort as my plot is very vague so far & though I dont approve of "sensations" in childrens books, one must have a certain thread on which to string the small events which make up the true sort of child life.'
Chapter 1: A Mysterious Dog
Opens with a nice description of a birthday for a doll that occurs on the porch of an empty house. The doll mothers are Bab Moss, 11, and Betty Moss, 10. They made a cake and some weak tea because their mother says strong tea isn't good for children.
Their mother keeps the lodge and they're excited to see part of it in a day or two. Betty wants to see the library; Bab wants to see the spinning-wheel and play in the coach-house. They go fetch some water and when they get back the carefully arranged dolls are topsy-turvy and the cake is gone.
"It was that Sally! She said she'd pay me for slapping her when she pinched little Mary Ann, and now she has,” exclaims Bab in an establishing character moment. But they find a white poodle who does some tricks. And the cake isn't gone; it's just been moved.
The Kenwigses referenced are from Nicholas Nickleby.( Read more... )
"The story is full of action , and though is main interest centres on Benny, girl readers will find it as enjoyable as if it had been written especially for their enjoyment."
- Boston Evening Transcript
"The telling of the story is the wonderful thing about the book; and this is inimitable."
- Zion's Herald
"The children are thoroughly childlike and healthy-minded, as all Miss Alcott's children are; though, of course, to an English mind, the social relations of the characters are somewhat strange."
- The Saturday Review of Politics, Science, Literature, and Art
(If there were any critical reviews they appear on pages not available on Google Books. I wish the collection of reviews was less than forty dollars.)
Next: Diana and Persis, an unfinished adult novel.
Chapter 1: A Mysterious Dog
Opens with a nice description of a birthday for a doll that occurs on the porch of an empty house. The doll mothers are Bab Moss, 11, and Betty Moss, 10. They made a cake and some weak tea because their mother says strong tea isn't good for children.
Their mother keeps the lodge and they're excited to see part of it in a day or two. Betty wants to see the library; Bab wants to see the spinning-wheel and play in the coach-house. They go fetch some water and when they get back the carefully arranged dolls are topsy-turvy and the cake is gone.
"It was that Sally! She said she'd pay me for slapping her when she pinched little Mary Ann, and now she has,” exclaims Bab in an establishing character moment. But they find a white poodle who does some tricks. And the cake isn't gone; it's just been moved.
The Kenwigses referenced are from Nicholas Nickleby.( Read more... )
"The story is full of action , and though is main interest centres on Benny, girl readers will find it as enjoyable as if it had been written especially for their enjoyment."
- Boston Evening Transcript
"The telling of the story is the wonderful thing about the book; and this is inimitable."
- Zion's Herald
"The children are thoroughly childlike and healthy-minded, as all Miss Alcott's children are; though, of course, to an English mind, the social relations of the characters are somewhat strange."
- The Saturday Review of Politics, Science, Literature, and Art
(If there were any critical reviews they appear on pages not available on Google Books. I wish the collection of reviews was less than forty dollars.)
Next: Diana and Persis, an unfinished adult novel.
Tags:
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}