A Hopeful Heart: Louisa May Alcott Before by Deborah Noyes

Abstract

Reviewed by: A Hopeful Heart: Louisa May Alcott Before by Deborah Noyes Elizabeth Bush Noyes, Deborah A Hopeful Heart: Louisa May Alcott Before Little Women. Schwartz & Wade, 2020 [304p] illus. with photographs Trade ed. ISBN 9780525646235 $18.99 E-book ed. ISBN 9780525646259 $11.99 Reviewed from digital galleys R Gr. 5-9 The March sisters are so deeply embedded in the cultural landscape that even kids who haven't read Little Women may know a fair amount about it, including the fact that author Louisa May Alcott drew heavily from her own childhood to create her characters. Here Noyes offers enthusiasts a rich opportunity to compare biography with a beloved text and provides newcomers a vibrant introduction to a family whose quirks and tribulations supplied a lode many a novelist would love to mine. Roughly the first half of this bio is dominated by Bronson and Abby Alcott's strained but loyal marriage, as the paterfamilias tends to his philosophical ideals as an innovative educator at the expense of his family's material well-being, while "Marmee" runs interference with their own children and negotiates continual household moves and grinding poverty. Since Louisa May would be well into adulthood before arriving at Noyes' endpoint, there's plenty of page space to focus on [End Page 95] her struggles to balance family loyalty with a writing career, her wilder tendencies with her deeply instilled determination to achieve self-control, and well-paying publishing demands with her own authorly interests: in short, Jo March to a T. Noyes, however, is not the tour guide who points out Little Women sights at every turn; instead she allows fans to enjoy their own Aha! discoveries of parallels between life and lit. End matter comprises bibliography, source notes, and credits for the photograph interludes between chapters. Copyright © 2020 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois