Little Women at 150

Abstract

The 2018–2019 sesquicentennial of Louisa May Alcott's Little Women saw the release of an Oscar-nominated film adaptation directed by Greta Gerwig (2019) and a widely-reviewed indie bestseller by Anne Boyd Rioux titled Amy, Jo, Beth, Amy: The Story of “Little Women” and Why It Still Matters (2018). Clearly, the novel retains stature in the public consciousness; my own teaching of a course on Little Women in spring 2020 persuaded me that young women continue to find the novel moving and meaningful in their lives. Little Women at 150, a collection of eight original essays edited by Daniel Shealy, joins the discussion marking the novel's publication anniversary and includes a lead essay by Pulitzer-Prize winning author John Matteson, posthumous essays by Joel Myerson and Beverly Lyon Clark, and five additional essays by notable Alcott scholars. Noting that Little Women is judged to be “one of the first realistic novels for young people,” the collection addresses a constellation of questions prompted by the anniversary: How did the novel reach the status of a classic? What is its current relevance, and why does it remain popular? How did Alcott's earlier fiction influence it? What has been its global influence? What is the appeal of the character of Jo March, in particular? Does the novel still convey important ideas to readers?The topics in the volume range broadly, from the visual imagery of transportation in illustrated editions (Clark) to a reinterpretation of adulthood and marriage in the marriage plots (Anne K. Phillips), from the influence of Margaret Fuller (Christine Doyle), Emerson and Pilgrim's Progress on the novel (Roberta Seelinger Trites) to a comparative examination of Little Women in relation to a twentieth-century Australian novel, Ethel Turner's Seven Little Australians (Myerson). Matteson opens the volume by evaluating Alcott's depiction of the relation of social class and moral virtue against Friedrich Engel's and John Winthrop's theorizations. Matteson's ideas exist in conversation with Sandra Harbert Petrulionis’ essay on the character of Hannah Mullet, which painstakingly illuminates how the novel's depiction of the domestic servant makes possible and shores up the idealized femininity the March women display. In laying out how scholars have missed and ignored the importance of Hannah's character, Petrulionis shows how scholarly gaps are perhaps as shocking to recognize as Alcott's own blind spots. Greg Eiselein closes the volume with a rousing call to recognize Alcott as a canonical author, a recognition that is surely overdue. Eiselein presents five criteria for determining a “major author” that could be particularly useful in classroom settings to provoke discussion and debate on literary history's shifting and unreliable judgments. Indeed, all of the essays offer pedagogical opportunities, written as they are in an accessible and clear manner. Eschewing trendy or “cutting edge” approaches, the collection reminds us of the value of patient, solid, author-focused scholarship, especially in our teaching.