little women and little men louisa may alcott

Bhaer (her married name)? It was like I no longer knew the Jo of my childhood. Not too far into the novel, however, a new, surprising thought entered my head. I started to read about Nat, Demi, Tommy, and the other boys at Plumfield with interest. Still, despite my lifelong hesitations, I finally sat down and started to read Little Men (thanks to it being on the syllabus of my History of American Children’s Literature class) with a semi-open mind. I either wanted another Anne and Gilbert ending of which I felt I had been robbed of, or at least one similar to Alcott’s own life in which she sticks with a life of independence. Jo should have either been with Laurie or single of course and not with some old boring professor who convinces her that sensational writing is inappropriate. I know I couldn’t have been the only one who was inspired by Jo and wished to become a writer just like her in Little Women, but what then about Little Men or Jo’s Boys for that matter? For many years, I must honestly admit that ever since I first read Little Women (and seen the movies), I have refused to read its’ two sequels out of principle. I know many of us have read Little Women, grown up with Jo March and her wonderful sisters and their lovable mother Marmee. In fact, Jo confesses, she hardly knows “which I like best, writing or boys.” Here is the story of the ragged orphan Nat, spoiled Stuffy, wild Dan, and all the other lively inhabitants of Plumfield, whose adventures have captivated generations of readers.” Now she and her husband, Professor Bhaer, provide their irrepressible charges with a very different sort of education-and much love.

For this is what writer Jo Bhaer, once Jo March of Little Women, always wanted: a house “swarming with boys…in all stages of…effervescence.” At the end of Little Women, Jo inherited the Plumfield estate from her diamond-in-the-rough Aunt March. “At Plumfield, an experimental school for boys, the little scholars can do very much as they please, even slide down banisters.

Little women and little men louisa may alcott