Tuesday, December 6, 2011

The Quiet Little Woman - Louisa May Alcott

Title: The Quiet Little Woman : a Christmas story
Author: Louisa May Alcott
Pages: 122
Published: 1999
Genre: Short stories, Fiction, Christmas
Rating: 3/5

Everything about The Quiet Little Woman: A Christmas Story by Louisa May Alcott is heartwarming, starting with the extraordinary tale of its origin. Alcott wrote the story for three girls who emulated Little Women's March sisters by founding their own literary publication, but the magazine was lost for many years; this story is now being published in book form for the first time. The Quiet Little Woman tells the story of Patty, a young girl living hopelessly in an orphanage, who is rescued at Christmas time by a kindly woman named Aunt Jane. Also collected in this small, beautiful (and not coincidentally, Christmas stocking-size) volume are two of Alcott's other holiday stories; one of them, "Rosa's Tale," is a really lovely fable about a horse who speaks at midnight on Christmas Eve. (via Goodreads.com)

Thoughts: It was a nice light read.  Granted the book was very short and the book only took me less than 12 hours of reading time to complete, but it was still a nice diversion from the heavier books that are awaiting me.  I find it interesting that these three stories were only discovered quite recently and that Ms. Alcott took the time to pen these stories for the Lukens girls and their little publication, which was inspired by the paper that the March girls made in Little Women, even though she was a well-known author at the time of these stories and was in the midst of her own busy writing career.  The stories are quite simple and while the first two stories in the collection were more entertaining, the last story was a little confusing for the most part.  Overall it was enjoyable and a nice read.

Recommended for fans of Little Women and Alcott's other work.

4 comments:

*ೃ༄ Jillian said...

I love the story behind Alcott's writing of this. I might need to read these next Christmas.

Michelle Stockard Miller said...

I thought this was a lovely read. Louisa May has such a nostalgic style of writing. That's why Little Women is one of my favorites.

Nan said...

How very, very dear. Thank you for writing about it. I'd not heard of it.

Brasil said...

This book is Heart Warming and is the perfect gift on Christmas! Three enchanting stories to make you laugh, cry, smile and enjoy for years! This book was very cool!!!

What Strange Paradise - Omar El Akkad

 Title: What Strange Paradise ( Bookshop.org ) Author: Omar El Akkad Published: 2022 (first published 2021) Genre: Fiction, Contemporary, Li...