Louisa May Alcott is best known for her classic coming-of-age novel "Little Women." But she tackles an entirely different part of growing up in "An Old Fashioned Girl," the story of a country mouse living with a wealthy urban family in late 19th-century America. Polly Milton travels to stay with her aunt and uncle in the city, for the first time, but she immediately sticks out because of her outdated clothing and lack of fussiness. Her cousin Fan Shaw (also about fourteen) is already dressed like a young woman, and hangs out with a gang of shallow, trendy girls. Polly befriends old ladies, sings Scottish airs, and reads books on history. Can she fit in? What's more... does she really want to? Fast forward about five or six years: The Shaw family learns that Polly is returning to the city, intending to give music lessons to help support her brother. Time hasn't really changed Polly -- she's still sweet-natured, moral and pleasant to everyone. But the Shaw family is in serious financial trouble -- and Polly will help out the only way she knows how. As in "Little Women," Alcott's writing is still pretty readable for modern readers, although most people will not know what a "pannier" is. She also writes a good understated love story, in Polly's gradual interest in her cousin Tom. You'll know that these two really need to get together, but it's going to take them awhile. So sit back and enjoy the ride. Polly may put you off at first with her air of vague goody-two-shoes-ness, but she improves over the course of the book. Somewhat more realistic are the spoiled little brat Maud, the grumpy Tom, and the pretty but air-headed Fan. Grandmother isn't quite so engaging; she seems like an idealized older person who exists just to dispense wisdom. Louisa May Alcott managed to wrap a lesson about peer pressure around a real story. Fans of her work will love "An Old Fashioned Girl," even with its few moralistic flaws.
Louisa May Alcott (1832 -1888) was an American novelist. She is best known for the novel Little Women and its sequels Little Men and Jo's Boys. Little Women was set in the Alcott family home, Orchard House in Concord, Massachusetts, and published in 1868. This novel is loosely based on her childhood experiences with her three sisters. Alcott's literary success arrived with the publication by the Roberts Brothers of the first part of Little Women: or Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy, a semi-autobiographical account of her childhood with her sisters in Concord, Massachusetts. Part two, or Part Second, also known as Good Wives, followed the March sisters into adulthood and their respective marriages. Little Men detailed Jo's life at the Plumfield School that she founded with her husband Professor Bhaer at the conclusion of Part Two of Little Women. Jo's Boys completed the "March Family Saga". In Little Women, Alcott based her heroine "Jo" on herself. But whereas Jo marries at the end of the story, Alcott remained single throughout her life. In her later life, Alcott became an advocate for women's suffrage and was the first woman to register to vote in Concord, Massachusetts, in a school board election. Alcott, along with Elizabeth Stoddard, Rebecca Harding Davis, Anne Moncure Crane, and others, were part of a group of female authors during the Gilded Age who addressed women's issues in a modern and candid manner. Alcott, who continued to write until her death, suffered chronic health problems in her later years. Alcott died of a stroke in Boston, on March 6, 1888, at age 55, two days after visiting her father's deathbed. Her last words were "Is it not meningitis?"
