Little Women, Part First

Little Women, Part First

This first edition of part one of Luisa May Alcott’s novel Little Women, published in 1869, is illustrated by May Alcott, just like the second part from Manhattan College’s Fales Collection. The edition contains four illustrations: one of the four sisters and their mother gathered together on a chair, another of Amy ice skating just before she falls into the lake, a third of Meg looking in a mirror in her borrowed, elaborate clothing, and finally one of Beth running into her father’s arms upon his homecoming. These illustrations precede the ones of Amy and Laurie, Beth and Jo, and Professor Bhear and Tina that are found in part two of Little Women from the Fales Collection.

Each of these illustrations depicts a significant scene to both the plot and theme of the novel. The scenes of the sisters with their mother and father display loving family reunions that highlight the importance of their familial bonds. The illustration of Amy ice skating before she falls into the lake is important to Jo’s character, as she finally realizes the consequences of her temper and how to control it. Similarly, the illustration of Meg looking in the mirror depicts her recognizing her vanity and vowing to change. All of the illustrations from the part one are of the girls at a young age, having formative realizations; whereas in part two they are mature, seemingly feminist women. Perhaps the Alcott sisters decided to illustrate these transformative scenes in part one of the novel in order to display how the March sisters become the more emancipated and sophisticated women that we see through the writing and illustrations in part two. The change in the March sisters' characters is evident when viewing the illustrations in both parts of the novel as a whole. The Alcott sisters' choice to display this change through both text itself and these added illustrations suggests that they deem the girls' maturation and development into independent and ambitious women to be a significant element to the novel. Marmee's last line in the novel also suggests her daughters' individual transformations are important. She says, "'Oh, my girls, however long you may live, I never can wish you a greater happiness than this!" The March sisters each develop into successful and independent women and exemplify different paths that nineteenth-century women can take. Marmee's contentment with the women they have become implies that the progress that readers witnessed throughout the novel is important.

It is possible that Luisa and Abigail could have even gone through similar experiences to become more liberated and feministic women in their real lives, just like the March sisters in the novel. Perhaps the Alcotts pair the novel with these illustrations to display that women do not have to totally conform to nineteenth-century gender roles; they can have personal ambitions and goals for success and additional values such as art, literature, and education.

Luisa May Alcott

Hathitrust

Roberts Brothers

1869

May Alcott- illustrator

The University of South Carolina at Chapel Hill Library

octavo, 341 pages, 4 illustrations

novel