Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Editor Rosenberg (Sorrows, Scribbles, and Russet Leather Boots) assembles in this elegant anthology some of 19th-century novelist Alcott's most notable nonfiction. In "Hospital Sketches," Alcott lyrically recounts working as a nurse in Washington, D.C., during the Civil War, writing of a soldier she tended who died of his injuries: "He vanished, like a drop in that red sea upon whose shores so many women stand lamenting." Her humor and vivaciousness are on display in "How I Went Out to Service," in which she describes her brief stint as a domestic servant for a Boston family of declining fortunes when she was 15 and offers a nauseatingly vivid sketch of the priggish scion who insisted on inviting Alcott to his "charming room" so he could read Hegel to her. The standout "Transcendental Wild Oats" provides a droll account of Fruitlands, the short-lived utopian community founded by Alcott's father in the 1840s. She wryly notes that the idealistic residents walked back their ban on animal labor after a few days of "blistered hands and aching backs suggested the expediency of permitting the use of cattle" to plow fields. Filled with scintillating prose and amusing stories, this persuasively makes the case that Alcott's essays have been unjustly overlooked. (Oct.)
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Review by Library Journal Review
Little Women sold millions of copies, making Alcott (1832--88) famous and enabling her to financially support her family. However, as the nine essays in this book demonstrate, Alcott was much more than a children's-book writer. Rosenberg (English, Binghamton Univ.; Sorrows, Scribbles and Russet Leather Boots: A Biography of Louisa May Alcott) edited these essays, noting in her introduction to the book that Alcott never intended these texts to serve as "real" examples of her writing talents. The essays include descriptions from Alcott's childhood in Boston as well as at Fruitlands, a failed utopian farming experiment that ruined her family; working as a servant for a lecherous minister; European travel reports; and a treatise praising singlehood. Essays that depict Alcott's work as a Civil War nurse poignantly illustrate the physical and mental pain of wounded soldiers, many of whom suffered from the as-yet unidentified PTSD. Alcott embraced her "spinsterhood" while also championing numerous causes, such as abolitionism and women's rights, Rosenberg argues. This collection reveals Alcott's excellent writing abilities with her captivating accounts, keen observations, wit, and "modern opinions" about issues still relevant today. VERDICT Although some essays would benefit from the inclusion of explanatory notes to provide context and historical background, this delightful book is highly recommended for all Alcott devotees.--Erica Swenson Danowitz
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
Essays from the author of Little Women. Even occasional readers know that Louisa May Alcott (1832-1888) wrote Little Women. Few may be aware that she was also a remarkably witty essayist. This volume collects some of Alcott's nonfiction, which editor Rosenberg calls "even more brilliant--or perhaps more consistently brilliant--than her novels and stories." The book includes three long essays and excerpts from six additional pieces. The snippets, including "Happy Women," where she begins, "One of the trials of womankind is the fear of being an old maid," and then cites several women who did just fine without a man, have their pleasures, but the highlights are the longer essays. "How I Went Out to Service" describes the weeks she spent working for "a tall, ministerial gentleman" in search of "a companion for his sister," whom he called "a martyr to neuralgia." The hilarious "Transcendental Wild Oats" chronicles the escapades of family members who had no talent for farming yet tried to build an Eden in the woods. The most poignant piece is "Hospital Sketches," Alcott's account of her service as a nurse during the Civil War, an essay Jane Smiley, who provides the preface, describes as "maybe the most idiosyncratic and interesting depiction of war that I have ever read." Although it contains dated racial terms that make for uncomfortable reading, this essay gives a then-unprecedented view of war from the hospital ward, where Alcott describes harrowing conditions ("the floor covered with the more disabled, the steps and doorways filled with helpers and lookers-on"). Many of the pieces contain moments of humor, as when a hospital attendant prepares "a fearful beverage, which he called coffee, and insisted on sharing with me." The author also proves that some things haven't changed, as when she writes about a woman working alongside men: "The men got two francs a day; the woman half a franc." Lively, occasionally grim, and genuinely funny essays from a beloved author. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
