"Although Louisa May Alcott's novel Little Women begins with a wonderful Christmas scene, the book is about a lot of other things, including the making of art and money. As a breadwinner herself, Alcott kept clear accounts of her income. In 1850, at age 15, for instance, she noted in her journal that she'd sold her first story, The Rival Painters, for $5."
""This passion of work and this happiness which blessed her in doing it are fitted without fuss into a girl's commonplace life at home. It may not seem much; but I don't know where else I or many other girls like me, in my generation or my mother's or my daughter's, were to find this model, this validation.""
Little Women opens with a Christmas scene but centers on the interior lives, ambitions, and economic realities of the March sisters: Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy. Each sister displays a distinct personality; Jo’s passion for writing and unconventional manner set her apart. Jo is described as physically ungainly and informal, prompting sisterly rebukes for being boyish. The novel sold rapidly upon publication, indicating contemporary appetite for female interiority. Generations of women writers found validation in its depiction of domestic life combined with creative labor. Modern film adaptations reinterpret social issues such as corsetry and conversations about marriage.
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