Audiobook14 hours
Marmee and Louisa: The Untold Story of Louisa May Alcott and Her Mother
Written by Eve LaPlante
Narrated by Karen White
Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
4.5/5
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About this audiobook
Since its release nearly one hundred and fifty years ago, Louisa May Alcott's classic Little Women has been a mainstay in American literature, while passionate Jo March and her calm, beloved "Marmee" have shaped generations of young women. Biographers have consistently credited her father, Bronson Alcott, for Louisa's professional success, assuming that this outspoken idealist was the source of her progressive thinking and remarkable independence.But in this riveting dual biography, Eve LaPlante explodes those myths, drawing on unknown and unexplored letters and journals to show that Louisa's "Marmee," Abigail May Alcott, was in fact the intellectual and emotional center of her daughter's world. It was Abigail who urged Louisa to write, who inspired many of her stories, and who gave her the support and courage she needed to pursue her unconventional path. Abigail, long dismissed as a quiet, self-effacing companion to her famous husband and daughter, is revealed here as a politically active feminist firebrand, a fascinating thinker in her own right. Examining family papers, archival documents, and diaries thought to have been destroyed, LaPlante paints an exquisitely moving and utterly convincing portrait of a woman decades ahead of her time-and the fiercely independent daughter who was both inspired and restricted by her mother's dreams of freedom.A story guaranteed to turn all previous scholarship on its head, Marmee and Louisa is a gorgeously written and deeply felt biography of two extraordinary women as well as a key to our understanding of Louisa May Alcott's life and work.
Author
Eve LaPlante
Eve LaPlante is a great niece and a first cousin of Abigail and Louisa May Alcott. She is the author of Seized, American Jezebel, and Salem Witch Judge, which won the 2008 Massachusetts Book Award for Nonfiction. She is also the editor of My Heart Is Boundless the first collection of Abigail May Alcott’s private papers. She lives with her family in New England.
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Reviews for Marmee and Louisa
Rating: 4.266666666666667 out of 5 stars
4.5/5
15 ratings13 reviews
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5This is a biography that focuses on the relationship between the American author Louisa May Alcott and her mother Abigail (May) Alcott. When I learned that her mother was the inspiration for the March family matriarch in Little Women, I thought I might be at a disadvantage because I have never read Little Women. It wasn’t an issue, really, but now I want to read Little Women for the first time.The author, a descendant -- but not a direct descendant -- of Louisa May Alcott, did a great job of giving readers a sense of what life was like in mid-1800s America, especially for women. Without the right to vote and to control her own finances, women – especially married women – were virtual slaves to their fathers, husbands and brothers.And poor Abigail, married to a real piece of work who was so smart (in his own mind) that he didn’t need to support his family. He would abandon his wife and four daughters for months, even years at a time, leaving them to struggle financially. So, all the Alcott girls and women learned at a young age to make their own futures. I read this book for a non-fiction readers’ group at my public library and believe it will engender a lively discussion.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5What an interesting family. What a dysfunctional one, too! Bronson Alcott was completely narcissistic and a loser in every way. One highlight of the tale was that Louisa had him read Marmee's journals after her death. Even he could not evade the facts that his wife was miserable in their marriage and that he had done nothing, nothing, to alleviate their poverty. I would have said abject poverty had not the May family rescued them time after time.An interesting read for anyone interested in American history, history of the abolitionist era, and the early feminist movement.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Absolutely wonderful book. If you love Louisa May Alcott, you must read this book. It really explains her childhood and her mother’s influence on her.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5I tried listening to this book as an audiobook. The reader had a voice that really wasn't well suited to reading and she read much too slowly. I think I will try again, this time with the print edition.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Marmee & Louisa by Eve LaPlante was the perfect book to read after reading the ARC Louisa on the Front Lines by Samantha Seiple and Meg Jo Beth Amy by Anne Boyd Rioux. LaPlante, who is a distant cousin to Louisa May Alcott, had access to family documents and letters. Her book concentrates on the relationship between mother Abigail May Alcott and daughter Louisa while also covering the entire family and Louisa's career.I very much enjoyed the book, but I didn't always like all the characters...okay, one character...Bronson Alcott, the patriarch. Abigail May worked her entire life for women's rights and equality and abolition. Her brother was a leader in the Unitarian church, suffrage movement, and an ardent abolitionist.Abigail was unable to have the formal education her brother Samuel enjoyed, but read his books and educated herself with his help. She aspired to be a teacher, someone who contributed to the world.Then she met the charismatic Bronson, a self-educated man with big ideas and a golden tongue. They fell in love and Abigail hitched her wagon to his star. Samuel was smitten, too, as eventually was all the Transcendentalists who later supported Bronson...even when they became weary of him. That support was not just in philosophy and friendship but financial. Bronson was too radical to keep his teaching positions and too intent on "higher things" to worry about how to put food on the table or a roof over the heads of his growing family. And he traveled--a lot--leaving his family to fend for themselves.Abigail relied on the compassion of their friends and family but also found any work she could--sewing, teaching, social work, nursing. Young Louisa felt for her mother and pledged to aid the family. She took jobs she disliked but also as a teenager started to write stories for magazines. They were sensational, Gothic thrillers that brought in quick cash. She was particularly adept at imagining these tales.Perhaps because she was so familiar with the powerlessness of women from watching her mother's toil, hardships, physical exhaustion and decline, mental anguish, while also indulging in acts of charity and working for abolition and women's right to vote.Louisa was an active girl and young woman, wary of love and thirsting for the wider world, when at thirty she signed up to work as a nurse caring for the wounded men of the Civil War. Within six weeks she became ill and was near to death when Bronson came to take her home. Abigail nursed Louisa back to life, if not health; for the rest of Louisa's 56 years, she suffered from ill health, perhaps from Lupus.Louisa kept writing and when Little Women was published became a sensation. She was able to finally support her family as she had always wanted, taking the burden off Abigail.For the rest of her life, Louisa took care of her mother and family. She fulfilled her mother's dream by voting in an election.The love and care between these women, Abigail and Louisa, is touching and inspiring, their strength of will humbling, their story timeless.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5This book is a biography showing the relationship between Louisa May Alcott and her mother, Abigail [Abby] May Alcott, written by Abigail’s great niece and Louisa’s cousin, several generations removed. Although many books have been written by Louisa, her mother has received very little attention. Ms. LaPlante proves that Abby was the strong influence on Louisa and her writing; it was not Bronson Alcott, Louisa’s father who was absent from home much of the time and did not understand Louisa. Abby encouraged Louisa from a very young age to write, providing her with writing materials, and later with her own journals to read for ideas and stories, many of which Louisa incorporated into her fiction. Although the story centers on Abby and Louisa, it is actually the story of the Alcott and May families. Abby was very close to her brother, Rev. Samuel Joseph May, who became heavily involved in several reform movements including abolition and women’s rights. Abby herself wrote petitions for women’s suffrage, and Louisa was the first woman to register to vote in local elections in Concord, MA in 1880. Both Abby and Louisa felt deeply restricted in women’s roles in 19th century America. Abby encouraged her daughters to live their lives in the manner in which they wanted which meant marriage for her oldest daughter, Anna; a writing career without marriage for Louisa; and a career in art for her youngest daughter, May. Until Louisa became a successful author, the Alcotts lived in poverty. Beginning as a teenager, Louisa supported the Alcott family primarily through her writing, but also through other employment. Bronson never was able or willing to support his family financially; he depended upon his wife and daughters to earn enough money to live. Louisa and Abby were mutually dependent upon each other; Louisa for her mother’s encouragement, and Abby for financial security. Abby and Louisa also nursed each other through illnesses; Abby died in Louisa’s arms.This is a well-written and well-researched book with many endnotes, but can be enjoyed without reading the notes.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Much has been written and relentlessly speculated about the life of Louisa May Alcott since the publication and runaway success of Little Women in 1868. A great deal of weight has been given to the role and influence of her lightning rod father, Bronson Alcott, as well as Henry David Thoreau, Ralph Waldo Emerson and other notable Transcendentalists on her writing topics and career motivations. Little has been said about her mother, Abigail, as an equally, if not more important, role in Louisa’s life and work. LaPlante, a descendant of Alcott’s, attempts to make that case with her biographical history, Marmee and Louisa. The Marmee in the title is key, as it’s a significant reason LaPlante feels that curiosity about Abigail’s personal life and influence is limited and largely comfortably ignored. Both historians and readers feel they have a clear grasp on her role – the character Marmee has made the real woman, Abigail Alcott, all but invisible.
The result of LaPlante’s undertaking is an informative and engaging biography, but so little of Abigail has been preserved through her actual words and letters, that it’s difficult to further that premise with strong conviction. Marmee and Louisa reads more like a history of Abigail’s (historically significant) family, her relationship with her husband, the family’s struggle with poverty and Bronson’s baffling approach to raising and providing for a family. LaPlante gives a detailed account of Abigail Alcott’s affluent family and upbringing, well-connected relatives, their financial fortunes, and how setbacks were endured and overcome – concentrating on the effect that all of this had on Abigail. Her relationship with Louisa seems loving but also incidental to the shared history of the family. Marmee and Louisa is a fascinating biography of a woman, and indeed a family, whose words and deeds were beyond the times in which they lived.
Thoughts on the audio: I read Marmee and Louisa and then listened to it on audio. It was narrated by Karen White, and she does an excellent job managing the flow of a wealth of information. Many locations were mentioned, the relatives had similar names, and their connections and intermarriages were dense. White’s distinct narration acted as a clarifier of the information presented, and in a book filled with Bronson Alcott’s shenanigans, her reading was also fair and largely unbiased toward any of those mentioned. Both the book and its audio are worthy choices, and not to be missed by those already interested or wanting to learn more about Abigail, Louisa and the Alcott family, and women’s history in the United States surrounding the civil war. Recommended. - Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5ver since my mother gave me a copy of Little Women when I was eleven, I have been reading Louisa Alcott's books and biographies of her. I was excited to learn more about her mother. The author who is a descendent but not a direct one has researched both of their lives extensively and has a big section in the back as chapter notes.I had already developed a strong dislike for her father, who was idealized in Little Women. He seemed to care only for himself and took long separations from his family and not providing for their well being. As I read this book, I became very angry of him being critical of his wife and Louisa. To me, he will always be a scoundrel. I loved learning about Abigail's early life. A very vibrant, independent little girl who adored her Uncle Sam Jo May. He encouraged her to get a man's education as much as possible and they shared views on the abolition of slavery and women's suffrage, At that time, women were not allowed to go to public meetings so Abigail had to stay at home. Her mother was very devoted to her children and encouraged as much she could. Abigail was a woman before her times Her husband caused her much despair and over critical of her when he was at home. Louisa did not want to marry for fear this would happen in her own life. This book was eye opening about both women. There were some sluggish parts to the writing but overall, I learned so much about what has been hidden about both their lives. I highly recommend this book for learning about these women about what it was like for women at that time in history.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Great book. The relationship between Louisa May Alcott and her mother. Written by family member
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Louisa May Alcott’s mother Abigail (or Marmee) gets her due by being front and center in this informative, fascinating, and sometimes heartbreaking book. Although much more has been written about Louisa’s idealistic but self-centered father Bronson Alcott, author Eve LaPlante makes a convincing case that it was her mother Louisa was closest to and most like. Abigail was a lively, convention breaking young woman, and was at least as bent on improving the world as her husband--for instance she embraced the anti-slavery and women’s rights movements long before he did. It was Abigail who gave Louisa journals and encouraged her to write, and because Bronson was often away on trips it was Abigail who had the main responsibility for nurturing and providing for their daughters. Bronson doesn’t come across very well here, even the other Transcendentalists become disillusioned with him, and one of his roles in Louisa’s success is that since he considered himself too important for anything so crass as earning a living Louisa became an author to earn the money her family badly needed. Marmee & Louisa provides a fascinating look at life, especially for women, in the middle years of the nineteenth century. With its communes and movements for social change, it’s an era that reminds me of the idealism and change the world passion of the late 1960’s.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Marmee & Louisa: The Untold Story of Louisa May Alcott and Her Mother by Eve LaPlanteI am so glad that I read this book. All of the other bios & historians I've read on the subject matter of the Alcott family led me to believe that Louisa's father, Bronson, was the man behind the success of Louisa's literary works. But within the covers of this book one sees what a true piece of limp milk toast he truly was while Abigail, Louisa's mother, worked her fingers to the bone to support the family, ruined her health with the hard work she did, begged from relatives and friends & all the while encouraged all four of her daughters to be the very best that they could be and even encouraged her sappy husband.This biography written by a cousin of Louisa, has endless notations and quotes which if the reader uses them lets one know exactly where she got her material. Also she had access to letters, diaries, journals & papers that other biographers did not have as she was in the family.Though the book is nonfiction it reads quite like a novel in that the reader does not get bogged down in the facts nor bored by the material. I actually found it to be quite a page turner. I enjoyed it a great deal.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Full of tidbits about history, a bit dry at times, this book did offer good insights into the life and characters of Louisa May Alcott. It told the history of Louisa's mother Abigail and since Abigail grew up in the Boston area and had a family that participated in politics it also offers quite a bit of history about that time and place, in a very focused way. Abigail's brother Samuel May was very involved in the abolitionist movement and her husband Bronson was good friends with Ralph Waldo Emerson. Bronson was quite and idealist and not very practical so much of the book is about Abigail's struggle to support the family. I would say this book is good for those with a strong interest in history or in studying Louisa's family, but for a reader with just a passing interest it may be too detailed/dry.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Excellently researched, by descendant of the Alcotts. First of many books I have read about Louisa May that delved into her relationship with her mother. Amazingly, Abigail Alcott was a proponent of women's rights (including voting) and passed that sense of justice to her daughters. Abigail was also a prolific keeper of yearly journals and as the author shows, she rivals the words of LM Alcott. And really points out the sadness of Bronson Alcott, a brilliant individual who failed to financially support his family throughout their life.