"As the North reels under a series of unexpected defeats during the dark first year of the Civil War, one man leaves behind his family to aid the Union cause. His experiences will utterly change his marriage and challenge his most ardently held beliefs. From Louisa May Alcott's beloved classic Little Women, Geraldine Brooks has taken the character of the absent father, Mr. March, who has gone off to war, leaving his wife and daughters to make do in mean times. From vibrant new England to the sensuous antebellum South, March adds adult resonance to Alcott's optimistic children's novel. A lushly written, wholly original tale steeped in the details of another time, March secures Geraldine Brooks's place as a renowned author of historical fiction."
You can visit Geraldine Brooks's site by clicking here. (Warning: Spoilers are possible if you read the March page).
To view the author's profile of Bronson Alcott, Louisa May Alcott's father and the basis for Mr. March (in both Little Women and March) entitled "Orpheus at the Plow," which appeared in the New Yorker a month before March was released in 2005, please click here or here.
We will meet to discuss March on Thursday, April 25, 2013 at 7pm at the Atlantic Highlands Branch of the Monmouth County Library, located at 100 First Avenue in the Atlantic Highlands Borough Hall Building, Atlantic Highlands.
**To view "The Atlantic Highlands Evening Bookclub Turns 3!" scroll down or click here.**
For info on Louisa May Alcott's mother, Abigail 'Abba' May Alcott, wife of Bronson Alcott and whom the Little Women's mother Marmee is based on, go to:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.civilwarwomenblog.com/2011/10/abigail-may-alcott.html
For more information on 'Amos' Bronson Alcott, whom March is based on, go to:
http://www.alcott.net/
For more information on Louisa May Alcott and family, go to:
http://www.louisamayalcott.org/index.html
A personal favorite biography of Louisa May Alcott: Louisa May Alcott The Woman Behind Little Women by Harriet Reisen. Here is the link related to the docu-drama which aired on PBS in 2009:
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/?s=Louisa%20May%20Alcott%20The%20Woman%20Behind%20Little%20Women
Other titles of interest:
Eden's Outcasts: The Story of Louisa May Alcott and Her Father by John Matteson
Louisa May Alcott by Susan Cheever
The Little Women Letters by Gabrielle Donnelly (fiction)
The Lost Summer of Louisa May Alcott by Kelly McNees (Fiction)
American Bloomsbury by Susan Cheever
Louisa May Alcott An Intimate Anthology (1997 DoubleDay)
Harriet recommended Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand. Elaine mentioned The Dante Club during our discussion last night about March and the author is Matthew Pearl.