The Portable Louisa May Alcott

by Alcott, Louisa May (Author); Keyser, Elizabeth (Editor)

• ISBN13: 9780140275742
• ISBN10: 0140275746
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2000-07-01
• Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics)

Summary

The Portable Louisa May Alcott samples the entire spectrum of Alcott's writings: her novels, novellas, children's stories, sensationalist fiction, gothic tales, memoirs, letters, and journals. Presenting her more daring works, such as Moods and Behind a Mask, alongside the more familiar heroines, and including a selection of personal writing, this singular collection shows the relationship not only between Little Women and Alcott's family life but also between Little Women and the sensation fiction - and how this apparent dichotomy illuminates who Alcott was. Edited by award-winning Alcott scholar Elizabeth Lennox Keyser, The Portable Louisa May Alcott offers readers a wide-ranging portrait of this influential writer.

Table of Contents

Introduction	vii
Chronology	xxiii
I. SHORT FICTION
My Contraband	7	(18)
A Whisper in the Dark	25	(36)
Thrice Tempted	61	(19)
La Jeune; or, Actress and Woman	80	(17)
Psyche's Art	97	(19)
My Mysterious Mademoiselle	116	(11)
Cupid and Chow-chow	127	(17)
Queen Aster	144	(9)
II. NOVELS AND NOVELLAS
Moods	153	(206)
Behind a Mask: or, A Woman's Power	359	(95)
From Little Women, part 2	454	(22)
Literary Lessons	456	(6)
Friend	462	(14)
From Work: A Story of Experience	476	(9)
At Forty	477	(8)
From A Modern Mephistopheles	485	(26)
Chapters XII, XIII, and XV	487	(24)
From Jo's Boys	511	(27)
Plays at Plumfield	513	(11)
Among the Maids	524	(14)
III. MEMOIRS, JOURNALS, AND LETTERS
Transcendental Wild Oats	538	(69)
Journals
Fruitlands (1843)	553	(3)
Concord (1845--47)	556	(1)
Boston (1850--57)	557	(7)
Concord (1858--62)	564	(6)
Georgetown (1862--63)	570	(5)
Moods (1864--65)	575	(4)
Little Women (1868--69)	579	(3)
Emerson's Death (1882)	582	(2)
Letters
To Abigail May Alcott, December 25, 1854	584	(1)
To Amos Bronson Alcott, November 29, 1856	584	(2)
To Anna Alcott Pratt, date uncertain	586	(2)
To Annie Maria Lawrence, February 3, 1865	588	(1)
To Moncure Daniel Conway, February 18, 1865	588	(1)
To Mr. Ayer, March 19, 1865	589	(2)
To the Lukens Sisters, September 4 [1873]	591	(1)
To Lucy Stone, October 1, 1873	592	(1)
To Maria S. Porter [1876]	593	(1)
To Lucy Stone, June 29 [1876]	593	(1)
To John Preston True, October 24 [1878]	594	(1)
To Thomas Niles, February 12, 1881	595	(1)
To Thomas Niles, February 19, 1881	596	(1)
To William Warland Clapp, Jr., March 6, 1883	596	(1)
To Maggie Lukens, January 14 [1884]	597	(1)
To Maggie Lukens, February 5 [1884]	598	(2)
To Maggie Lukens, February 14 [1884]	600	(2)
To the Woman's Journal, May 8, 1884	602	(1)
To Lucy Stone, August 31 [1885]	603	(1)
To Thomas Niles, [June?] 1886	604	(1)
Notes to the Letters	605	(2)
Selected Bibliography	607