Comic Tragedies: Written by Jo and Meg and Acted by the Little Women

by Louisa May Alcott, Anna Bronson Alcott Pratt

Plays written and preformed by the Alcott sisters, collected for publication by Anna Alcott Pratt after the death of her sister, Louisa May Alcott. The Alcott sister's dramatics were featured in Alcott's most popular novel, "Little Women." This book publishes the plays as those of the "Little Women" characters, though they were actually written and preformed by the real-life Alcott sisters. The plays are in the same stylistic vein as Alcott's sensational thrillers, written for the popular press.

Genres: Classics, Fiction, Drama, Plays

317 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1893

About the author

Louisa May Alcott was an American novelist, short story writer, and poet best known for writing the novel Little Women (1868) and its sequels Good Wives (1869), Little Men (1871) and Jo's Boys (1886). Raised in New England by her transcendentalist parents, Abigail May Alcott and Amos Bronson Alcott, she grew up among many well-known intellectuals of the day, including Margaret Fuller, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Henry David Thoreau, and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.
Alcott's family suffered from financial difficulties, and while she worked to help support the family from an early age, she also sought an outlet in writing. She began to receive critical success for her writing in the 1860s. Early in her career, she sometimes used pen names such as A.M. Barnard, under which she wrote lurid short stories and sensation novels for adults that focused on passion and revenge.
Published in 1868, Little Women is set in the Alcott family home, Orchard House, in Concord, Massachusetts, and is loosely based on Alcott's childhood experiences with her three sisters, Abigail May Alcott Nieriker, Elizabeth Sewall Alcott, and Anna Bronson Alcott Pratt. The novel was well-received at the time and is still popular today among both children and adults. It has been adapted for stage plays, films, and television many times.
Alcott was an abolitionist and a feminist and remained unmarried throughout her life. She also spent her life active in reform movements such as temperance and women's suffrage. She died from a stroke in Boston on March 6, 1888, just two days after her father's death.

Reviews

[Emma]

Me estaba aportando 0 so abandonado half way
Zero insights into Alcott's universe - expected pero cuesta arriba

[Dee · Rating 3 out of 5]

I just finished listening to wonderful audio narration of this book through Librivox. I'm normally not a huge fan of audiobooks but this was a big exception. The entire cast is so talented and they really brought all the stories to life, to the point where I felt like I was actually in a theatre watching these plays. The stories in and of themselves were not great but so so enjoyable to listen to!

[Fiona Murphy McCormack · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am Alcott trash.
Shakespeare this is not, but it's so much fun to read these attempts at his style. Lots of revenge and forbidden love!
My favourite part was the introduction by 'Meg' and Norna or the Witches Curse.
If you're a fan or little women, this and the other early writings of Alcott give insight into what Jo's writing is supposed to be and the world in which these sisters grew up.

[Marcia · Rating 2 out of 5]

The actual effort put into these plays to make them seem like a youth had written them was excellent. I felt I was reading something written by a juvenile. That said, the plays were juvenile.

[Steffi · Rating 3 out of 5]

A nice addition to Little Women.

[Siouxsie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sweet and fun

[Jes · Rating 5 out of 5]

Every one of these was so fun.

[Therese · Rating 2 out of 5]

$0.0

Like Sir Arthur Conan Doyle with his Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson, Louisa May Alcott has created some of the most memorable fictional characters in her Little Women, so much so that they seem real. I know they are based upon her childhood, and one day I will have to get a biography to find out where non-fiction ends and fiction begins.

This is a small collection of plays that Jo and Meg wrote and all of the girls acted out. I wish they would have used the language of their day instead of the old English, but I will have to give them credit for having great imaginations. These girls were never bored.

Because they are such idealists, these plays are far from believable, and I suppose it is the way they were brought up as well as the time. They were great romantics and loved drama, and I have to wonder if they were around today would they have ended up in Hollywood. Yet again, they are fictional so this is a moot point.

[Terri · Rating 2 out of 5]

These tragic plays are overly melodramatic and sentimental, yet they give a view into the early life of Alcott and her sisters. It is important to remember that they were written by young girls for simple play and family entertainment and this should not be judged too harshly. Another reviewer criticized the use of the proper pronouns thee and thou. Since these girls were heavily schooled in the Bible and were attempting to write about earlier, heraldic times, the pronoun choice can be forgiven. I wouldn't listen to them again, but they are interesting and informative as examples of Alcott's very early writing and show how much she progressed before Little Women.

[Kristi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Plays written and preformed by the Alcott sisters, collected for publication by Anna Alcott Pratt after the death of her sister, Louisa May Alcott. The Alcott sisters' dramatics were featured in Alcott's most popular novel, "Little Women." This book publishes the plays as those of the "Little Women" characters, though they were actually written and performed by the real-life Alcott sisters. The plays are in the same stylistic vein as Alcott's sensational thrillers, written for the popular press. Fun read for Alcott fans.

[Katja Labonté · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars & 4/10 hearts. I really enjoyed these stories, ridiculous as they were. They were dramatic ;) and the language was perfect! Two stories (“Norna” & “Bianca”) dealt with witches & various magic, as well as murder & ghosts. The two Greek stories (“Ion” & “The Greek Slave”) mentioned “the gods,” but other than that I enjoyed them. “The Moorish Maiden” was my favourite, and I really liked “An Unloved Wife.” So I’ll reread this book for sure, but I’ll skip the first and next-to-last stories. 

[Carolyn · Rating 1 out of 5]

"Comic Tragedies", Louisa May Alcott, sounds promising, right? Sadly, I can't picture any of these actually working. I wonder if these would have gone over better some hundred years ago...