Lulu's Library: Complete

Lulu's Library

by Louisa May Alcott

Louisa May Alcott was an American novelist best known as author of the novel Little Women. In the mid-1860s, Alcott wrote passionate, fiery novels and sensational stories. She also produced wholesome stories for children, and after their positive reception, she did not generally return to creating works for adults. Alcott continued to write until her death.

Genres: Classics, Short Stories, Childrens

112 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1886

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

[Katelyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this book she has so many good books my fav in here was candy country I read it then i begged my mom to read this to the kids who are little and they loved it and belive this or not they payed attention!! It also teaches kids that candy isn't always the best thing to eat. yay for Ms. Alcott.

[Megan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sweet, fanciful tales

[Marcia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lulu's Library is a collection of short stories in three volumes, with a total of 32 short stories. The second volume contains a few stories from "Flower Fables," but some editing has occurred to make them a bit different. (Bad luck that I finished "Flower Fables" last night.) I will say that "Little Bud" is very different from the first version.

The stories were sweet, and there are tons of children doing wonderful things. There are also children who are obnoxious who don't come to a bad end, although they do tend to learn lessons. Several stories brought tears to my eyes and were otherwise beautifully written.

[Gloriamarie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is such a delightful collection of children's stories that I am sorry I didn't get to read it when I was a child. But I got to read it now. and I loved it. Highly recommended

[Toi Thomas · Rating 2 out of 5]

DNF at 70%

I tried really hard to get through these stories, but life is too short to read books you don't enjoy.

I read this book for the IWSG Book Club April '23 Library challenge. I was excited to read a collection of children's stories by the person who wrote Little Women, but this wasn't a good experience for me.

Ultimately, I think this work simply doesn't stand up to all the cultural and societal changes that have occurred from when this was written to now. It's just too out of date and too specific to the place, time, and demographic this work was written for. It's a niche that may not fully exist anymore, though I can see others being able to better appreciate this work than I am.

I may finish this collection one day but not now. If for no other reason than I think it would be a fun challenge to rewrite many of these stories for a modern audience.

I cannot recommend this to any of my personal friends, but could recommend it to students of cultural studies and fans of historical depictions.

[Beatrice Drury · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have always been a big fan of Alcott. Each time I find a different collection I think that I surely have read most before. She had a prodigious output. This collection gave me many I had never read before. I found things to laugh about and enjoy. Fantasy and real life abound. I found lessons to be learned as I read with joy.