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63rd out of 185 books
—
96 voters
The Inheritance
Influenced by the melodrama of the contemporary theater and the popular gothic novels of the time, Louisa May Alcott weaves a tale far removed from the reality of her everyday life in Boston. With a charm reminiscent of Jane Austen's novels, "The Inheritance" sets love and courtesy against depravity and dishonor--and with the help of a secret inheritance, allows virtue to...more
Paperback, 192 pages
Published
June 1st 1998
by Penguin Books
(first published January 1st 1997)
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This was Alcott's first novel, written when she was 17. Had I not known that, I don't think I would have been able to get through it. But I was interested in seeing how her earlier works of fiction compared to Little Women, and later books. I think the point made to Jo in Little Women, that you should write about what you know, may have been learned by Louisa in early attempts at writing, such as this one. This book was just so sterile--none of the characters seemed real and the storyline was ve...more
I LOVED this book written by Louisa May Alcott...dug up out of the attic, after so many years, as Louisa's first novel! I found that thought fabulous. I read it without high expectation and having read negative reviews, wasn't expecting much. I think this helped in my enjoyment level. Taken into consideration that this was her very first novel, written at only age seventeen; I thought it was great! For the very same reasons so many reviewers did not like the story, I had the adverse reaction. I...more
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The Inheritance by Louisa May Alcott
Louisa May Alcott, born in 1832 and author of the classic Little Women, wrote a short romantic novel when she was seventeen without, apparently, trying to get it published. Enter a pair of researchers digging around in the Alcott papers at the Houghton Library at Harvard University in 1988 who excitedly stumble upon the handwritten pages of Alcott’s first and at-that-time unpublished manuscript titled The Inheritance.
Because of the importance of the author,...more
Louisa May Alcott, born in 1832 and author of the classic Little Women, wrote a short romantic novel when she was seventeen without, apparently, trying to get it published. Enter a pair of researchers digging around in the Alcott papers at the Houghton Library at Harvard University in 1988 who excitedly stumble upon the handwritten pages of Alcott’s first and at-that-time unpublished manuscript titled The Inheritance.
Because of the importance of the author,...more
This book was written by Lousia May Alcott when she was 17 years old. It was her first novel, written in 1849 though it was not published until 1997.
This book is my perfect ’guilty pleasure’. It is light, sentimental, melodramatic, utterly romantic, and if I read of one more character with ‘tearful eyes’ I might have to throw up for the sake of principle alone.
But I completely adored this book. I couldn’t put it down! Of course, I wasn’t expecting the emotional depth of a Jane Austen, having a...more
This book is my perfect ’guilty pleasure’. It is light, sentimental, melodramatic, utterly romantic, and if I read of one more character with ‘tearful eyes’ I might have to throw up for the sake of principle alone.
But I completely adored this book. I couldn’t put it down! Of course, I wasn’t expecting the emotional depth of a Jane Austen, having a...more
I enjoyed reading Louisa May Alcott's "first novel" written at seventeen. I was impressed with her ability at such a young age. I saw the movie not too long ago (which I enjoyed as well) and towards the end of the book, I made the connection that this book was what the movie was based on. (I am a little slow sometimes.) Anyway, it was a sweet little story with definite characters showing virtue and vice. I enjoy reading good clean books, that may seem a little surreal sometimes, but it reminds m...more
Having searched for it online in vain, I was delighted to find this novella at a Library Book Sale I attended last Saturday. The Inheritance is reportedly L. M. Alcott's first finished book (completed at the age of seventeen) and in some ways it showed. The plot was very simple, one character was incarnate good, another incarnate evil, circumstances were stretched, and the end was no surprise at all. On the other hand, it was a very sweet story of a young girl who understood her duties to those...more
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Only a seventeen year old could write this book. The fact that it is Louisa May Alcott only explains why a seventeen year old is writing books, but that is as far as it goes because this is no “Little Women.”. Alcott scholars were so excited to find the manuscript of her first book, “The Inheritance” during the summer of 1988. Up until then, it had never been published. There was a reason for that. The heroine, Edith Adelon, is so sweet and good that she makes the Disney princesses look like bra...more
The story is charming, and it's one I've read several times over, but it does have it's faults. Most of the characters are too perfect (or too obviously evil, in the case of a few.) and it is frustratingly hard to tell when the story is supposed to be set, but there are several sweet scenes between the kind hearted and good Edith Adelon and noble Lord Percy that make the hopeless romantic in me swoon. I see much of myself in Edith's gentle, quiet demeanor, but I don't know that I could be quite...more
This is Louisa May Alcott's first novel, written when she was 17 years old. I would actually give this book 3.5 stars but decided to round up. I enjoyed reading it, and found myself smiling at the end wishing for just a little more. It is your pretty typical romance and you can definitely tell that Alcott was pulling from the typical romance writers of her time. I found the book to be entirely predictable and simplistic yet delightful to read. I knew what would happen the entire time, but still...more
"The Inheritance" by Louisa May Alcott is a posthumously published story by the 17 year old author found in the archives at Harvard. If I had read it without knowing the author, I doubt I would have finished it. It was predictable and trite. The plot revolves around a governess, Edith, rescued by the Hamilton family as an orphan in Italy. As Amy's companion, Edith is treated better than a servant, but not really one of the family. LMA's use of dialog and exposition are typical of the florid lang...more
HAHAHAHAHA ok.
So I'm only on page 64 but I will be finished by this evening and I am burning to share the hilarious goodness that is this book.
First of all, "reminiscent of Jane Austen in its charms"? I don't think that the book jacket scribe has actually READ Austen (beyond watching a movie or two), because otherwise he or she would not state this so unironically. Yes, yes Jane Austen. Jane Austen who wrote Northanger Abbey, which was expressly a parody of this sort of overly romantical nonsen...more
So I'm only on page 64 but I will be finished by this evening and I am burning to share the hilarious goodness that is this book.
First of all, "reminiscent of Jane Austen in its charms"? I don't think that the book jacket scribe has actually READ Austen (beyond watching a movie or two), because otherwise he or she would not state this so unironically. Yes, yes Jane Austen. Jane Austen who wrote Northanger Abbey, which was expressly a parody of this sort of overly romantical nonsen...more
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.
Louisa May Alcott was just 17 years old when she wrote this book, The Inheritance. In the book Edith, an orphan who lives with the wealthy Hamiltons, is a very kind and caring person. She is very good to the Hamilton daughter Amy. Also living at the Hamilton home is their cousin Ida. She is the opposite of Edith-- very self centered. Lord Percy comes, and falls in love with Edith, which causes Ida to be very jealous, so she forces Edith not to talk to him. But through Ida's dishonesty, and Edit...more
I grew up devouring Louisa May Alcott books and was given this as a gift soon after it came out. For anyone who is a fan of the author, it makes an interesting read; it was her first novel, and is quite short. Many of the themes that pervade her later works can be found here, often in a slightly rougher form - poor girl feels physically/emotionally endebted to rich household, duty vs. happiness, Christian values, etc.. Those readers expecting another Little Women or a completely new type of stor...more
Halfway through my Balzac novelettes, my mind, immersed in the depressing realism of 19th century Parisian life, needed a momentary break. Alcott’s The Inheritance was the perfect answer. Essentially, The Inheritance is sugar and spice and everything nice. Some sections are so sugary sweet that they are almost painful to read:
As they went though the park, Lord Percy stooped and lifted from the ground a handkerchief her name was on, and ’twas wet with tears. He laid it unseen in his breast, and...more
As they went though the park, Lord Percy stooped and lifted from the ground a handkerchief her name was on, and ’twas wet with tears. He laid it unseen in his breast, and...more
Interesting summer read, but if you were looking for the depth that Little Women offered you will be sadly dissapointed. This is not saying that this was a bad book by any definition, it was just a short romance and you have to take it at face value. Considering that she wrote this short book at age seventeen- it was quite an accomplishment. I love way she writes, she succeeds in effortlessly turning words and stories into an art form, and that is such a rare gift to stumble upon, with the way m...more
This book is the first of Louisa May Alcott’s novels, unpublished during her lifetime, believed to be written when she was about 17. Although the story lacks the simple realisticness of her published novels, it is still a charming, though somewhat dramatic, tale.
The characters are lords and ladies and are rich and cultured and dramatic. Lady Ida is dark and bitter; Edith is beautiful and kind. Despite the drastic language and actions of the characters, there is something lovely about this story,...more
The characters are lords and ladies and are rich and cultured and dramatic. Lady Ida is dark and bitter; Edith is beautiful and kind. Despite the drastic language and actions of the characters, there is something lovely about this story,...more
Apparently, Louisa May Alcott wrote this when she was 17 and never published it. In fact, she never mentioned it. It was discovered among her things after her death. As it says on the back of the book, she wrote it "under the influence of the gothic romances and sentimental novels of her day." This fact makes for a pretty un-enjoyable read. The eye rolling perfection of the hero and heroine gets old really quickly, as does the heavy and unsubtle moralizing. Reading the introduction (after finish...more
I'm feeling generous enough to give this book 3 stars because it was laugh out loud funny. Really. There was rarely a page go by that didn't mention someone's pale face or someones eye's welling with tears. I'm not kidding.
Anyway, I picked it up because I recently bought the movie and read that the movie was much better than the book. Well, the movie was pretty funny too, so I just had to know what the book was like. Now I know.
For those who don't know, this was the first novel written by Louisa...more
Anyway, I picked it up because I recently bought the movie and read that the movie was much better than the book. Well, the movie was pretty funny too, so I just had to know what the book was like. Now I know.
For those who don't know, this was the first novel written by Louisa...more
Jun 06, 2012
Jessica Workman Holland (Tales Between the Pages)
rated it
3 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Read the official review at Tales Between the Pages
This is Louisa May Alcott’s very first book, written 20 years before Little Women. it reminds me a lot of Jane Austen’s first novella, Love and Friendship. I think Alcott was very much influenced by the sentimental genre because The Inheritance is very much a sentimental kind of text.
What is the sentimental genre, you ask? It’s a genre of novel very popular in the eighteenth century that focuses on sentiment and sensibility. It often focuses on...more
This is Louisa May Alcott’s very first book, written 20 years before Little Women. it reminds me a lot of Jane Austen’s first novella, Love and Friendship. I think Alcott was very much influenced by the sentimental genre because The Inheritance is very much a sentimental kind of text.
What is the sentimental genre, you ask? It’s a genre of novel very popular in the eighteenth century that focuses on sentiment and sensibility. It often focuses on...more
This book is really only of any interest because it is Louisa May Alcott's first novel (although not published in her lifetime). She wrote it age age 17, and it shows (unlike her writing which merely tells). It is extremely sentimental and very moralistic in tone. The characters are either impossibly (and boringly) good or quite wicked. The plotline is both implausible and predictable. Surely no novel has ever contained the word "noble" more times. So why two stars rather than just one? Well, I...more
"The Inheritance" was written by Louisa May Alcott when she was seventeen, and is believed to be the first book she wrote. It was interesting to read the book in light of that, but if it had been anyone else's book, I probably wouldn't have read past the second page. It was overly sentimental, and you could always guess what was coming next. The heroine was the good and pious type that I can't stand. She also cried a lot. There's a reason the book wasn't ever published. Still, I'm glad that Loui...more
I was so excited to find this book at the library and couldn't wait to dive into Alcott's first novel. I was sorely disappointed and can only fathom that it was not what I had hoped because she wrote it at 17 and had not developed her style yet. I felt this book was badly in need of editing. This novel is so sentimental it seemed more like a bad soap opera than the beautiful, albeit moral, tale I expected from the author of "Little Women," which is one of my favorite stories. There were a few ch...more
A nice tale of a short time segment from lady's companion's life. She is often hurt by her lady's jealous cousin, whom is seeking to find a suitor, in multiple parts of the story. Then a "secrative" Gentleman who is a family friend comes on the scene to make matters worse. Also she finds out some information about her parentage, which she hides, that ends up making a huge twist in the story. A majorly sticky situation also arrises later in the story that involves herself, her lady, and her lady'...more
This was my book club's pick for the coming month. My mother used to push certain books upon me: Little Women, a Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Marjorie Morningstar. I never read them. I'm not sure if this was an act of rebellion or what, but there you go.
So, The Inheritance is the first book I have read by Alcott. It was her first novel written when she was 17. It's a sweet little story, though it struck me as just the kind of thing a 17 year old might write today, with updated language and setting,...more
So, The Inheritance is the first book I have read by Alcott. It was her first novel written when she was 17. It's a sweet little story, though it struck me as just the kind of thing a 17 year old might write today, with updated language and setting,...more
This is Louisa May Alcott's first novel, written at age 17. It is also supposedly Jo's book, the one she is writing and sending to be published in Little Women.
The book is about Edith Adelon, a young Italian orphan who was taken in by a kind hearted man and is cared for by his family in England. She is a good, beautiful girl and easily wins friends. However, her goodness makes one member of the household extremely jealous and she must decide whether to use a precious bit of truth she discovers t...more
The book is about Edith Adelon, a young Italian orphan who was taken in by a kind hearted man and is cared for by his family in England. She is a good, beautiful girl and easily wins friends. However, her goodness makes one member of the household extremely jealous and she must decide whether to use a precious bit of truth she discovers t...more
Okay, okay...I know if I gave it a 3, it sounds like I didn't really like it, but I did. I thought it was absolutely charming. I wish I could give it an inbetween rating...like 3.75 or something...but I just couldn't give it a 4. Alcott's first book had a great storyline, but I felt her characters could have been better developed...granted, give her a break...she was only 17 when she wrote it! Anyways...too often she told us her characters were pure or gentle, but a good author lets the reader f...more
Such a wonderful story! Louisa May Alcott wrote 'The Inheritance' when she was 17, almost 20 years before she wrote her best known novel 'Little Women.' Though 'The Inheritance' lacks the depth and skill of which 'Little Women' was written, it was still an interesting and enjoyable story. Edith, an Italian orphan taken in by a sympathetic Englishman, has been living as the governess for the Englishman's daughter. We never got a very good look at her character (besides that she was just very good...more
You can find my review of this book here: http://shandord.blogspot.com/2010/01/...
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Louisa May Alcott was born in Germantown, Pennsylvania on November 29, 1832. She and her three sisters, Anna, Elizabeth and May were educated by their father, philosopher/ teacher, Bronson Alcott and raised on the practical Christianity of their mother, Abigail May.
Louisa spent her childhood in Boston and in Concord, Massachusetts, where her days were enlightened by visits to Ralph Waldo Emerson’s...more
More about Louisa May Alcott...
Louisa spent her childhood in Boston and in Concord, Massachusetts, where her days were enlightened by visits to Ralph Waldo Emerson’s...more
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