Eight Cousins & Rose I...

by
Louisa May Alcott

Rate this book

Clear rating

1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

Eight Cousins & Rose In Bloom

by Louisa May Alcott

4.31 of 5 stars 4.31 · rating details · 48 ratings · 2 reviews

Kindle edition of Alcott's Eight Cousin Series with an active table of contents. This edition includes:
Eight Cousins
Rose in Bloom

Kindle Edition

Published (first published May 11th 2009)

more details... edit details

Get a copy:

More…

Friend Reviews

To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up.

Lists with This Book

This book is not yet featured on Listopia. Add this book to your favorite list »

Community Reviews

(showing 1-30 of 63)

filter | sort: default (?) | rating details

Nov 04, 2012 Arati Devasher rated it 5 of 5 stars

Amazon Kindle editions, both titles in the public domain.

Louisa May Alcott has been a favourite author of mine since the days of my childhood when I first read her charming Little Women and its sequels. Her writing seems timeless even though it was first published in the late 1800s, and I read and re-read her nearly every few months. The sentiments, thoughts and expressions in her work are always applicable to real life. I find friends in the characters in her book, who are so familiar to me tha...more Amazon Kindle editions, both titles in the public domain.

Louisa May Alcott has been a favourite author of mine since the days of my childhood when I first read her charming Little Women and its sequels. Her writing seems timeless even though it was first published in the late 1800s, and I read and re-read her nearly every few months. The sentiments, thoughts and expressions in her work are always applicable to real life. I find friends in the characters in her book, who are so familiar to me that they seem to be real people rather than fictional characters.

Though Alcott is best known for the stories about Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy, my favourite has always been Rose Campbell who makes her appearance in Eight Cousins and who is then further chronicled in Rose in Bloom which turns out to be a very quaint love story with not a hint of sappiness which I abhor.

We are introduced to Rose some time after her father's death, living with her elderly great aunts, and awaiting her guardian - Uncle Alec - in order to move on with the rest of her life. At thirteen she is not in the best of health, nor has she much to be cheerful about. In short order, though, Alec institutes a regime of healthy living, learning and general happiness, and Rose soon begins to change from an unhappy child into a lovely girl. she makes new friends, learns new things, and above all LIVES. Her many aunts and seven boy-cousins are in and out of the house and much fun and high jinx are had. The book ends one year after we first met Rose, and she must make a choice as to whom she would like to spend her life with - one of the aunts or her beloved Uncle Alec...

The sequel Rose in Bloom picks up the tale four years on. Rose and her faithful friend Phebe return from their travels with Uncle Alec, and the boy cousins she has left behind are nearly all grown to men. She has returned home to find many changes, and choices as to her life as a heiress are sometimes hard to make. This book is definitely a romantic one, and one I often go back to as comfort-reading.

I'd put both books down as essential reading for young children and teens - both boys and girls, and don't hesitate to pick them up if you're not in that age group. I still enjoy them as much as I did when I was a child. Sometimes more!

*review first published at Book Weyr: http://bookweyr.blogspot.com (less)

like · see review

Mar 18, 2012 Kate rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: ya-fiction, own, e-book

Poor little Rose has been recently orphaned. Thankfully, "Eight Cousins" isn't the type of book where someone gets locked in a garret and made to shovel coal. Rather, Rose is taken in by her Uncle, a gentleman sailor & physician recently returned from the sea. Surrounded by a large & rowdy family, Uncle Alec begins to raise Rose as he thinks best befits a little girl- basically, just like her male cousins. No corsets and "lady-like" behavior here! Rose learns to run and play, is comforta...more Poor little Rose has been recently orphaned. Thankfully, "Eight Cousins" isn't the type of book where someone gets locked in a garret and made to shovel coal. Rather, Rose is taken in by her Uncle, a gentleman sailor & physician recently returned from the sea. Surrounded by a large & rowdy family, Uncle Alec begins to raise Rose as he thinks best befits a little girl- basically, just like her male cousins. No corsets and "lady-like" behavior here! Rose learns to run and play, is comfortable and well-fed, rows a boat and has dozens of adventures with her cousins.

Uncle Alec (and through him, Louisa May Alcott) isn't at all shy about sharing his opinions, either. "Eight Cousins" is full of little homilies about family and child-rearing, honesty and courage and forthrightness. It comes just shy of being overbearing, but is thankfully saved by the sheer sense of fun in the story. Rose and her seven male cousins are always up to something- play-acting in the country, camping on an island, cavorting and having a fabulous time. They're joined by Phoebe, the dish-washing maid whom Rose decides to "adopt" as her sister, and the family thus opens their arms to her.

I remember adoring this book as a little girl (mostly wishing that I could also have a fantastic, rich family and fabulous adventures). This time around I still enjoyed it, but I also found myself actually paying attention to some of Alcott's little rules of life. I'm sure we could all stand to be a little more honest & good in our lives, right?

The story of Rose & her cousins continues in "Rose in Bloom." I have to admit that I was less impressed with this installment. Rose is a grown woman now, and her moral problems now have more to do with balancing her fortune and the expectations of her social circle. Uncle Alec would prefer that she avoid her peers entirely, but Rose is determined to be a part of it. There's a definite sense of "poor little rich girl" for large parts of it. Woe is Rose, people like her for her money. Rose's moral values are also quite a bit stronger than some of her peers, and I felt that she often judged people a bit too harshly. In fact, the entire family seems a bit more harsh and less-than-accepting of people's faults. Maybe it's just because the cousins are adults now, and they're exposed to the more "adult" side of the family, but the story definitely isn't as sweet as "Eight Cousins."

If the goal of "Eight Cousins" is to teach us to good people, "Rose in Bloom" serves as a warning: don't get so caught up in being good that you neglect or reject people because they aren't as good as you are.(less)

like · see review

Mar 20, 2013 Sally Mae rated it 5 of 5 stars

Mar 14, 2013 Aishwarya rated it 5 of 5 stars

Feb 26, 2013 Janie Roeschlein marked it as to-read

Feb 19, 2013 Sheri Lester marked it as to-read

Feb 15, 2013 Sarah Page rated it 4 of 5 stars

Feb 12, 2013 Allison rated it 5 of 5 stars

Feb 04, 2013 Tonya marked it as to-read

Jan 30, 2013 Lisa rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: children-s, classics

Jan 23, 2013 Tess Haranda rated it 4 of 5 stars

Jan 15, 2013 Ashley Haynes rated it 5 of 5 stars

Jan 13, 2013 Claire marked it as to-read

Jan 12, 2013 Gerianne added it

Jan 10, 2013 Melinda Hicks rated it 5 of 5 stars

Jan 04, 2013 Darcy marked it as to-read

Dec 11, 2012 Shwetanshu Singh marked it as to-read

Nov 18, 2012 E rated it 3 of 5 stars

Nov 09, 2012 Anne rated it 4 of 5 stars

Oct 06, 2012 Theresa rated it 3 of 5 stars

Aug 19, 2012 Elizabeth rated it 3 of 5 stars

Aug 16, 2012 Susan Whapham marked it as to-read

Aug 06, 2012 Rosabelle Angeli rated it 5 of 5 stars

Jul 27, 2012 Rebekah Pringle added it

Jul 22, 2012 Jamille Turingan rated it 5 of 5 stars

Jun 16, 2012 Jamie rated it 4 of 5 stars

Jun 07, 2012 Linda Mcfate rated it 5 of 5 stars

May 26, 2012 Kalyanikat rated it 5 of 5 stars

May 24, 2012 Wendy Tuell rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: children-s-fiction

Apr 17, 2012 Eliza rated it 5 of 5 stars

« previous 1 2 3 next »

new topic
Discuss This Book

There are no discussion topics on this book yet. Be the first to start one »

Recommend it | Stats | Recent status updates

combine
Other Editions (1)

Popular Shelves

to-read

13 shelves

classics

1 shelf

children-s

1 shelf

children-s-fiction

1 shelf

ya-fiction

1 shelf

e-book

1 shelf

unsorted

1 shelf

to-be-purchased

1 shelf

e-books--kindle-n...

1 shelf

childrens--books

1 shelf

About Louisa May Alcott

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 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 library, excursions into nature with Henry David Thoreau and theatricals in the barn at Hillside (now Hawthorne’s "Wayside").

Like her character, Jo March in Little Women, young Louisa was a tomboy: "No boy could be my friend till I had beaten him in a race," she claimed, " and no girl if she refused to climb trees, leap fences...."

For Louisa, writing was an early passion. She had a rich imagination and often her stories became melodramas that she and her sisters would act out for friends. Louisa preferred to play the "lurid" parts in these plays, "the villains, ghosts, bandits, and disdainful queens."

At age 15, troubled by the poverty that plagued her family, she vowed: "I will do something by and by. Don’t care what, teach, sew, act, write, anything to help the family; and I’ll be rich and famous and happy before I die, see if I won’t!"

Confronting a society that offered little opportunity to women seeking employment, Louisa determined "...I will make a battering-ram of my head and make my way through this rough and tumble world." Whether as a teacher, seamstress, governess, or household servant, for many years Louisa did any work she could find.

Louisa’s career as an author began with poetry and short stories that appeared in popular magazines. In 1854, when she was 22, her first book Flower Fables was published. A milestone along her literary path was Hospital Sketches (1863) based on the letters she had written home from her post as a nurse in Washington, DC as a nurse during the Civil War.

When Louisa was 35 years old, her publisher Thomas Niles in Boston asked her to write "a book for girls." Little Women was written at Orchard House from May to July 1868. The novel is based on Louisa and her sisters’ coming of age and is set in Civil War New England. Jo March was the first American juvenile heroine to act from her own individuality; a living, breathing person rather than the idealized stereotype then prevalent in children’s fiction.

In all, Louisa published over 30 books and collections of stories. She died on March 6, 1888, only two days after her father, and is buried in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery in Concord.(less)

More about Louisa May Alcott...

Books by Louisa May Alcott

More…

Share This Book

Facebook Twitter Your website

Trivia About Eight Cousins & R...

No trivia or quizzes yet. Add some now »

title link	preview: Eight Cousins & Rose In Bloom
avg rating	preview: Eight Cousins & Rose In Bloom Goodreads rating: 4.31 (48 ratings)
small image	preview: click here [close]
med image	preview: click here [close]
BBCode	[url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6526872-eight-cousins-rose-in-bloom?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book][img]/assets/nocover/111x148.png[/img][/url] [url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6526872-eight-cousins-rose-in-bloom?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book]Eight Cousins & Rose In Bloom by Louisa May Alcott[/url]

Eight Cousins & Rose In Bloom

Friend Reviews

Lists with This Book

Community Reviews

new topicDiscuss This Book

combineOther Editions (1)

Popular Shelves

About Louisa May Alcott

Books by Louisa May Alcott

Share This Book

Share This Book on Your Website

Trivia About Eight Cousins & R...

new topic
Discuss This Book

combine
Other Editions (1)