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Cousin Tribulation's Story
"As a subject appropriate to the season, I want to tell you about a New Year's breakfast which I had when I was a little girl. What do you think it was? A slice of dry bread and an apple. This is how it happened, and it is a true story, every word."
Cousin Tribulation's Story is a short story by Louisa May Alcott, and one of her most memorable Christmas stories. This tender tale tells of a humble family who decides to share their modest breakfast with another, less fortunate then them. It is a story of unity, empathy and gratitude, timeless in its scope and heart-warming in its nature.
Louisa May Alcott (1832-1888) was an American novelist, short story writer, and poet. She is best known as the author of the novel Little Women (1868) and its sequels, Little Men and Jo's Boys. Alcott’s books for younger readers have attained perpetual popularity, and the more recent republication of some of her more obscure works has renewed critical interest in her adult fiction, such as A Modern Mephistopheles (1877).
Cousin Tribulation's Story is a short story by Louisa May Alcott, and one of her most memorable Christmas stories. This tender tale tells of a humble family who decides to share their modest breakfast with another, less fortunate then them. It is a story of unity, empathy and gratitude, timeless in its scope and heart-warming in its nature.
Louisa May Alcott (1832-1888) was an American novelist, short story writer, and poet. She is best known as the author of the novel Little Women (1868) and its sequels, Little Men and Jo's Boys. Alcott’s books for younger readers have attained perpetual popularity, and the more recent republication of some of her more obscure works has renewed critical interest in her adult fiction, such as A Modern Mephistopheles (1877).
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About the author
Louisa May Alcott
3,277 books10.7k followersLouisa 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.
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.
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
May 6, 2017
☆☆4 stars☆☆
Great story. Plus heart-touching.
Link to the story:
https://americanliterature.com/author...
Great story. Plus heart-touching.
Link to the story:
https://americanliterature.com/author...
October 9, 2020
This was fashioned into the first Christmas-morning story early in LITTLE WOMEN.
August 2, 2020
A sweet short story by the talented authoress of “Little Women”. I really liked it.
December 31, 2024
Read this as a part of a short story collection I have and was a nice coincidence that it's about New Year's Day. It was okay, a sweet short story.
February 3, 2026
Mission 2026: Binge reviewing (and rereading on occasion) all previous Reads, I was too slothful to review, back when I read them’
Greatest Short Stories / Short Novels
What is it all about (spoiler free)
Framed as a personal reminiscence, this story introduces a strikingly unconventional woman whose life unfolds far beyond the narrow domestic scripts of her time.
Through memory, anecdote, and quiet revelation, the narrative traces a life shaped by moral independence, emotional resilience, and choices that resist easy categorisation. It is less a plot-driven tale than a character portrait, gradually deepening as the past is gently, selectively recalled.
Why is it among the greatest?
Because Alcott dares to imagine female autonomy without melodrama or apology. ‘Cousin Tribulation’s Story’ stands apart from sentimental domestic fiction by offering a woman who lives ethically rather than socially, guided by conscience rather than convention. The prose is restrained, almost austere, which lends the character an unusual dignity and seriousness.
Alcott’s greatness here lies in her refusal to punish or “correct” her heroine. Instead, she presents a life lived deliberately—and lets the reader reckon with its quiet power. The story anticipates later feminist fiction in its insistence that moral courage, not romantic fulfilment, is the true measure of a life.
Why read it in the present time and thereafter?
Because the pressures Tribulation resists—social conformity, gendered expectation, and moral policing—remain stubbornly intact, merely rebranded. In a culture that celebrates empowerment rhetorically while narrowing acceptable forms of independence, Alcott’s story feels bracingly honest. It reminds us that choosing one’s own path often involves solitude, misunderstanding, and strength that goes unrecognised.
‘Cousin Tribulation’s Story’ endures because it speaks quietly but firmly to readers who value integrity over approval, and conviction over comfort—lessons that remain as necessary now as when Alcott first set them down.
Most recommended.
Greatest Short Stories / Short Novels
What is it all about (spoiler free)
Framed as a personal reminiscence, this story introduces a strikingly unconventional woman whose life unfolds far beyond the narrow domestic scripts of her time.
Through memory, anecdote, and quiet revelation, the narrative traces a life shaped by moral independence, emotional resilience, and choices that resist easy categorisation. It is less a plot-driven tale than a character portrait, gradually deepening as the past is gently, selectively recalled.
Why is it among the greatest?
Because Alcott dares to imagine female autonomy without melodrama or apology. ‘Cousin Tribulation’s Story’ stands apart from sentimental domestic fiction by offering a woman who lives ethically rather than socially, guided by conscience rather than convention. The prose is restrained, almost austere, which lends the character an unusual dignity and seriousness.
Alcott’s greatness here lies in her refusal to punish or “correct” her heroine. Instead, she presents a life lived deliberately—and lets the reader reckon with its quiet power. The story anticipates later feminist fiction in its insistence that moral courage, not romantic fulfilment, is the true measure of a life.
Why read it in the present time and thereafter?
Because the pressures Tribulation resists—social conformity, gendered expectation, and moral policing—remain stubbornly intact, merely rebranded. In a culture that celebrates empowerment rhetorically while narrowing acceptable forms of independence, Alcott’s story feels bracingly honest. It reminds us that choosing one’s own path often involves solitude, misunderstanding, and strength that goes unrecognised.
‘Cousin Tribulation’s Story’ endures because it speaks quietly but firmly to readers who value integrity over approval, and conviction over comfort—lessons that remain as necessary now as when Alcott first set them down.
Most recommended.
September 22, 2019
So sweet how this family blesses those in need.
August 17, 2020
A beautiful short story.
Full of generosity, love, compassion, & having a tender heart.
Full of generosity, love, compassion, & having a tender heart.
December 10, 2020
Reminds me of Little Women.
March 17, 2021
A "Little women" inspired short story. It did not posses any originality even if both the piece were written by the same author.
April 21, 2021
This is a quiet, heartwarming story... It is very much in the vein of Little Women. You aren't missing much if you skip this in favor of the novel.
Read
December 29, 2021During the bountiful holiday time when everyone says they 'over-eat' and stuff themselves warmly, we need a reminder to find those who need the most and to give freely.
May 14, 2021
What about the starving wolves?
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews