A Rose in Bloom

[Christine PNW]

The conclusion to the Rose books.

[Jaylia3]

I'm looking forward to reading this sequel to Eight Cousins!

[Cindy]

Just finished Rose in Bloom. Sweet, but the moralizing was heavy-handed. Maybe I should only read Alcott in small doses.

I'm more interested than ever in an Alcott biography though.

[Cleo]

Cindy wrote: "Just finished Rose in Bloom. Sweet, but the moralizing was heavy-handed. Maybe I should only read Alcott in small doses.

I'm more interested than ever in an Alcott biography though."

I think I read somewhere that her father forced her to do this. I don't mind moralizing but I like it to be a little bit more subtle instead of feeling like I've been hit over the head with a moral cudgel.

[Jaylia3]

Cleo wrote: "I think I read somewhere that her father forced her to do this. "

In Marmee & Louisa I read that Louisa wrote books to earn money for her family because her father, who would normally have been the provider, thought he had more lofty, important things to do. After reading biographies of Louisa, Margaret Fuller , and the Peabody sisters this past year I am not a big fan of Bronson Alcott. He initially inspired people with his ideas, but ultimately let most of them down--at least that's how he is portrayed in the books I read.

I didn't enjoy the moralizing throughout Rose in Bloom either, but tried to appreciate it from the perspective that the views Louisa pushed on education, women, class,etc were progressive for her time. I loved Eight Cousins when I was growing up and rereading it this month I could see why--partly it was the idea of having 7 attentive male cousins--but now the book is a little too sweet for my taste.