Transcendentalisim

Well believe it or not this all started with a trashy romance novel. It was written by a literature professor and in the post script she mentioned that she was inspired by Louisa May Alcott's novel Rose in Bloom. So I had to read it. I think it worth pointing out that I have no memory of all about the book that inspired this all except the post script. Anyways I recommended it for our book club. While ordering it and the other book in the series I found a book called American Bloomsbury and that started a crazy transcendentalism festival.

Good Wives by Louise May Alcott. I found this in our library and read it while I waited for my other books to come in the mail. It is really the second half of little women. Apparently in England they are published in two different books. Why- I don't know. Why our library had the British version I also have no idea. I loved this book as a girl. Reading it as an adult I was really struck by the morals and ideas presented. Alcott had a tongue in cheek way of describing home and family life that made her lessons not seem like preaching.

Eight Cousins- is another sweet book about Rose who is orphaned and moves to live with two aunts and a bachelor uncle. In the neighborhood live eight boy cousins. This was not as good as little women. I do like the dynamic between Rose and all the wild boys. The more interesting part of the book is the ideas she is putting forward. The uncle Alec character had many of the same ideas and theories of her father who was an educator with some unusual ideas for the time. Uncle Alec shocks all the aunties with his theories about education and health. You can really hear the echos of Thoreau and Emerson in this book. These were the men Louisa was raised around. Thoreau was her teacher for a while and they lived in a home provided by Emerson. In this book I really felt the love she had for these men and her father. He also has a passage that really described what she was trying to accomplish with her books- "It does seem to me that some one might write stories that should be lively, natural, and helpful- tales in which the English should be good, the morals pure, and the characters such as we can love in spite of the faults that all may have."

Rose in Bloom- This is the sequel. It is not as good. It tells about Rose returning from Europe and starting her romantic life. I just really didn't like it. I especially disliked that the romance with the bad cousin. Hello- it is made obvious from the start that he only cares about her money and then even worse he is an alcoholic. We are expected to believe that she cares for him!? and feel sorry when he dies. Ugh I just hated it. And she ends up with who we all thought she would from the first book so why torture us in between. It made me dislike Rose.

So then I read American Bloomsbury by Susan Cheever. This was a wonderful quick look at Concord Mass in the 19th century. Not only did the Alcotts, the Emersons, Thoreau, the Hawthorne's, and Margret Fuller all live here their lives were intertwined. They were there to be near one another. They were all leaders in the transcendentalism movement. This book had a joke that made me laugh Poe said " There are three type of people in the world, Men, Women, and Margret Fuller." I laughed and laughed and told Alma to which he responded "There are four types of people in the world, Men, Women, Margret Fuller, and people who know who Margret Fuller is. " I also loved that when I called Becky to tell her the joke, she laughed and laughed because she knew who Margret Fuller was. Hello if no one knows who Margret Fuller is go and find out you non-history geeks. This was a very interesting if brief look at these fascinating people.

So reading the previous book made me want to learn more. So I am reading The Peabody Sisters which is even better. I love it and can't wait to review it for you. I love any 700 pg book with 200 pages of footnotes. Ahhh history geeks, you are my peeps. I also am reading several of Emerson's Essays and will reread Walton when Holly returns it to me. I also am thinking about reading some essays by Channing and Elizabeth Peabody. Also I am not going to read any Hawthorne, I know he is an American classic, I know- but I am afraid that I feel about him like I feel about Edith Wharton- an obligation to read but no enjoyment and some hatred at their books. Okay maybe knowing the Scarlett Letter is about Margret Fuller I may have to read it. Also knowing more about Hawthorne I may like him even less- but I really like his wife. (Sophia Peabody) Which reminds me I have found one flaw in Cheever's book- so beware her research may have some flaws. Sophia Peabody was not the illegitimate child of Royal Tyndall, rather named after her aunt who was the child of Royal Tyndall (who creepily enough went on to marry her older sister and may have molested her other sister- ick). The family always acted like Sophia was the full blooded sister but she wasn't. Also I still need to review the History of Alexandria that I have read and I am reading a biography of CJ Walker that is interesting.