Eight Cousins, Louisa May Alcott
Eight Cousins, Louisa May Alcott
List: $19.99 | Sale: $13.99
Club: $9.99

Eight Cousins

Author: Louisa May Alcott

Narrator: Barbara Caruso

Unabridged: 7 hr 39 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Recorded Books

Published: 01/18/2013


Synopsis

Recently orphaned, young Rose Campbell is sent to the "Aunt Hill," where Uncle Alex, her six aunts and seven boy cousins live in noisy confusion. It is nothing like the quiet girls' boarding school that has been Rose's home for the past year. Surrounded by a bewildering array of pets, relatives, and unfamiliar foods, the fragile girl wonders if she will ever get used to this new life. Fortunately, Uncle Alex is her guardian. He keeps the aunts from coddling her too much, and makes sure that she has plenty of time to play outside with her cousins. Day by day, learning how to care for each of these people, Rose begins to bloom. Eight Cousins is a charming introduction to Louisa May Alcott's timeless classics, which include Little Women and Little Men. Barbara Caruso's colorful narration perfectly captures Rose and her extended family.

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 library, excursions into nature with Henry David Thoreau, and theatricals in the barn at Hillside. Like her character Jo March from Little Women, young Louisa was a tomboy.

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. At age fifteen, troubled by the poverty that plagued her family, she vowed to make something of herself. Confronting a society that offered little opportunity to women seeking employment, Louisa remained determined; 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 twenty-two, her first book, Flower Fables, was published. Another milestone along her literary path was Hospital Sketches, which was based on the letters she had written home from her post as a nurse in Washington, D.C., during the Civil War.

When Louisa was thirty-five, her publisher asked her to write a book for girls. Thus, she wrote Little Women, which 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 that was then prevalent in children's fiction.

In all, Louisa published over thirty books and collections of stories. She died on March 6, 1888, only two days after her father.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Tharindu on December 05, 2020

"It may upset things a trifle, but half a child's pleasure consists in having their fun when they want it." I'm a big fan of Anne of Green Gables, Heidi and A Little Princes, so when I came across Eight Cousins, which appeared to be somewhat similar, couldn't help resisting reading the book. And with......more

Goodreads review by June on February 10, 2017

I had SUCH a crush on Uncle Alec, who rides in on his white charger bearing oatmeal and imported silk sashes and SAVES young Rose from well-meaning overbearing aunts and migraines and addictions--some heavy stuff even by today's kiddie lit standards. (If you haven't read it and think I'm kidding, I'......more

Goodreads review by Christy on January 29, 2022

I loved Little Women when I was young. My mom gave me Eight Cousins when I was finished with Little Women and I remember liking it quite a bit. I’m not sure it held up after all these years but it was nice reading one of my mom’s old books again. Rose has been orphaned and is under the care of her t......more

Goodreads review by Marta Demianiuk on February 17, 2023

Nie tak wspaniała, jak moje ukochane „Małe kobietki”, ale równie urocza i ciepła. Idealnie nadaje się na gorszy czas, kiedy potrzebujemy książki, która nas otuli.......more

Goodreads review by spillingthematcha on July 26, 2021

Książki Louisy May Alcott za każdym razem potrafią mnie zaskoczyć. Emanują ciepłem, spokojem i urokiem, które czuć od pierwszych do ostatnich stron. Lubię powracać do jej historii. Wraz z upływem czasu potrafię znaleźć tam wiele nowych rzeczy, na nowo polubić bohaterów, a także ponownie poznać styl......more