For Those Who Grew Up Loving Little Women, Marmee Brings Out the Adult in You

 

Marmee by Sarah Miller

Thank you to GoodReads Giveaways and William Morrow for the review copy of Marmee.

Like so many other kids, I read and enjoyed Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women, having an especially good cry in the pages of the novel. Later, I watched the movie version with Wynona Ryder, which I also enjoyed. Jo is a character that people cannot help but love, as she is strong and ahead of her time. She is not accepting of the restrictions on her as a result of being a woman. She is ambitious, works hard, and comes at the world with such a fervor that the world had better be on notice. All of her sisters are amazing in their own ways, but Jo is the one who we see as especially powerful. She is the one who will rise above.

Jo gets her courage and her power, in part, from her dear mother, Marmee. Sarah Miller’s Marmee tells the story of Little Women through the eyes of the elder Margaret March. Written as a series of diary entries from the same time period as the events of Little Women, Marmee gives insight into many of the things that Jo, Beth, Amy, and Meg intuit but don’t know for sure. We better understand the financial situation of the March’s, the relationship between Margaret and her husband, Amos, and her work in the relief rooms. We also see the flair of temper that pushed Marmee to act and the fervid belief in social justice that motivates many of her choices.

Marmee is a woman ahead of her time.

As Alcott based a good deal of the book on her own experiences, she modeled Margaret March after her mother, Abigail Alcott. Miller researched Alcott’s mother and learned more about who she was and how she was remembered by others. She sounds as though she was also a force to be reckoned with and probably lit the fire for many of Louisa May Alcott’s ambitions.

It has been quite some time since I read Little Women or watched the movie adaptation, but as I read Marmee, it made me nostalgic for the book. I also watered the pages of Marmee, in case you were wondering.

Would I teach this book? If I had the opportunity to teach a class on fan fiction (or fanfic) I would absolutely include Marmee.

I have not read a good deal of the kind of fanfic that comes to mind when the term is used, the stories published online that exist in the universes of Harry Potter, Twilight, and Star Wars. What little I know, I learned from a student who wrote on the topic for an infographic and a listicle for my composition class. She did a fabulous job, and as I assisted her with her research, I learned a bit myself. I do not put Marmee into the category of fanfic in order to denigrate it, but as a way to put it into the context of a larger body of literature. Miller does an impressive job of imagining the elder Margarette March as her own person with a larger history independent of her character in Little Women. Highlighting a character who has less of a voice is one of the opportunities of fanfic. Marmee and other works, such as the plethora of novels written from Mr. Darcy’s point of view, show us that good books get our imaginations going.

In my imaginary class on fan fiction, I would include a wide-range of fanfic, not just published novels, but also fanfic published on the internet. Students would read examples and write their own. We would also discuss the issues of intellectual property rights and the legality of publishing fanfic.

I have talked myself into it. Someone please pay me to teach this class.

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