Old-Fashioned Girl

Louisa May Alcott (1832 to 1888) became famous with Little Women, which appeared in 1868 and 1869, and her publisher quickly asked for more. An Old-Fashioned Girl, published in 1870, was one of the first books she wrote after that success, and it follows another heroine whose values clash, comically and then seriously, with those of the world around her.

The contrast between the country and the city is at the heart of the book. Polly arrives in a household where fashion and spending matter more than family time, and she gently shows another way of living. Alcott does not simply praise the past. She also shows that Polly has to learn and change, and the novel considers work, independence and the position of women in the years after the Civil War. Later chapters follow Polly as she grows up and begins to make her own way.

The recording has nineteen chapters, for a total of just over ten hours, read by a LibriVox volunteer. It is a fine choice for readers of Little Women who would like to meet another of Alcott's young women, and for listeners who enjoy nineteenth-century American domestic life. The story is moral without being heavy, and the characters, from the cheerful Polly to the fashionable Fanny, are drawn with affection. Listeners today may also enjoy the period detail, from clothes to manners, which gives the story a distinctive color. The novel's central question, how to live well and simply in a world that prizes display, will sound familiar. A well-loved book for anyone who enjoys family tales with an old-fashioned heart.