Invincible Louisa: The Story of the Author of Little Women

Invincible Louisa is a biographical drama of Louisa May Alcott (1832-1888). The book focuses mainly on the years from her birth until her work as a volunteer nurse for the Union Army in Washington, D.C. Invincible Louisa is written with the same affected, sentimental, domestic tone of Alcott's "girl book," Little Women and, as in Little Women, this tone is a gloss that covers the underlying subversive feminist theme. On the surface, Branson Alcott is kindly, gentile, and idealistic. Yet, at the same time, the text shows scene after scene of harrowing oppression, destitution, and poverty that his family suffers under his kindly, gentile, and idealistic domination. Cornelia Meigs obtained inside knowledge of Louisa May Alcott's life show more through interviews with close family members, and through Alcott’s own journals and correspondence. As a writer I was inspired by how long and hard Ms. Alcott had to work before she found her voice, and her writings found their audience. show less

I’m not a big fan of Little Women (heinous, I know), so I wasn’t too excited to be reading a biography of Louisa May Alcott. This read as a pretty disjointed biography on top of that. I get that the information collected was probably a little rough around the edges, but the fact/story aspect was presented a little bizarrely. I found a groove after the book discussed Little Women being written, so I imagine that’s when her life was more accurately documented, and that's when the author had more information to mold. Either way, I didn’t like how the earlier years were done. And the last chapter was cruel in tricking me with a title of “happy endings” (or something like that) and then killing lots of people. Sisters, dads, show more everybody dies! Happy indeed! Bah.

This is not a bad book, and I've liked Cornelia Meigs' other works. I'm a more factual person, and I don't get along with biographies that have a fictionalized feel to them. show less

Earlier this year I read Eden's Outcasts: The Story of Louisa May Alcott and Her Father by John Matteson, the Pulitzer Prize winning dual biography of Louisa May Alcott and Bronson Alcott. This came up as the next title in my course of reading all Newbery Medal winners. I found it interesting to learn about Louisa from a more descriptive and literary approach than was used in Eden's Outcasts. Both works were well done and interesting, the other going into far greater detail, especially of Bronson's life and detail of Louisa's adult life. At times, this book seemed to skim details so lightly as to lose some sense altogether. For instance one paragraph talked about Bronson packing to go West again to hold his series of conversations. The show more next paragraph talked about how wonderful it was for the family to be altogether for a certain event and nothing was mentioned about Bronson's trip. Evidently he left, returned and settled back into family life during the carriage return separating the paragraphs. But as a reader, it was a bit of a jolt that I'd have felt even if I'd not read the other work. show less

Unusual for a children's biography in this time period, this book avoids fictional dialog or pervasive speculation. It is well written, spending a good deal of time on the Alcott family dynamic, discussing the friendship with other writers (Emerson, Hawthorne et al.), and exploring relationships that show up in Alcott's books. Whether a child will enjoy it, I'm not sure. I would not make a boy read it! Certainly if a child has read and enjoyed Louisa May Alcott's books, then this biography will have a certain appeal.

Apparently this biography won a Newbery medal, so perhaps I'm a bit of a philistine.. but I didn't find this particularly engaging. I am very interested in the life of Louisa M Alcott, and did find it interesting to see how it was mirrored, in many ways, by her best-known novel for girls, 'Little Women'. But although the research was evidently extensive, in a pre-internet era, and her lifeline and circumstances portrayed thoroughly, I found it dry - too full of description and facts, with little to engage my interest.

Perhaps there was too little source material, or perhaps the author simply wanted to outline Alcott's life in this way; evidently it was considered an excellent work by those who award medals. But despite it being a show more relatively easy read, I found it hard going in places, and difficult to concentrate. I rapidly lost track of all the many locations where the family lived, and most of the family friends, too.

Still, worth perusing for anyone interested in this writer. show less

Written in 1933, this is an idealized look at Louisa May Alcott's life. Her life was an interesting and difficult one, and yet Ms. Meigs makes of Louisa the ideal heroine. Reading this book creates a feeling that the Alcotts were noble, thoughtful, cheerful people who had figured out the secret of happiness. For a child reader, this book gives ample detail of Louisa's whole life. For an adult, I kept having the feeling that I was reading about someone not quite real.

This books tells the life story of Louisa May Alcott in a very descriptive, sentimental narrative. Most of the book focused on LMA's childhood, family hardship, and struggle for fame as a young writer. Her writing of "Little Women" and her success and fame after "Little Women" was published were covered only in the last two chapters. I appreciated the information about LMA's life, but would have preferred a book not as fluffy, with fewer flowery descriptions.