About this title: Thirteen-year-old orphan Rose Campbell is taken in by her six aunts and her seven male cousins. Despite Rose's initial shyness around boys, she finds happiness when she befriends her cousins.
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Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: World, Cleveland
Date Published: 1948
Description: Good in good dust jacket. Good, In good dust jacket. 252 p., [24] leaves of plates: ill. (some col. ); 22 cm. Ex-Library expected imperfections. read more
Description: Good. 0307122247 Book free of markings but top edge of flyleaf torn away. Cover shows light wear. Interior & spine evidence only gentle use. Overall, a very serviceable copy. Your book will be carefully protected for transit in sturdy, weather-resistant packaging. We are prompt, efficient, communicative. read more
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
Publisher: Little Brown & Company, New York, NY, U.S.A.
ISBN-13:9780816704620ISBN:0816704627
Description: Good+ 12mo. {001511} Eight Cousins by Louisa May Alcott. ISBN 0816704627. Published by Little Brown & Company. MASS MARKET PAPERBACK 12mo Classics {Book Condition} GOOD+ {Book Condition Details} Cover: slight darkening, edge wear, light creasing, rubbing, Text: tanning. {Keywords} FAMILY LIFE FICTION CHILDREN S JUVENILE GENERAL SEE ALSO HEADINGS UNDER SOCIAL SITUATIONS. read more
"I loved this book as a child - I would read it over and over without getting tired of the characters. It follows the story of Rose Campbell, a recently orphaned girl who goes to live with her aunts and is constantly being pulled around in different directions by their affectionate, but often bewildering advice. When her Uncle Mac arrives she has already been convinced, among many other things, that she doesn't have a constitution, and is far too old to play with her boy cousins (all seven of them). He re-orients her and encourages her to enjoy her young life, which turns out to be quite proficient. Full of enjoyable and harmless escapades in Alcott's rich literary style."
""Eight Cousins" by Lousia May Alcott is one of my all time favorite books and I try to read it every couple years. The story of an orphaned teen girl(Rose Campbell) who comes to live with her maiden aunts and bachelor uncle is overwhelmed by the presence of 7 male cousins who all live within walking distance. We follow them for a year as bachelor Uncle Alec raises Rose in a healthy, happy environment. Rose "adopts" the housemaid, Phoebe, who can sing like a lark. Rose also exerts her influence on her cousins. Alcott uses the characters in this story to gently put forth the educational and social agenda of her father and other social reformers of her time. Uncle Alec's chief complaint consisted of children growning up too fast and not being allowed to be children. Something we could learn from today. I think this book ranks classic status because of it's timeless values and interesting characters. Each of the eight cousins has a distinct personality and reacts in interesting ways. Each of the boys' mothers also is distinct and their parenting styles are taken to task. We all know moms like each of these aunts and recognize the children that spring from them. I always read "Eight Cousins and "Rose in Bloom" one after the other."
"(I actually listened to the version downloaded from librivox.org). I loved this book when I read it as a pre-teen, but it didn't quite hold up as well as Little Women and An Old-Fashioned Girl did for me as an adult re-read. I got the feeling Alcott was definitely writing for her publisher and the "style of the day" rather than creating the sort of character she did with Jo. And the sexism really bothered me in a way it doesn't usually when I read these old books (perhaps a fear that young girls reading it today might be influenced in a bad way?). Still, it was a nice, gentle accompaniment to my evening walks."
"Eight Cousins is sort of like reading a 19th-century, morally concerned version of The Breakfast Club. Instead of the library, the action centers around a mansion known as Aunt-Hill, ancestral home of the Campbells.
The story centers around Rose, who comes to the Aunt-Hill after the death of her father and meets her new guardian, her uncle Alec. Rose is sickly and depressed in the beginning, but improves dramatically in both health and moral elevation over a year under the unorthodox care of her uncle. Her seven cousins Archie (the Good Boy), Charlie (the Bad Boy), Mac (the Bookworm), Steve (the Dandy), twins Will and Geordie, and Jamie (the Baby), along with Phebe (the Noble Foundling) provide situations in which these improvements may be displayed.
There's an odd tension in the story between the unconventional and utterly orthodox Victorian values espoused in this book. On the one hand, Uncle Alec wants Rose to be educated and teaches her math, physiology, and so on; forbids corsets and other restrictive clothes; and has her running around in an age when running was considered un-ladylike. On the other, he teaches that her place is as a wife and housekeeper, and that her function is as the moral center of the boys around her. Rose realizes towards the end of the book that the purpose of girls is to "take care of boys." Alcott also shows the evils of smoking, alcohol, and trashy books.
Additionally, and it may just be the difference of 130 years, the children don't seem very realistic. Rose is 13 1/2 at the beginning, and her oldest cousin 17. There's nothing of the awkwardnesses, tension, or rebellion of adolescence in any of the characters, excepting Charlie.
For all that, this is a good story that provides an interesting look at the aspirations of its time."
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