Little Men & Jo's Boys (Wordsworth Children's Classics)

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Alcott, Louisa May (1868). Little Women (1953 ed.). Melbourne; London; Baltimore: Penguin Books. ISBN 9781984898852.

What is the forfeit?” asked Nat, sitting up in his eagerness to know what happened to those wretches who disobeyed this most peculiar, but public-spirited schoolma’am.

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Miss Jo March, the beloved character from Little Women—now Mrs. Jo Bhaer—fills her home at Plumfield with boys in need of guidance, an education, and, above all, affection. The children are full of mischievous and amusing lards in each chapter. Discover with the Plumfield household how, despite some disastrous events, “love is a flower that grows in any soil [and] works its sweet miracles undaunted by autumn frost or winter snow.” As she talked, Mrs. Bhaer had whipped off Rob’s clothes and popped him into a long bath-tub in the little room opening into the nursery. Nat held her hand fast in his, but had not a word to say, and let his grateful eyes speak for him, as Mrs. Bhaer led him up to a big room, where they found a stout German woman with a face so round and cheery, that it looked like a sort of sun, with the wide frill of her cap for rays.

The three wrestlers obeyed at once; and the stout man, with a chubby child on each shoulder, came up to welcome the new boy. Rob and Teddy merely grinned at him, but Mr. Bhaer shook hands, and pointing to a low chair near the fire, said, in a cordial voice,— One of the main models for Friedrich was Henry David Thoreau (in fact he appears in multiple disguises in all of Alcott´s novels). Louisa attended Concord Academy where Henry and his brother John were teachers. Some of the elements in Friedrich´s character that come from Henry in Little Men, include Friedrich using phrases such as "gods garden". Friedrich has given all children their own little garden spots, which is something that Henry did as well. In the same way as Jo and Friedrich, Henry and Louisa often went to long walks together. Henry was a naturalist and his interest in the natural world can be seen in Little Men in Dan Kean´s character. They chose a song he knew; and after one or two false starts they got going, and violin, flute, and piano led a chorus of boyish voices that made the old roof ring again. It was too much for Nat, more feeble than he knew; and as the final shout died away, his face began to work, he dropped the fiddle, and turning to the wall, sobbed like a little child.

My child, you have got a father and a mother now, and this is home. Don’t think of those sad times any more, but get well and happy; and be sure you shall never suffer again, if we can help it. This place is made for all sorts of boys to have a good time in, and to learn how to help themselves and be useful men, I hope. You shall have as much music as you want, only you must get strong first. Now come up to Nursey and have a bath, and then go to bed, and to-morrow we will lay some nice little plans together.” Disappointing, really. I can get behind the premise and Beard is writing from personal experience, but he's got his nose squished right up against his subject (literally: he's wandering around the grounds of his own school during a pandemic mismanaged by his braying contemporaries who are undoubtedly proving his point on a national scale). It's of course biased, and also very repetitive; the research is hard to take seriously (frequent references to a few documentary films and the 1972 biopic Young Winston, thought there is a bibliography), the tone is aggrieved throughout, organisation is scant and the syntax is sloppy. It might have been better as primarily a memoir with a bit of theorising, or as a proper investigation with some psychological, educational or other expert evidence. It's not a particularly pleasant or even juicy read and I don't find that he offers anything new. I am Mother Bhaer, that gentleman is Father Bhaer, and these are the two little Bhaers.—Come here, boys, and see Nat.”

Commentaries suggest that “even Little Women and its successors, Little Men and Jo’s Boys, were not immune from critics in hot pursuit of gender relations, power struggles, and sexual politics.” [19] According to Stern’s biography, “in the case of Louisa May Alcott, such interpretations are very tempting, since she herself provided such an intriguing arsenal of ammunition.” [20] Personal relationships are central to the school, and diversity is celebrated. Daisy is deeply attached to her twin brother, to shy Nat, and to tomboy Nan. Nan and Tommy are also close and the latter intends to marry Nan when they grow up. Dan, already friends with Nat, is unexpectedly drawn to the pious Demi and the toddler Teddy. While Franz Hoffmann, Emil Hoffmann, Daisy and Demi are all related to the Bhaers, they are not treated with favouritism and are encouraged to overcome their faults just the same as the other pupils. The novel recounts six months in the life of the students at Plumfield, a school run by Professor Friedrich and Mrs. Josephine Bhaer. The idea of the school is first suggested at the very end of Good Wives, when Jo inherited the estate from her Aunt March. Author, Richard Beard, takes you on a trip down memory lane to find out. He shared the same boarding school education as twenty-eight of the last thirty-two UK Prime Ministers and uses these shared experiences to allow the reader a better understanding for how the men they became were shaped from the boys they once were.These are Tommy Bangs’ slippers; but he never will remember to put them on in the house; so he shall not have them. They are too big; but that’s all the better; you can’t run away from us so fast as if they fitted.”