It is for her clear
perception of these conditions and her skill and address in dealing with
them that Miss Alcott deserves the celebrity that is now attached to her
name. Her simple pictures of domestic country life are drawn with a firm
and confident hand. They stand out in strong relief, and take their
color from her own warm-hearted womanly nature. Her characters act
unconsciously before us as if we looked at them through a window. In
American fiction "Little Women" holds the next place to the "Scarlet
Letter" and "Marble Faun."
There is one of Boccaccio's stories which differs so much from the
others in closeness of statement and fulness of detail that it is judged
to have been an experience of his own. As the critics say, he knew too
much about his subject. Louisa Alcott wisely avoided this error. Her
characters are always real, but,--in her best work at least,--not
realistic. There are people in natural life, full of peculiarities, whom
it would take pages to describe, while others can be hit off in a few
sentences. Miss Alcott knew that characters of a few simple traits were
best suited to her purpose; and she was too good an artist to imitate
her model. Her impersonation of herself as Jo was pretty near the truth,
but Beth, Amy, and Meg only resemble her sisters in a very general way.
If the book were more of a biography it would not be good fiction.
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