Read: The Inheritance by Louisa May Alcott

It’s the start of a much-needed rainy week here in the Bay Area. And what better way to spend the day than catching up with TV shows like Dollhouse and Community on Hulu writing a review.

I picked up Louisa May Alcott’s The Inheritance while browsing at the library last week. I think it was perhaps due to hearing so much about  Louisa May Alcott: The Woman Behind Little Women by Harriet Reisen that I wanted to read some Alcott.

The Inheritance tells of Edith Adelon, an orphan taken in by Lord and Lady Hamilton as a companion for their daughter Amy. After the lord’s death, Edith is treated pretty much like a servant, but one day, she saves Amy’s life. But sweet virtuous Edith and her loveliness – and friendship (love, really) of Lord Percy – is envied, detested even by Amy’s cousin Ida, who schemes to return Edith to her servant status.

Would I have read this book if it were not by Alcott? I’m not quite sure. It is very very youthful and as a result is quite predictable.  But for a first book by a 17-year-old, it is quite successful for it reads very much like the kind of book a teenaged girl would enjoy (fairytale story, inspired perhaps by Cinderella, rags-to-riches, an improbable love etc).

Verdict: If you loved Little Women as I did, this is an interesting insight into Alcott’s beginnings as a writer. It definitely made me want to read her biographies even more, such as  The Selected Letters of Louisa May Alcott – the scholars who put together this book were the ones who ‘discovered’ The Inheritance.

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