Jo's Boys
1886
Ten years have passed since Little Men, and Jo March Bhaer is no longer the wild girl who wrote blood-and-thunder stories in the attic. She's the heart of Plumfield now, mother to two sons and guardian to twelve boys she's helped shape into young men. But the hardest part of parenting is learning to let go. As her students venture into the world to chase careers, love, and their own complicated dreams, Jo watches them leave the nest with pride and terror in equal measure. This is Alcott at her most bittersweet. The boys who once filled Plumfield with chaos are now men facing real-world troubles, Dan returns from his wandering, Nan defies convention, and the warmth of the March family faces its hardest test: time itself. Jo must reconcile the girl she was with the woman she's become, discovering that mothering doesn't end when children leave the nest, it simply changes form. For anyone who grew up with the March sisters and now understands what it means to watch the people you love become themselves.
Editions
X-Ray
“Simple, genuine goodness is the best capital to found the business of this life upon. It lasts when fame and money fail, and is the only riches we can take out of this world with us.””
— Louisa May Alcott
“Love is a flower that grows in any soil, works its sweet miracles undaunted by autumn frost or winter snow, blooming fair and fragrant all the year, and blessing those who give and those who receive.””
— Louisa May Alcott
“The small hopes and plans and pleasures of children should be tenderly respected by grown-up people, and never rudely thwarted or ridiculed.””
— Louisa May Alcott
“It takes so little to make a child happy, that it is a pity in a world full of sunshine and pleasant things, that there should be any wistful faces, empty hands, or lonely little hearts.””
— Louisa May Alcott
“…we're twins, and so we love each other more than other people…””
— Louisa May Alcott
“…for no matter how lost and soiled and worn-out wandering sons may be, mothers can forgive and forget every thing as they fold them into their fostering arms. Happy the son whose faith in his mother remains unchanged, and who, through all his wanderings, has kept some filial token to repay her brave and tender love.””
— Louisa May Alcott
“We live in a beautiful and wonderful world, Demi, and the more you now about it the wiser and the better you will be.””
— Louisa May Alcott
“I've been so bothered with my property, that I'm tired of it, and don't mean to save up any more, but give it away as I go along, and then nobody will envy me, or want to steal it, and I shan't be suspecting folks and worrying about my old cash.””
— Louisa May Alcott
“…if men and women would only trust, understand, and help one another as my children do, what a capital place the world would be!' and Mrs. Jo's eyes grew absent, as if she was looking at a new and charming state of society in which people lived as happily and innocently as her flock at Plumfield.””
— Louisa May Alcott
