By1875, when Louisa May Alcott wrote Eight Cousins, 
she was well-known as the author of Little Women, and her books for children were in demand. Eight Cousins tells the story of orphaned Rose Campbell who goes to live under the care of her Uncle Alec and in close proximity with seven male Campbell cousins (1 Rose + 7 boys = 8 cousins) and six aunts.
The book reprises many of the themes of Little Women – the love of a close family, the pleasures of innocent fun, the importance of learning self control – but the tone is more straight-laced. Rose is no Jo March, and does not rebel against Uncle Alec’s strictures of no coffee, no corsets, plenty of fresh air and exercise. Alcott takes a few swipes at education also.
“I’ve been at boarding school nearly a year, and I’m almost dead with lessons. The more I did, the more Miss Power gave me, and I was so miserable I ‘most cried my eyes out. Papa never gave me hard things to do, and he always taught me so pleasantly I loved to study.”
Good Uncle Alec takes over Rose’s education in all branches, and her lively boy cousins take over her social life. The strength of the book is in the children. The older generation are mostly stock characters: remote Uncle Mac, hypochondriacal Aunt Myra, benevolent Aunts Peace and Plenty. Still, it all moves along briskly enough and we enjoy seeing Rose gradually transformed from a timid and sad little girl into a lively teenager, unafraid of all those male cousins and more than ready to join in the fun.
The sequel, Rose in Bloom written the following year, is less successful. Rose, now twenty, has been taken off to Europe for travel and culture, and returns a young woman. The oldest of the cousins are potential marriage partners, so the plot of the book becomes rather standard Victorian romance. Who will marry whom? Since the course of true love never does run smooth, we can expect some difficulties. One of the difficulties is that Rose is rich.
The heiress was the attraction to most of the young men whom she met. Good fellows enough, but educated, as nearly all are nowadays, to believe that girls with beauty or money are brought to market to sell or buy as the case may be.
Most bothersome — for me at least — is Rose’s continued dependence of Uncle Alec to form her character. She constantly seeks his approval even as he claims to stand back and let her learn from her own experiences. Rose cannot buy the shimmering opal silk for a new gown because Uncle Alec has taught her that it would be better to be charitable with resources. As said, Rose is no Jo March.
The silk gown is as close as Rose comes to temptation, but one cousin at least is not so fortunate. Most of the characters in the story express the conventional hope that the love of a good woman will show him the right path — no wine at parties — and keep him there. Alcott is a strong enough writer to do a small twist on that expectation and get away with it.
I am joining The Book Garden’s Tea and Books challenge in 2012. As you can see in the quote, no cup of tea is large enough or book is long enough. For more information and to join the challenge, click here.
Posted by SilverSeason 
