{"product_id":"9781421415598","title":"The Afterlife of \"Little Women\"","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe hit Broadway show of 1912; the lost film of 1919; Katharine Hepburn, as Jo, sliding down a banister in George Cukor’s 1933 movie; Mark English’s shimmering 1967 illustrations; Jo—this time played by Sutton Foster—belting \"I'll be \/ astonishing\" in the 2004 Broadway musical flop: these are only some of the markers of the afterlife of \u003ci\u003eLittle Women.\u003c\/i\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThen there’s the nineteenth-century child who wrote, \"If you do not... make Laurie marry Beth, I will never read another of your books as long as I live.\" Not to mention Miss Manners, a \u003ci\u003eLittle Women\u003c\/i\u003e devotee, who announced that the book taught her an important life lesson: \"Although it’s very nice to have two clean gloves, it’s even more important to have a little ink on your fingers.\" In \u003ci\u003eThe Afterlife of Little Women,\u003c\/i\u003e Beverly Lyon Clark, a leading authority on children’s literature, explores these and other after-tremors, both popular and academic, as she maps the reception of Louisa May Alcott’s timeless novel, first published in 1868.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eClark divides her discussion into four historical periods. The first covers the novel’s publication and massive popularity in the late nineteenth century. In the second era—the first three decades of the twentieth century—the novel becomes a nostalgic icon of the domesticity of a previous century, while losing status among the literary and scholarly elite. In its mid-century afterlife (1930–1960), \u003ci\u003eLittle Women\u003c\/i\u003e reaches a low in terms of its critical reputation but remains a well-known piece of Americana within popular culture. The book concludes with a long chapter on Little \u003ci\u003eWomen\u003c\/i\u003e’s afterlife from the 1960s to the present—a period in which the reading of the book seems to decline, while scholarly attention expands dramatically and popular echoes continue to proliferate.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eDrawing on letters and library records as well as reviews, plays, operas, film and television adaptations, spinoff novels, translations, Alcott biographies, and illustrations, Clark demonstrates how the novel resonates with both conservative family values and progressive feminist ones. She grounds her story in criticism of children’s literature, book history, cultural studies, feminist criticism, and adaptation studies. Written in an accessible narrative style, \u003ci\u003eThe Afterlife of Little Women\u003c\/i\u003e speaks to scholars, librarians, and devoted Alcott fans.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Johns Hopkins University Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47133738729712,"sku":"9781421415598","price":44.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9781421415598","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}