Alcott as Their Muse:
Little Women’s Legacy Honored by Contemporary Authors
T BY SUSAN BAILEY
The test of a true classic is its longevity and influence. Louisa May Alcott could never have imagined that Little Women, the novel for girls she didn’t want to write, would have such an impact. The 150+-year-old book continues to inspire an endless array of fiction and non-fiction. Over the last few years, several new titles have emerged, including Meg & Jo, and Beth & Amy by Virginia Kantra, Marmee by Sarah Miller, Heidi Chiavaroli’s The Orchard House, and her The Orchard House Bed and Breakfast Series, and Barbara Heller’s Little Women: The Complete Novel, Featuring the Characters’ Letters and Manuscripts, Written and Folded by Hand. While Kantra admits to reading Little Women so often that her copy is falling apart at the seams, the other authors came to appreciate the story after they grew up. Heller’s younger sister had read it as a child but could not convince Heller to do the
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Discover CONCORD | Summer 2023
same; at eight years old, she considered it a “lame story.” At 23, she finally succumbed. “I adored Jo’s tomboy moxie,” she wrote in the introduction to her book, “but what really impressed me was the sisters’ work ethic and sturdy moral fiber.” Chiavaroli echoes Heller’s sentiments about Jo: “She was so bold and endearingly flawed—and of course, she loved to write!” What struck her most, however, were “the ties that bound this family, the importance they placed on integrity and character, and the love they held for one another.” In conducting research for her 2021 release, The Orchard House, Chiavaroli found particular inspiration in visiting the home of the Alcotts. “I remember being completely captivated by this place where these fictional (and real-life) heroines lived, of beholding the very desk where Louisa wrote her masterpiece,” she said.
After finishing The Orchard House, the author realized she had not gotten Alcott out of her system. Chiavaroli took a different approach with her seven-book contemporary series imagining a modernday Little Women set in Camden, Maine, where Orchard House becomes a bed and breakfast. “To twist Josie’s (Jo’s) love interest, to have Maggie (Meg) have twin stepsons, to allow Lizzie (Beth) to live, etc. So fun for me!” said Chiavaroli. Miller approached her second reading of Little Women with a particular purpose in mind. “I returned to the story with the specific intent of viewing it through Marmee’s eyes,” she said. “It was easier for me to see around her daughters’ stories and into the unexplored nooks and crannies.” Miller’s research introduced her to Marmee’s real-life counterpart, Abba May Alcott. “When I began to discover how radical the Alcotts were for