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A review by heathcliffdt
Flower Fables by Louisa May Alcott
3.0
A couple of months ago, I read about Thoreau’s two-year isolation from society as he ventured to the woods of Ralph Waldo Emerson, where he built himself a cabin beside Walden Pond in Concord, Massachusetts. Commonly discussed in it is the concept of transcendentalism, a movement prominent during the American Civil War which encourages man to be self-reliant while at the same time, to be spiritually conscious and connected to nature amid modern changes.
From there, I remember the 1994 Little Women adaptation wherein Winona Ryder’s Jo March strikes a conversation with Professor Bhaer and states that her parents were part of “a rather unusual circle in Concord.” Bridging fiction to reality, Louisa May Alcott’s father was a transcendentalist.
And this little fairy book, which Louisa May Alcott lovingly called as her firstborn, connected the dots for me among the three authors. Thoreau led young Louisa May Alcott to the world of Fairyland as she and her family visited him in Walden during his isolation. And from that glimpse of inspiration, she weaved stories of floras and faunas, of fairies and flowers, of good triumphing over evil. Most tales were a bit preachy, and sometimes boring and repetitive, but nothing that would disappoint industrious children like the March sisters. And so upon publication and once Louisa May Alcott gifted her Flower Fables to Emerson’s daughter, you can expect that Miss Ellen Emerson enjoyed every bit of whimsy and magic in it.
From there, I remember the 1994 Little Women adaptation wherein Winona Ryder’s Jo March strikes a conversation with Professor Bhaer and states that her parents were part of “a rather unusual circle in Concord.” Bridging fiction to reality, Louisa May Alcott’s father was a transcendentalist.
And this little fairy book, which Louisa May Alcott lovingly called as her firstborn, connected the dots for me among the three authors. Thoreau led young Louisa May Alcott to the world of Fairyland as she and her family visited him in Walden during his isolation. And from that glimpse of inspiration, she weaved stories of floras and faunas, of fairies and flowers, of good triumphing over evil. Most tales were a bit preachy, and sometimes boring and repetitive, but nothing that would disappoint industrious children like the March sisters. And so upon publication and once Louisa May Alcott gifted her Flower Fables to Emerson’s daughter, you can expect that Miss Ellen Emerson enjoyed every bit of whimsy and magic in it.