Louisa M. Alcott

LOUISA MAY ALCOTT was born in 1832 and died in 1888. She was the daughter of A. Bronson Alcott, the “Sage of Concord.” Her early surroundings were of a highly intellectual and literary character, and she naturally took to writing while still very young.

In her sketch “Transcendental Oats” she describes in an amusing way the experience of a year at Fruitlands, where an attempt was made to establish an ideal community.

Miss Alcott was obliged to be a wage-earner to help out the family income, and so taught school, served as a governess and at times worked as a seamstress. Wearying of this, she wrote for the papers stories of a sensational nature, which were remunerative financially, but unsatisfactory to her as a literary pursuit, and she abandoned this style of writing.

In a Washington hospital she served as a nurse for a time, but the work was so hard that she failed in health, and when she recovered she had to find new fields of work; then she traveled as attendant to an invalid, and with her visited Europe.

After several attempts at literature, Miss Alcott wrote “Little Women,” which was an immediate success, reaching a sale of 87,000 copies in three years. She wrote from the heart, and wove into the story incidents from the lives of herself and her three sisters at Concord. She afterward wrote “An Old-Fashioned Girl,” “Little Men,” “Aunt Jo's Scrap Bag,” “The Eight Cousins,” and “Rose in Bloom,” besides other stories and sketches.

In their old-fashioned New England home the little women lived with Mrs. March, their brisk and cheery mother, who always had a “can-I-help-you” look about her, and whom her four girls lovingly called “Marmee.”

Pretty Meg, the oldest, was sixteen, and already showed domestic tastes and talents, though she detested the drudgery of household work; and, a little vain of her white hands, longed at heart to be a fine lady. Jo, fifteen, was tall, thin, and coltish, and gloried in an unconcealed scorn of polite conventions. Beth, thirteen, was a loveable little thing, shy, fond of her dolls and devoted to music, which she tried hopefully to produce from the old, jingling tin pan of a piano. Amy, twelve, considered herself the flower of the family. An adorable blonde, she admitted that the trial of her life was her nose. For, when she was a baby Jo had accidentally dropped her into the coal-hod and permanently flattened that feature, and though poor Amy slept with a patent clothespin pinching it, she couldn't attain the Grecian effect she so much desired.

Father March was an army chaplain in the Civil War, and in his absence Jo declared herself to be the man of the family. To add to their slender income, she went every day to read to Aunt March, a peppery old lady; and Meg, too, earned a small salary as daily nursery governess to a neighbor's children.

In the big house next door to the Marches lived a rich old gentleman, Mr. Laurence, and his grandson, a jolly, chummy boy called Laurie.

The night Laurie took the two older girls to the theater, Amy, though not invited, insisted on going too. Jo crossly declared she wouldn't go if Amy did, and, furiously scolding her little sister, she slammed the door and went off, as Amy called out: “You'll be sorry for this, Jo March! See if you ain't!” The child made good her threat by burning up the manuscript of a precious book which Jo had written and on which she had spent three years of hard work. There was a terrible fracas, and, though at her mother's bidding Amy made contrite apology, Jo refused to be pacified. It was only when poor little Amy was nearly drowned by falling through the ice that consicence-stricken Jo forgave her sister and learned a much-needed lesson of self-control.

Meg, too, learned a salutary lesson when she went to visit some fashionable friends and had her first taste of “Vanity Fair.” Her sisters gladly lent her all their best things. Yet she soon saw that her wardrobe was sadly inadequate to the environment in which she found herself. Whereupon the rich friends lent her some of their own finery; and, after laughingly applying paint and powder, they laced her into a sky-blue silk dress, so low that modest Meg blushed at herself in the mirror, and Laurie, who was at the party, openly expressed his surprised disapproval. Chagrin and remorse followed, and it was not until after full confession to Marmee that Meg realized the trumpery value of fashionable rivalry and the real worth of simplicity and contentment.

Now John Brooke, the tutor of Laurie, was a secret admirer of pretty Meg. Discovering this, the mischievous boy wrote Meg a passionate love-letter, purporting to be from Brooke. This prank caused a terrible upset in both houses, but later on Brooke put the momentous question, and Meg meekly whispered, “Yes, John,” and hid her face on his waistcoat. Jo, blundering in, was transfixed with astonishment and dismay, and exclaimed, “Oh, do somebody come quick! John Brooke is acting dreadfully, and Meg likes it!”

At Christmas, Father March came home from the war. Later came the first ;break in their restored home circle. The Dovecote was the name of the little brown house that John Brooke had prepared for his bride. The wedding, beneath the June roses, was a simple, homey one, and the bridal journey was only the walk from the March home to the dear little new house. “I'm too happy to care what any one says --- I'm going to have my wedding just as I want it!” Meg had declared; and so, leaning on her husband's arm, her hands full of flowers, she went away, saying: “Thank you all for my happy wedding-day. Good-by, good-by!”

Jo developed into a writer of sensational stories. This, however, was because she found a profitable market for such work and she wanted the money for herself and the other. For little Beth was ailing, and a summer stay at the seashore might, they all hoped, bring back the roses to her cheeks. But it didn't, and after a time the dark days came when gentle Beth, like a tired but trustful child, clung to the hands that had led her all through life, as her father and mother guided her tenderly through the Valley of the Shadow and gave her up to God.

Then came a day when Laurie was invited to the Dovecote to see Meg's new baby. Jo appeared, a proud aunt, bearing a bundle on a pillow. “Shut your eyes and hold out your arms,” she ordered, and Laurie, obeying, opened his eyes again, to see --- two babies! “Twins, by Jupiter!” he cried; “take 'em, quick, somebody! I'm going to laugh, and I shall drop 'em!”

Laurie had loved Jo for years, but Jo, though truly sorry, couldn't respond. As she said, “It's impossible for people to make themselves love other people if they don't!” And so, after a time, Laurie decided that Amy was the only woman in the world who could fill Jo's place and make him happy. And the two were very happy together, Amy taking great pride in her handsome husband. “Don't laugh,” she said to him, “but your nose is such a comfort to me!” and she caressed the well-cut feature with artistic satisfaction.

Jo found her fate in an elderly professor, wise and kind, but too poor to think of marriage. For a year the pair worked and waited and hoped and loved, and then Aunt March died and left Jo her fine old country place. Here Jo and her professor set up their home, and established a boy's school which became a great success. Jo lived a very happy life, and, as the years went on, two little lads of her own came to increase her happiness. Amy, too, had a dear child named Beth, but she was a frail little creature and the dread of losing her was the shadow over Amy's sunshine.

But the little women and all their dear ones formed a happy, united family, of whom Jo truly wrote:

Lives whose brave music long shall ring (来源：EnglishCN英语博客基地)
Like a spirit-stirring strain.

小 妇 人

〔美〕露易莎·梅·奥尔科特 原著

作者生于1832年，卒于1888年。她是“康科德的圣人”A.布朗森·奥尔科特的女儿。早期生活在一个高级知识分子和文人的环境中，很自然地在她还很年轻的时候就从事了写作。

她的随笔《想入非非》有趣地描述了有一年在果树园里的经历。人们试图在那里建立一个理想的社会。

奥尔科特小姐不得不去挣工资来增加家庭的收入，她去学校教书，做家庭教师，有时还替人缝补。由于她对此感到厌烦，于是就替报刊写些耸人听闻的故事，这些故事是有报酬的。但是作为一个从事文学的人来说，她对此是不满足的，因而她就放弃了这种写作风格。

她曾经在华盛顿一家医院里做过护士，由于工作十分艰苦，身体垮了下来，待到健康恢复之后，不得不另找新的领域的工作；于是她作为一个病人的护理员开始到处游历，跟这位病人一起访问过欧洲。

在文学方面几经尝试，奥尔科特小姐写下了《小妇人》一书，立即获得极大的成功，三年之内销售了八万七千册。这是她从心坎里写出来的书，她把自己生活中的琐事和在康科德她的三个姐妹都写进故事里去。后来她又写了《一个旧式的姑娘》、《小男人》、《乔姨的废料袋》、《八个堂表》和《盛开的玫瑰花》以及其他一些故事和随笔等。

在他们老式的新英格兰家里住着这些小妇人和她们的母亲马奇太太，这是一位做事麻利、身心愉快的太太，她的脸上老挂着“我能帮你忙吗?”这种神情，四个姑娘亲切地叫她“妈咪”。

美国的梅格是大姐，十六岁的年纪已经表现出是位善理家务的能手，尽管她并不喜欢单调的家务事。她对自己雪白的手颇为自负，从心底里想做一个体面的贵妇。乔，十五岁，是个瘦高个活泼的姑娘，她毫不掩饰对斯文习俗的蔑视，并以此自豪。贝思，十三岁，这个可爱怕羞的小东西喜欢娃娃，酷爱音乐，总想从那个旧的叮叮的钢琴上奏出点什么来。艾米，十二岁，自认为是这个家庭的花朵。她是一个可爱的金发女郎，却也承认她生命中磨难的根源就是她自己那只鼻子。因为，在她还是婴儿时，乔不小心把她掉进煤筐里，把鼻子摔扁了，造成了永久的破相。尽管可怜的艾米在睡觉时用一只特制的衣服夹子夹住它，也无法达到她所要求的高鼻子的目的。

父亲马奇是南北战争时期的军队牧师，他不在家期间，乔自命为一家之主。为了要增加她们微薄的收入，她每天去给马奇姑姑，一个暴躁的老太太朗读；梅格也每天去做邻居孩子们的保姆以挣得些微薄的工资。

马奇家隔壁的一所大房子里住着一个有钱的老人劳伦斯先生和他的孙子劳里，一个快活、友好的少年。

有一天晚上，劳里带着两个大姑娘去看戏，虽然没有请艾米，她却坚持要去。乔发脾气说如果艾米去那她就不去了，并且把她的小妹妹大骂了一顿，然后把门砰地一声关上走了。艾米朝外喊道：“你会后悔的，乔·马奇! 瞧你会不会后悔!” 这孩子把威胁付诸行动，她把乔所写的一本珍贵的书的手稿全部烧掉了，这本书足足花了乔三年艰苦劳动才写下的。接着是一场大吵大闹，尽管在母亲的严命下，艾米作了忏悔性的道歉，乔却不肯罢休。只是一直等到有一天，可怜的小艾米掉进冰窟窿几乎淹死，乔才良心发现原谅了她的妹妹，并且由此得到了一个非常需要的自我克制的教训。

梅格，在她去访问了一些时髦的朋友并第一次尝到了“名利场”的味道以后，也从中学得了一个有益的教训。她的妹妹们心甘情愿地把她们所有最好的东西都借给了她。但是她很快就发现她的衣服少得可怜，这和她所处的环境是何等的不相称。因此，那些有钱的朋友把她们自己的华丽服饰借一些给她；在嘻嘻哈哈涂脂抹粉之后，她们把她套进一件天蓝色的绸衣服里，开胸低得使端庄的梅格一照镜子就脸红。劳里也参加了这个晚会，并公开表示他那出人意外的责难。梅格感到既委屈又懊恼，一直到她把此事向妈咪和盘托出之后，她才认识到这种时髦竞赛的浅薄无聊和朴素知足的真正价值。

约翰·布鲁克，劳里的一位家庭教师，暗中爱上了美丽的梅格。劳里这个淘气的孩子，发现了这个秘密，就以布鲁克的名义给梅格写了一封热情洋溢的情书。这个恶作剧在两家人之中引起了轩然大波，但后来布鲁克自己把这个重要问题提出来，梅格才温顺地喃喃道，“是，约翰，”说完就把脸扑到他的背心上藏了起来。正好这时乔鲁莽地闯了进来，惊讶得目瞪口呆，然后喊了起来，“喂，快来人啦! 约翰·布鲁克表演得可怕极了，梅格居然喜欢这种表演!”

圣诞节时，父亲马奇从战场上回来了。不久，他们重新团聚起来的家就发生了第一次突破。鸽棚是约翰·布鲁克为他的新娘所准备的一幢棕色小房子的名字。六月玫瑰下的婚礼是简朴而又亲切温暖的，新娘所要走的路程只是从马奇家到亲爱的新的小屋的一点路。“我快活极了，我才不在乎人家会说什么呢——我只要举行我所想要的婚礼!”梅格说；于是，依着她丈夫的臂膀，双手捧着鲜花，就这样走了，她边走边说：“谢谢你们大家来参加我这快乐的婚礼。再见，再见了!”

乔发展成为专写耸人听闻的故事的作家。因为她发现这种作品有利可图，而她本人和家庭中其他成员又都需要钱。因为小贝思生病了，大家都希望在海滨呆上一个夏天可能会使她的双颊恢复血色。可惜没有用，过了一些时候，黑暗的日子终于来临了，小贝思的父母亲切地把她带进幽谷奉给上帝时，她象一个疲倦的乖孩子紧紧握着领她走完人生道路的父母的手。

接着有一天，劳里被邀请到鸽棚来看看梅格的新生婴儿。乔出现了，一个自豪的姨妈，抱着躺在枕头上的一个包包。“闭上眼睛把胳臂伸出来”，她命令道，劳里遵命照办，再睁开眼睛时，他看见了——两个婴儿! “天哪，双胞胎!” 他喊了起来；“快，谁来抱一抱他们! 我要大笑了，我会把他们摔坏的!”

劳里已爱上乔多年了，乔虽然真诚地感到抱歉，却无法答应，就象她所说的：“如果一个人不爱另一个人，那就没法逼着自己去爱!”就这样过了一些日子，劳里确定艾米是世界上唯一能填补乔的空白并能使他快活的女人。这两个人在一起确是非常快活，艾米对她的漂亮丈夫感到很自豪。“别笑，”她对他说，“你的鼻子对我是个很大的安慰!”说完她以一种欣尝艺术感到满足的心情抚摸着这只雕塑得这样完美的艺术品。

乔命中注定要跟一个年纪大的教授过，这位教授博学而又慈祥，但是穷得从没想到结婚。一年来这一对工作着、等待着、期望着、相爱着，直到马奇姑姑死了，把她古老优雅的乡村住处留给了乔，乔和她的教授才在这里安了家，并且还在这里建立了一个男童学校，这个学校办得极为成功。乔过得非常快活，随着岁月的流逝，她自己的两个小儿子更给她增添了幸福。艾米也有一个可爱的孩子取名贝思，但她是个纤弱的小东西，担心失掉她变成艾米幸福中的一个阴影。

但这些小妇人和她们亲爱的成员组成一个幸福、团结的家庭，对于他们，乔真实地这样写道：

生命的勇敢的音乐
象震憾人心的曲调
将长奏不已。