Abstract

"The work and life of British author Charlotte Bronte fascinated America's Louisa May Alcott throughout her own literary career." "In this comparative study, Christine Doyle explores some of the parallels and differences between the two writers' backgrounds as she traces specific references to Bronte and her work - not only in Alcott's children's fiction, but also in her novels for adults and "sensation fiction." Doyle compares the treatment of three themes important to both writers - spirituality, interpersonal relations, and women's work - showing how Alcott translated Bronte's British reserve and gender- and class-based repression into her own American optimism and progressivism." "Throughout her analysis, Doyle shows that Alcott responds as a uniquely American writer to the problems of American literature and life while never denying the powerful transatlantic influences exerted by Bronte. Doyle's work reflects a wide range of scholarship, solidly grounded in an understanding of the Victorian temperament, nineteenth-century British and American literature, and recent Alcott criticism and gives fuller voice to the multiple dimensions of Alcott as a nineteenth-century writer."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved.