Louisa Alcott: Little Women

Showalter, Elaine. Sister’s Choice: Tradition and Change in American Women’s Writing. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1991. Section on Little Women, as well as on Kate Chopin’s The Awakening and Edith Wharton’s The House of Mirth.

Two romances about a water sprite and a knight, respectively, by German novelist and poet Friedrich de la Motte-Fouque (1777-1843); very popular among children.

The stage.

Through which the ghost of the murdered Banquo may reappear in Shakespeare’s play (act 3, scene 6); Jo goes on to quote from Macbeth’s famous “dagger speech” (act 2, scene 1), in which he prepares to kill Duncan, the king.

That is, vivandiere, a civilian woman accompanying an army to sell provisions such as food and liquor (French).

Bags containing fabric remnants.

Seemingly a reference to the Bible and Jesus Christ, although some critics argue that the book is The Pilgrim’s Progress (see endnote 1).

Exemplary person.

Oh, my God! (German).

That is good! The angel-children! (German).

Sancho Panza, the Don’s squire, is a comic relief character in Spanish novelist Miguel de Cervantes’s satirical romance Don Quixote (1605, 1615).

Coarse, feltlike fabric.

Frame on which clothes are hung.

Magical potion.

Long locks of hair, fashionable for seventeenth- and eighteenth-century men.

Popular 1853 novel, by English writer Charlotte M. Yonge, about intrigue, self-sacrifice, and repentance in a scheme to disinherit the title character.

Reflection of the formal nineteenth-century manner of address: The eldest daughter is called by her surname, and the younger ones by their first names.

Dull brown or grayish cloth.

Very good; smart.

That is, the burnt width of fabric.

Primp, or careful grooming.

Formal men’s shoes with a low instep.

That is, Vevey; a beautiful district of Switzerland on Lake Geneva and a popular tourist resort.

Studying hard or frolicking.

City in southwestern Germany; site of the University of Heidelberg, one of the oldest European universities.

Rubber overshoes, such as galoshes.

Fast eastern European folk dance.

Medicinal herb.

Old man from the tale “Sinbad the Sailor” in The Thousand and One Nights, who climbs onto Sinbad’s shoulders and refuses to get down; Sinbad frees himself by getting the old man drunk.

Work hard.

That is, just officially presented to society, or “debuted.”

Reference to British political writer William Belsham’s Essays, Philosophical, Historical, and Literary (1789-1790).

Coal scuttle, a metal pail for carrying coal.

Reference to master Italian Renaissance painter Raphael Sanzio (1483-1520).

Extremely popular 1766 novel by English writer Oliver Goldsmith, about the trials of a reverend and his family after they lose their fortune.

That is, “Think of your mercies, children!” Chloe is the plantation cook and wife of the slave Uncle Tom in Harriet Beecher Stowe’s 1852 antislavery novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin.

Woman’s loose-fitting dress or coat; also spelled “sacque” later in the novel.

Scottish author Sir Walter Scott’s popular 1819 novel of medieval romance; characters include Locksley (Robin Hood) and King Richard I.

Milky, gelatinous dessert.

Deeply upholstered armchairs.

Two references to The Pilgrim’s Progress (see endnote 1): Wicket Gate, which leads to the Celestial City, bears the words “Knock and it shall be opened unto you”; lions guard the Palace Beautiful, a place of rest for Christian.

That is, lapsus linguae, Latin for “slip of the tongue.”

Punish by striking on the hand with a flat piece of wood.

Disciplinarian schoolmaster from Charles Dickens’s novel Dombey and Son (1846-1848).

Puffed up proudly, with head high in an insolent manner.

Contemptuous term for paper money.

Not a recognized title; perhaps imagined for its fanciful sound.

Fredrika Bremer (1801-1865): Swedish domestic novelist; Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832): prolific, popular Scottish poet, novelist, historian, and inventor of the historical novel; Maria Edgeworth (1767-1849): Irish novelist who wrote chiefly of Irish life.

Hockey stick.

Sheer cotton fabric.

Dress up beyond their station.

Little bit (French).

Ruffle.

Charming, very pretty (French).

Reference to an Aesop’s fable in which a plain jackdaw dresses in peacock feathers and puts on airs, but is rejected by both jackdaws and peacocks.

Crisply curled.

Intricate couples’ dance composed of various styles.

Silence to the death (French).

Based on Dickens’s first novel, Pickwick Papers (1836-1837).

In Dickens’s novel Samuel Pickwick is the club’s chairman and founder, and Tupman Snodgrass, and Winkle are members; all report their adventures and observations at club meetings.

Pickwick’s Cockney-accented servant in Pickwick Papers.

Pan filled with hot coals and used to warm a bed.

Birdhouse with several small entry holes for purple martins (a type of swallow).

Francis Bacon (1561-1626): English practical philosopher, court lawyer, chancellor, and author; John Milton (1608-1674): English religious and pastoral poet, political pamphleteer, and author of the epic poem Paradise Lost.

Neckties, or neckbands.

In Dickens’s novel Martin Chuzzlewit (1843-1844), Sairey Gamp is a fat, selfish nurse who does more to ensure her own comfort than that of her patients.

Toiling.