But he did not see the change, nor hear the step that broke the hush, nor turn to meet the woman who stood waiting for a lover’s welcome.Īn indefinable air of sumptuous life surrounded her, and made the brilliant room a fitting frame for the figure standing there with warm-hued muslins blowing in the wind.Ī figure full of the affluent beauty of womanhood in its prime, bearing unmistakable marks of the polished pupil of the world in the grace that flowed through every motion, the art which taught each feature to play its part with the ease of second nature and made dress the foil to loveliness. A viewless visitant, welcomed by longing soul and body as the man, with extended arms and parted lips received the voiceless greeting of the breeze that came winging its way across the broad Atlantic, full of healthful cheer for a home-sick heart.įar out he leaned held back the thick-leaved boughs already rustling with a grateful stir, chid the shrill bird beating its flame-colored breast against its prison bars, and drank deep draughts of the blessed wind that seemed to cool the fever of his blood and give him back the vigor he had lost.Ī sudden light shone out behind him filling the room with a glow that left no shadow in it. He watched and waited for something presently it came. He listened with the same intentness, yet heard only the clamor of voices, the tramp of feet, the chime of bells, the varied turmoil of a city when night is defrauded of its peace by being turned to day. His eye turned often to the window with a glance both vigilant and eager, yet saw nothing but a tropical luxuriance of foliage scarcely stirred by the sultry air heavy with odors that seemed to oppress not refresh. Shadows haunted it, lurking in corners like spies set there to watch the man who stood among them mute and motionless as if himself a shadow. The room fronted the west, but a black cloud, barred with red, robbed the hour of twilight’s tranquil charm. Note, long paragraphs of the original have been broken up for easier viewability. There is little hint of the more conversational, relatable prose and characterizations that would come just four years later in Little Women. This segment of chapter one demonstrates prose that is self-conscious and often overwrought. Full text of Moods on Project Gutenberg.“Moods” so Far: Louisa May Alcott is My Passion.This new volume contains the complete text of the 1864 Moods and Alcott’s revisions for the 1882 version, along with explanatory notes by the editor., Louisa May Alcott’s first novel, was published in 1864, four years before the best-selling Little Women.įrom the back cover of the 1991 edition of Moods (Rutgers University Press) Complete text of 1864 Moods and Alcott’s 1882 revisions Her own literary success and the changes she helped forge in women’s lives now allowed her heroine to meet, as Alcott said, “a wiser if less romantic fate than in the former edition.” In 1882, eighteen years after the original publication, Alcott revised and republished the novel. In the rest of the novel, Alcott attempts to resolve the dilemma she has created and leaves her readers asking whether, in fact, there is a place for a woman such as Sylvia in a man’s world. In the front matter of the book, he is quoted: “Life is a train of moods like a string of beads and as we pass through them they prove to be many colored lenses, which paint the world their own hue, and each shows us only what lies in its own focus.” Marrying the wrong manĪroused, but still “moody” and inexperienced, Sylvia marries the wrong man. The simple title of this book, in fact, seems to be attributed to Emerson, who Alcott considered a mentor, and who was a close family friend of the Alcott family. These rival suitors, close friends, are modeled on Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau. The novel opens as she embarks on a river camping trip with her brother and his two friends, both of whom fall in love with her. Sylvia Yule, the heroine of Moods, is a passionate tomboy (as was the author herself) who yearns for adventure. The novel unconventionally presents a “little woman” a true-hearted abolitionist spinster, and a fallen Cuban beauty, their lives intersecting in Alcott’s first major depiction of the “woman problem.” It came out in 1864 - four years before her breakout Little Women. Moods by Louisa May Alcott was this beloved American author’s first novel (that is, the first that she published under her own name).
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |