Jack and Jill

Louisa May Alcott

Applewood Books, Jun 20, 2012 - Cooking - 364 pages

""Jack and Jill,"" which has been out of print for over a decade, was originally published in 1880. It was the last of Louisa May Alcott's eight novels for children that began with ""Little Women."" Subititled ""A Village Story,"" it is set in Harmony Village, a fictional small New England town. The book tells the story of neighbors and best friends Jack Minot and Janey Pecq, nicknamed ""Jill"" because she is Jack's constant companion. The two young people go up a snowy hill one December day and suffer a serious sledding accident. The story follows the two and their friends through their recovery, through winter and spring holidays and activities, summer vacation, and back to a new school year. ."" . they were just beginning to look about them as they stepped out of childhood into youth . . . There are many such boys and girls, full of high hopes, lovely possibilities, and earnest plans, pausing a moment before they push their little boats from the safe shore.""

Contents

• CHAPTER: 1
• SURPRISES: 53
• JILLS MISSION: 71
• VIII: 87
• THE DEBATING CLUB: 103
• THE DRAMATIC CLUB: 119
• DOWN BRAKES: 133
• THE TWENTYSECond of FEBRUARY: 144
• JACK HAS A MYSTERY: 160
• AND JILL FINDS IT: 176
• SAINT LUCY: 189
• UP AT MERRYS: 203
• DOWN AT MOLLYS: 217
• MAY BASKETS: 232
• GOOD TEMPLARS: 247
• A HAPPY: 293
• XXIII: 304
• DOWN THE RIVER: 320

About the author

Louisa May Alcott was born in Germantown, Pennsylvania, in 1832. Two years later, she moved with her family to Boston and in 1840 to Concord, which was to remain her family home for the rest of her life. Her father, Bronson Alcott, was a transcendentalist and friend of Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau. Alcott early realized that her father could not be counted on as sole support of his family, and so she sacrificed much of her own pleasure to earn money by sewing, teaching, and churning out potboilers. Her reputation was established with Hospital Sketches (1863), which was an account of her work as a volunteer nurse in Washington, D.C. Alcott's first works were written for children, including her best-known Little Women (1868--69) and Little Men: Life at Plumfield with Jo's Boys (1871). Moods (1864), a "passionate conflict," was written for adults. Alcott's writing eventually became the family's main source of income. Throughout her life, Alcott continued to produce highly popular and idealistic literature for children. An Old-Fashioned Girl (1870), Eight Cousins (1875), Rose in Bloom (1876), Under the Lilacs (1878), and Jack and Jill (1881) enjoyed wide popularity. At the same time, her adult fiction, such as the autobiographical novel Work: A Story of Experience (1873) and A Modern Mephistopheles (1877), a story based on the Faust legend, shows her deeper concern with such social issues as education, prison reform, and women's suffrage. She realistically depicts the problems of adolescents and working women, the difficulties of relationships between men and women, and the values of the single woman's life.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Jack and Jill; Applewood Bks
• Author: Louisa May Alcott
• Edition: illustrated, reprint
• Publisher: Applewood Books, 2012
• ISBN: 1429093102, 9781429093101
• Length: 364 pages
• Subjects: Cooking / Beverages / Non-Alcoholic; Juvenile Fiction / Classics; Juvenile Fiction / Concepts / Seasons; Juvenile Fiction / Family / General; Juvenile Fiction / Social Themes / Friendship