MESSRS. ROBERTS BROTHERS' PUBLICATIONS.
From the Literary World.
{{hi|"The first novel from the pen of one of the most popular poets of the age—written, too, in the author's maturity, when her name is almost exclusively associated with verse, so far as literature is concerned, and therefore to be regarded as a deliberate work, and one in which she challenges the decisive judgment of the public — will be read with universal and eager interest. . . . We have read this book with constantly increasing pleasure. It is a novel with a soul in it, that imparts to the reader an influence superior to mere momentary entertainment; it is not didactic, but it teaches; it is genuine, fresh, healthy, presents cheerful views of life, and exalts nobility of character without seeming to do so."
Extract from a private letter, — not intended for publication,—the hearty opinion of one of the most popular and favorite writers of the present day:—
"Thanks for the book. I sat up nearly all night to read it, and think it very charming. . . . I hope she will soon write again; for we need just such simple, pure, and cheerful stories here in America, where even the nursery songs are sensational, and the beautiful old books we used to love are now called dull and slow. I shall sing its praises loud and long, and set all my boys and girls to reading 'Off the Skelligs,' sure that they will learn to love it as well as they do her charming Songs. If I could reach so far, I should love to shake hands with Miss Ingelow, and thank her heartily for this delightful book."
Sold everywhere.Mailed, postpaid, by the Publishers,
ROBERTS BROTHERS, Boston.
"Make their acquaintance; for Amy will be found delightful, Beth very lovely, Meg beautiful, and Jo splendid!" — The Catholic World.
LITTLE WOMEN. By Louisa M. Alcott.In Two Parts.Price of each $1.50.
"Simply one of the most charming little books that have fallen into our hands for many a day. There is just enough of sadness in it to make it true to life, while it is so full of honest work and whole-souled fun, paints so lively a picture of a home in which contentment, energy, high spirits, and real goodness make up for the lack of money, that it will do good wherever it finds its way. Few will read it without lasting profit." — Hartford Courant.
"Little Women.By Louisa M. Alcott.We regard these volumes as two of the most fascinating that ever came into a household. Old and young read them with the same eagerness. Lifelike in all their delineations of time, place, and character, they are not only intensely interesting, but full of a cheerful morality, that makes them healthy reading for both fireside and the Sunday school. We think we love "Jo" a little better than all the rest, her genius is so happy tempered with affection." — The Guiding' Star.
The following verbatim copy of a letter from a "little woman" is a specimen of many which enthusiasm for her book has dictated to the author of "Little Women:" —
———March 12, 1870.
Dear Jo, or Miss Alcott,—We have all been reading "Little Women," and we liked it so much I could not help wanting to write to you. We think you are perfectly splendid; I like you better every time I read it. We were all so disappointed about your not marrying Laurie; I cried over that part, — I could not help it. We all liked Laurie ever so much, and almost killed ourselves laughing over the funny things you and he said.
We are six sisters and two brothers; and there were so many things in "Little Women" that seemed so natural, especially selling the rags.
Eddie is the oldest; then there is Annie (our Meg), then Nelly (that's me), May and Milly (our Beths), Rosie, Rollie, and dear little Carrie (the baby). Eddie goes away to school, and when he comes home for the holidays we have lots of fun, playing cricket, croquet, base ball, and every thing. If you ever want to play any of those games, just come to our house, and you will find plenty children to play with you.
If you ever come to———, I do wish you would come and see us,—we would like it so much.
I have named my doll after you, and I hope she will try and deserve it.
I do wish you would send me a picture of you. I hope your health is better and you are having a nice time.
If you write to me, please direct———Ill. All the children send their love.
With ever so much love, from your affectionate friend,
Nelly.
Mailed to any address, postpaid, on receipt of the advertised price.
ROBERTS BROTHERS, Publishers,
Boston.
AN OLD-FASHIONED GIRL. By Louisa M. Alcott. With Illustrations. Price $1.50.
"Miss Alcott has a faculty of entering into the lives and feelings of children that is conspicuously wanting in most writers who address them; and to this cause, to the consciousness among her readers that they are hearing about people like themselves, instead of abstract qualities labelled with names, the popularity of her books is due. Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy are friends in every nursery and schoolroom, and even in the parlor and office they are not unknown; for a good story is interesting to older folks as well, and Miss Alcott carries on her children to manhood and womanhood, and leaves them only on the wedding-day."—Mrs. Sarah J. Hale in Godey's Ladies' Book.
"We are glad to see that Miss Alcott is becoming naturalized among us as a writer, and cannot help congratulating ourselves on having done something to bring about the result. The author of 'Little Women' is so manifestly on the side of all that is 'lovely, pure, and of good report' in the life of women, and writes with such genuine power and humor, and with such a tender charity and sympathy, that we hail her books with no common pleasure. 'An Old-Fashioned Girl' is a protest from the other side of the Atlantic against the manners of the creature which we know on this by the name of 'the Girl of the Period;' but the attack is delivered with delicacy as well as force."—The London Spectator.
"A charming little book, brimful of the good qualities of intellect and heart which made 'Little Women' so successful. The 'Old-Fashioned Girl' carries with it a teaching specially needed at the present day, and we are glad to know it is even already a decided and great success."—New York Independent.
"Miss Alcott's new story deserves quite as great a success as her famous "Little Women," and we dare say will secure it. She has written a book which child and parent alike ought to read, for it is neither above the comprehension of the one, nor below the taste of the other. Her boys and girls are so fresh, hearty, and natural, the incidents of her story are so true to life, and the tone is so thoroughly healthy, that a chapter of the 'Old-Fashioned Girl' wakes up the unartificial better life within us almost as effectually as an hour spent in the company of good, honest, sprightly children. The Old-Fashioned Girl, Polly Milton, is a delightful creature! "—New York Tribune.
"Gladly we welcome the 'Old-Fashioned Girl' to heart and home! Joyfully we herald her progress over the land! Hopefully we look forward to the time when our young people, following her example, will also be old-fashioned in purity of heart and simplicity of life, thus brightening like a sunbeam the atmosphere around them."—Providence Journal.
Mailed, postpaid, on receipt of the advertised price, by the Publishers,
ROBERTS BROTHERS,
Boston
"Miss Alcott is really a benefactor of Households."—H. H.
LITTLE MEN: Life at Plumfield with Jo's Boys.By Louisa M. Alcott.With Illustrations.Price $1.50.
"The gods are to be congratulated upon the success of the Alcott experiment, as well as all childhood, young and old, upon the singular charm of the little men and little women who have run forth from the Alcott cottage, children of a maiden whose genius is beautiful motherhood."—The Examiner.
"No true-hearted boy or girl can read this book without deriving benefit from the perusal; nor, for that matter, will it the least injure children of a larger growth to endeavor to profit by the examples of gentleness and honesty set before them in its pages. What a delightful school 'Jo' did keep! Why, it makes us want to live our childhood's days over again, in the hope that we might induce some kind-hearted female to establish just such a school, and might prevail upon our parents to send us, ' because it was cheap.' . . . We wish the genial authoress a long life in which to enjoy the fruits of her labor, and cordially thank her, in the name of our young people, for her efforts in their behalf."—Waterbury American.
"Miss Alcott, whose name has already become a household word among little people, will gain a new hold upon their love and admiration by this little book. It forms a fitting sequel to 'Little Women,' and contains the same elements of popularity. . . . We expect to see it even more popular than its predecessor, and shall heartily rejoice at the success of an author whose works afford so much hearty and innocent enjoyment to the family circle, and teach such pleasant and wholesome lessons to old and young."—N. Y. Times.
"Suggestive, truthful, amusing, and racy, in a certain simplicity of style which very few are capable of producing. It is the history of only six months' school-life of a dozen boys, but is full of variety and vitality, and the having girls with the boys is a charming novelty, too. To be very candid, this book is so thoroughly good that we hope Miss Alcott will give us another in the same genial vein, for she understands children and their ways."—Phil. Press.
A specimen letter from a little woman to the author of "Little Men."
June 17, 1871.
Dear Miss Alcott, — We have just finished "Little Men," and like it so much that we thought we would write and ask you to write another book sequel to "Little Men," and have more about Laurie and Amy, as we like them the best. We are the Literary Club, and we got the idea from "Little Women." We have a paper two sheets of foolscap and a half. There are four of us, two cousins and my sister and myself Our assumed names are: Horace Greeley, President; Susan B Anthony, Editor; Harriet B Stowe, Vice-President; and myself, Anna C. Ritchie, Secretary. We call our paper the "Saturday Night," and we all write stories and have reports of sermons and of our meetings, and write about the queens of England. We did not know but you would like to hear this, as the idea sprang from your book; and we thought we would write, as we liked your book so much. And now, if it is not too much to ask of you, I wish you would answer this, as we are very impatient to know if you will write another book; and please answer soon, as Miss Anthony is going away, and she wishes very much to hear from you before she does. If you write, please direct to ——— Street, Brooklyn, N.Y.
Yours truly,
Alice ———
Mailed to any address, postpaid, on receipt of the advertised price, by the Publishers,
ROBERTS BROTHERS, Boston
HOSPITAL SKETCHES AND CAMP AND FIRESIDE STORIES.By Louisa M. Alcott.With Illustrations.Price $1.50.
"Miss Alcott performed a brief tour of hospital duty during the late war Her career as nurse was terminated by an attack of dangerous illness. But she made good use of her time, and her sketches of hospital life, if briefer than could be wished, make up in quality what they lack in quantity. They are, indeed, the most graphic and natural pictures of life in the great army hospitals that have yet appeared. Free from all affected sentimentalism, they blend in a strange and piquant manner the grave and gay, the lively and severe."—Phila. Inquirer.
" It is a book which is thoroughly enjoyable, and with which little fault need be found. It is not a pretentious work, and the author has only aimed at telling the story of her experience as an army hospital nurse, in an easy, natural style; but the incidents which she has given us are so varied,—sometimes, amusingly humorous and sometimes tenderly pathetic,—and her narrative is so simple and straightforward and truthful, that the reader's attention is chained, and he finds it impossible to resist the charm of the pleasant, kindly, keen-sighted Nurse Perriwinkle."—Round Table.
" Such is the title of a volume by Miss Louisa M. Alcott, author of ' Little Women,' one of the most charming productions of the day. Miss Alcott is a New England woman of the best type,—gifted, refined, progressive in her opinions, heroic, self-sacrificing. She devoted her time and means to the service of her country in the darkest days of the Rebellion, visiting the camp and the hospital, devoting herself to the care of the sick and the dying, braving danger and privation in the sacred cause of humanity. The results of her experience are embodied in these ' Sketches,' which are graphic in narrative, rich in incident, and dramatic in style. Miss Alcott has a keen sense of the ludicrous, and, while she does not trifle with her subject, seeks to amuse as well as instruct her reader. She has the sunniest of tempers, and sees a humorous side even to the sad life of the hospital."—San Francisco Bulletin.
" This volume illustrates excellently well the characteristics of Miss Alcott's talent as a novelist. Her subjects are always portions of her own experience; her characters always the people she has known, under slight disguises, or strangely metamorphosed, as may happen, but easily to be recognized by those who have the key to them. In this she resembles many other writers; but there is a peculiar blending of this realism with extreme idealization in most of her stories. She succeeds best—indeed, she only succeeds at all—in her real pictures. Her descriptions are as faithful and as varied in their fidelity as life itself, so long as she restricts herself to what she has actually seen and known. When she cleaves to real experiences, she is sure of her effect; and her success is always greater in proportion to the depth of the experience she has to portray. For this reason we have always thought ' Hospital Sketches' her best piece of work."—Springfield Republican.
Mailed, postpaid, on receipt of the advertised price, by the Publishers,
ROBERTS BROTHERS, Boston.
"As there was nobody to see, he just sat down and cried as hard as Dotty herself."
The above picture is one of twenty-seven which illustrate
This stealing from Time caused a great commotion, though Max contended that "Time belongs to us all;" but it resulted in a "Bargain," which, the book will tell you all about.
"The New-Year's Bargain" is an elegant volume, bound in cloth, gilt and black-lettered, and sells for $1.50.
The new book by the author of "The New Year's Bargain,"
A Story.With Illustrations by Addie Ledyard. Price $1.50.
ROBERTS BROTHERS, Publishers, Boston.