Laura Bates on Louisa May Alcott

Great Lives

BBC

History, Documentary, Personal Journals, Society & Culture

4.2 • 1.2K Ratings

🗓️ 16 December 2014

⏱️ 28 minutes

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Summary

Laura Bates, journalist and curator of the Everyday Sexism Project, explains to Matthew Parris why the 19th century children's author Louisa May Alcott has her vote for a Great Life. They are joined by Sarah Churchwell, Professor of American Literature at the University of East Anglia. Louisa May Alcott is best known as the writer of "Little Women", the story of four sisters growing up during the Civil War in America. Generations of girls have read the book, which at first sight seems to be an improving tract on growing up and becoming a good Christian wife. Both Laura and Sarah have a very different reading of the book and believe Louisa May Alcott to have been a remarkable woman and a dedicated feminist. Producer Christine Hall First heard on BBC Radio 4 in 2014.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Once you've wrapped up this podcast, how about trying a very British cult?
0:06.0	What happens if the person you trust with your future isn't what you think they are?
0:10.0	I did feel the whole time he was watching me Yeti. I saw a footprint and that really gave me gusmas.
0:16.4	Or people who knew me. Emme, I remember every secret, every lie. I'm the only one who knows the truth.
0:23.0	Discover more of our biggest podcast from 2003.
0:27.0	Listen on BBC Sounds.
0:29.0	Great Lives is a download from Radio 4.
0:32.0	We hope you enjoy what you're about to hear.
0:35.0	Christmas won't be Christmas without any presents, Grumble Joe, lying on the rug.
0:40.0	It's so dreadful to be poor, sighed Meg, looking down at her old dress.
0:46.0	I don't think it's fair for some girls to have plenty of pretty things and other girls nothing at all,
0:52.0	added little Amy, with an injured sniff.
0:55.8	We've got father and mother and each other said Beth contentedly from her
1:01.4	corner.
1:02.4	Hello and welcome to great lives. death contentedly from her corner.
1:03.0	Hello and welcome to great lives.
1:05.6	When I was ten, I had a lonely term in a boarding school in the African Mist, where there was
1:10.8	only one book shelf and nothing to do, so I read every book, even one called
1:16.0	to my horror little women. And though I knew and cared nothing for Taffeter, Gingam or Velvet.
1:22.8	I found myself getting interested in the girl characters dramas.
1:26.4	Why?
1:27.4	Somehow, these people in their lives were real, not idealised,
	...

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