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    My Heart Is Boundless: Writings of Abigail May Alcott, Louisa's Mother
    My Heart Is Boundless: Writings of Abigail May Alcott, Louisa's Mother
    My Heart Is Boundless: Writings of Abigail May Alcott, Louisa's Mother
    Audiobook7 hours

    My Heart Is Boundless: Writings of Abigail May Alcott, Louisa's Mother

    Written by Eve LaPlante

    Narrated by Patrick Lawlor and Justine Eyre

    4.5/5

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    About this audiobook

    Little Women's "Marmee" is one of the most recognizable mothers in American literature. But the real woman behind the fiction-Louisa May Alcott's own mother, Abigail-has for more than a century remained shrouded in mystery. Scholars believed that her papers were burned by her daughter and husband, as they claimed, and that little additional information survived.Until now. When Abigail's biographer and great-niece Eve LaPlante found a collection of letters and diaries in an attic trunk and began exploring the Alcott family archives, a window opened onto the life of this woman who has for too long been hiding in plain sight. These discoveries, and others, inform LaPlante's groundbreaking new dual biography, Marmee and Louisa, a companion volume to My Heart Is Boundless. No self-effacing housewife, Abigail was a passionate writer and thinker, a feminist far ahead of her time. She taught her daughters the importance of supporting themselves and dreamed of a day when a woman, like a man, could enjoy both a family and a career.Here at last, in her own words, is this extraordinary woman's story, brought to the public for the first time. Full of wit, charm, and astonishing wisdom, Abigail's private writings offer a moving, intimate portrait of a mother, a wife, a sister, and a fierce intellect that demands to be heard.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTantor Media, Inc
    Release dateNov 6, 2012
    ISBN9781452680477
    Author

    Eve LaPlante

    Eve LaPlante is a great niece and a first cousin of Abigail and Louisa May Alcott. She is the author of Seized, American Jezebel, and Salem Witch Judge, which won the 2008 Massachusetts Book Award for Nonfiction. She is also the editor of My Heart Is Boundless the first collection of Abigail May Alcott’s private papers. She lives with her family in New England.

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    Reviews for My Heart Is Boundless

    4.5/5

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    • 4/5
      What a way to start out 2013 - wrapping up my reading of these lovely bits of notes, letters, and historical tidbits by and about Abigail May Alcott. My Heart is Boundless is a nice, tidy, organized book that chronologically (mostly) follows Abigail's life through her own writing and reflection. I've been a fan of Louisa May Alcott's Little Women since I was a young girl. I was the oldest of four girls (for a time, before three brothers and two more sisters came along) and related well to Meg - the oldest of Louisa's quartet. I admired her quiet dignity, her willingness to accept what happened, and understood how she managed being surrounded by the sisters she was surrounded by. So it was a bit of a delight for me to learn that Louisa's mother, Abigail, also had quite a few sisters and brothers and I hungrily dug in to her writings.I identified strongly with Louisa's desire for knowledge and information - but not only that, her desire to keep her family close. There was quite a bit of tragedy that struck the May family and Abigail appeared to be the bedrock through it all. These writings are a perfect example of how a woman of her time need not be shut away, but rather could find happiness and fulfillment in ways other than motherhood.My only issue with this collection is how choppy it can be. It's mostly chronological, but I needed to finish it and would have rather spent time reading portions and then moving on to other books. It does not make for a comfortable, "unputdownable" book - but rather is perhaps intended to be a book to be read in short bites. The other small issue I had was with the numerous footnotes - every name seemed to be identified by the author every single time it cropped up (which was nice at first, but after a while I began to feel like I was being treated like I was stupid for "not getting it" when I was). Still, easily enough avoided if you are someone who can resist the temptation of those footnotes.I recommend this for fans of Louisa May Alcott. I think you will find much of Marmee hiding in this book, waiting to be awakened.