This page is a stub!
This article is a stub. You can help The Book Lovers Wiki by expanding it.
Jo's Boys is a novel written by Louisa May Alcott. Released in 1886, it is the third and final novel in Alcott's Little Women series and tells of the fates of Jo March's children.
Characters[]
- Emil
- Nat
- Dan
- Professor Bhaer
- Josephine "Jo" March
rest to be added
Publisher's summary[]
This treasured classic by one of America's best-loved writers concludes the adventures and misadventures of the March family first introduced in Little Women and continued in Little Men. Jo's Boys is entertaining, surprising, and an overall joy to listen to.
Set ten years after Little Men, Jo's Boys revisits the one-time members of that "wilderness of boys" that once resided at Plumfield, the New England boarding school still presided over by Jo and her husband, Professor Bhaer. Jo's boys—including sailor Emil, promising musician Nat, and rebellious Dan—are grown up and making their ways in the world with varying degrees of triumph and disaster. Jo herself remains at the center of this tale, holding her boys fast through shipwreck and storm, disappointment ... and even murder.
Summary[]
The book mostly follows the lives of Plumfield boys who were introduced in Little Men, particularly Tommy, Emil, Demi, Nat, Dan, and Jo's sons Rob and Teddy, although the others make frequent appearances as well. The book takes place ten years after Little Men.
Dolly and George are college students dealing with the temptations of snobbery, arrogance, self-indulgence and vanity. Tommy becomes a medical student to impress childhood sweetheart Nan, but after "accidentally" falling in love with and proposing to a sweet girl named Dora, he joins his family business.
Professor Bhaer's nephew Emil is now a sailor, and takes off on his first voyage as second mate and shows his true strength when he is shipwrecked and the captain badly injured. He marries the captain's daughter, a brave English girl named Mary.
Nat begins a musical career in Europe that takes him away from his forbidden love, Daisy Brooke, only to fall in with a frivolous crowd and unintentionally lead a young woman on, whom he then does not marry.
Dan ends up committing the one sin he and Jo always feared he would - murder - although it was in defence of both himself and a younger boy, Blair. The victim had cheated Blair in gambling and become very violent. Dan is sentenced to a year in prison with hard labour and only just gets through. Following his release, he saves mine workers from drowning and is brought back home a hero, when he confides in Mother Bhaer about his sin and the punishment that followed. She also discovers his fancy for her niece, Bess, though is not entirely surprised. Dan tells her of this fancy and that Bess seemed like the bright northern star which guided him. However, knowing that Amy wouldn't approve of the attachment, Jo makes sure that the Laurences are away when Dan leaves again. Sadly, Dan dies protecting the Indians but lies in peace as if Aslauga's Knight had done his duty.
Romance also plays a role in Jo's Boys, as both Franz and Emil find their own wives, and Tommy, Demi, Nat and Daisy are engaged by the end of the book. Ever the independent woman, Nan remains single, dedicated to her medical career.
(add more detail)