Product Description

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and Richard and Judy pick. From the author of the acclaimed 'Year of Wonders' and 'People of the Book', a historical novel and love story set during a time of catastrophe on the front lines of the American Civil War. Set during the American Civil War, 'March' tells the story of John March, known to us as the father away from his family of girls in 'Little Women', Louisa May Alcott's classic American novel. In Brooks's telling, March emerges as an abolitionist and idealistic chaplain on the front lines of a war that tests his faith in himself and in the Union cause when he learns that his side, too, is capable of barbarism and racism. As he recovers from a near-fatal illness in a Washington hospital, he must reassemble the shards of his shattered mind and body, and find a way to reconnect with a wife and daughters who have no idea of the ordeals he has been through. As Alcott drew on her real-life sisters in shaping the characters of her little women, so Brooks turned to the journals and letters of Bronson Alcott, Louisa May's father, an idealistic educator, animal rights exponent and abolitionist who was a friend and confidante of Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau. The story spans the vibrant intellectual world of Concord and the sensuous antebellum South, through to the first year of the Civil War as the North reels under a series of unexpected defeats. Like her bestselling 'Year of Wonders', 'March' follows an unconventional love story. It explores the passions between a man and a woman, the tenderness of parent and child, and the life-changing power of an ardently held belief.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #32242 in Books
• Published on: 2006-01-16
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 304 pages

Review
'Clarity of vision, fine, meticulous prose, the unexpected historical detail, a life-sized protagonist caught inside an unimaginably huge event. It shows the same seamless marriage of research and imagination.' Washington Post 'Brooks's considerable historical research for "March" is pleasingly lightly worn. Her efforts have borne a rich fruit. It is a big, generous romp that manages to make clever use of "Little Women" without suffocating beneath it.' Sunday Times 'A tightly controlled novel in which, you sense, every sentence has been carefully weighed and calculated, and Brooks successfully balances narrative leanness with luxuriant language. "March" is that rare species: a serious popular novel that is not afraid to grapple with big ideas.' Waterstones Books Quarterly 'Researched with great historical thoroughness, "March" hews faithfully to the spirit of Alcott's original ! Louise May Alcott would be well pleased.' The Economist 'This fascinating, beautifully written book both illuminates Alcott's classic and is a moving, gripping work of fiction in its own right.' Image

Sophie Harrison, Sunday Times
'Brooks’s considerable historical research for March is pleasingly lightly worn...make[s] clever use of Little Women without suffocating beneath it.'

Economist
'Researched with great historical thoroughness, March hews faithfully to the spirit of Alcott’s original...Louise May Alcott would be well pleased.’

Customer Reviews

Loved it
It has been years since I read Little Women, but more recently I have visited Louisa May's home town of Concord. I picked this novel with scepticism as "sequels" or spinoffs rarely live up to the original piece.

I was totally absorbed by the book. Frequently I found myself unable to decide whether this was fiction or fact. The writing is excellent, the characters well drawn, and the novel written in first person (mostly from the view of March, occasionally with the voice of Marmee) which made it all the more immediate. I will be recommending this novel all over the place and buying more of Brooke's work.

As the review says, this is the tale of the father of the Little Women, and flicks between his present position as chaplain in the American Civil War and his past when he first visited the southern states as a pedlar in his youth. He is a staunch abolitionist with fixed views, but the book challenges these views in terms of his idealism versus practicalities of the age, and also explores where personal courage lies. But over and above these lofty ideals, this book is vividly written and a wonderful reading experience - which is what great fiction should be. A novel worthy of being placed alongside Little Women.

ps. Please don't be put off by the 'recommended by Richard and Judy' epithet!

Couldn't put it down!
What a great story! 'March' is really well-written and researched and fills a neat gap in US Civil War literature.

'March' is the story of the girls' father in Louisa May Alcott's 'Little Women'. In 'Little Women' the girls' father is absent throughout the novel as he is away at war, and Geraldine Brooks has picked up on this thread and woven a wonderfully inspirational novel around the story of Mr. March. Through it she tests out the theme of the morality of war which works ok with the causes of the US Civil War, and re-integration into a normal existence after war - another sensitive subject.

March is an abolitionist and goes to serve for the Union cause as an army chaplain. He joins up in a moment of town fervour, only to find that he cannot join with his fellow townspeople and is left to find his way amongst strangers from another regiment. The writing - predominantly from March's point of view - varies between letters home to Marmee and recollections of earlier times, and stories he wouldn't consider writing about to Marmee and the girls.

It's very sympathetically written and you can't help but be affected by March's journey through the landscape of war. The book doesn't impinge on 'Little Women' until right at the very end when March returns home, so there's no overlap with the all-time classic by Louisa May Alcott, and it complements 'Little Women' really well. Can't recommend it enough!

A RICHLY CONCEIVED STORY SUPERBLY READ
How many of us have read, often reread "Little Women" and wondered about the father? Amy, Beth and Jo are very much a part of our literary lives, but Pere March is missing. Now, thanks to the imaginative pen of Geraldine Brooks (Year of Wonders, 2001) we meet and come to know the man.

His story is primarily told through letters that he writes to his family, pens from the devastation of the Civil War. Stage and film actor Richard Easton inhabits the voice of this caring chaplain to tell listeners what March shares with his family and the horrors that he does not.

Captain March has gone to serve the Union forces, bolstered by his faith and high ideals. He's ill prepared to find himself amidst carnage and cruelty. He is assigned to teach on a plantation where he meets once again a beautiful slave whom he had known before his marriage.

The author vividly imagines early friendships between March and Emerson and Thoreau, as well as his first introduction to the woman who would become his wife. She will recall their early life a bit differently.

Those who enjoy history blended with richly conceived fiction will be well pleased with "March."

- Gail Cooke