The experiences of Alcott's fictional Miss Periwinkle, who works as a nurse in a Washington, DC, hospital during the Civil War are based on her own. I'm about a third of the way in and love Alcott's humor and spirit, which shine through everything Miss Periwinkle faces along the way.
Here's one nugget, when at one point Miss Periwinkle second guesses her decision to volunteer for service (Tom is her brother, who suggested it when she said she wanted something to do):
"I never can do it," thought I. "Tom will hoot at you if you if you don't," whispered the inconvenient little voice that is always goading people to the performance of disagreeable duties, and always appeals to the most effective agent to produce the proper result.
And another after she boards a boat on her travels to DC:
Trying to look as if the greater portion of my life had been passed on board boats, but painfully conscious that I don't know the first thing; so sit bolt upright, and stare about me till I hear one lady say to another--"We must secure our berths at once;" whereupon I dart at one, and, while leisurely taking off my cloak, wait to discover what the second move may be.
And this as she recalls what she thought when she saw pictures of the Capitol growing up:
I was sure that Cinderella went to housekeeping in just such a place, after she married the inflammable Prince; though, even at that early period, I had my doubts as to the wisdom of a match whose foundation was of glass.
I suppose I'm not really saying anything new or unexpected when I say that I would have dearly loved knowing that Louisa May Alcott in person. We'd have done a good deal of laughing together, I'm sure!
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