Reread 2022

3.6/5 stars. Yes Louisa made me cry but maybe (just maybe) crying alone shouldn’t be the only benchmark for how much I love a book. With an older mind and a closer eye this book actually detracts many of its feminist statements it sets up in the beginning, so thanks for nothing, Louisa. We get some good romance though.

Justice for C.C.C.

Plot: 3/5
Characters: 4/5
Pacing: 4/5
Writing: 3/5
Enjoyment: 4/5

__________

4/5 stars

The ridiculously slow pace at which I read this book might seem like evidence to the contrary, but I enjoyed this book so much more than the first! Eight Cousins was cute, it was very sweet and I think it gave a very necessary introduction to the personalities and relationships between the characters of this story, but in retrospect that entire book just feels like a setup for this story to be told.

I think much of what I said in my review for Eight Cousins holds true for this book as well. Rose continued to be a sweet and ambitious heroine as she aged- can I interject to mention that this book takes place MUCH later than I thought from the first, not just a few years but practically a decade!- and I loved her all the more for it. It's easy for some growing young women to be written off as shallow and unintelligent, and I have a great respect for Louisa May Alcott thanks to her handling of characters such as these (particularly considering the time period she was writing in). Just one of the many examples, this one only 10 pages into the book: "...I believe that it is as much a right and a duty for women to do something with their lives as for men, and we are not going to be satisfied with such frivolous parts as you give us." cried Rose, with kindling eyes. "I mean what I say, and you cannot laugh me down... We've got minds and souls as well as hearts; ambition and talents as well as beauty and accomplishments; and we want to live and learn as well as love and be loved. I'm sick of being told that is all a woman is fit for! I won't have anything to do with love till I prove that I am something besides a housekeeper and baby-tender!" Let 'em have it, Rose!

It was so delightful seeing all of her cousins grown up as well. I think Alcott did a beautiful job of staying true to the personalities she assigned them as children while appropriately maturing them (well, some boys more than others). Archie, Charlie, and Mac really pull on my heartstrings, and I love them even more as men than I did as boys. (Insert obligatory mention of how losing Charlie literally ripped my heart out because it was so shocking and damn Rose I know you didn't really want to marry the guy but could you still be a little more torn up about it?? Like let's just ruminate on this quote about the bracelet he gave her: "...she took out the blue bracelet, feeling that she owed Charlie a tender through in the midst of her new happiness, for of late she had forgotten him. She had worn the trinket hidden under her black sleeve for a long time after his death, with the regretful constancy one sometimes shows in doing some little kindness too late. But her arm had grown too round to hide the ornament, the forget-me-nots had fallen one by one, the clasp had broken, and that autumn she laid the bracelet away, acknowledging that she had outgrown the souvenir as well as the sentiment that gave it." I mean I get it but that made me cry the first time I read it and I'm honestly about to cry again. None of this is meant to take away from Mac, who I still hold dear and think is much more suited for Rose<3) What was a delightful surprise, however, was how relevant Steve became in this sequel! I not only knew who he was this time around (see my Eight Cousins review) but found myself growing rather fond of him. All those Campbell boys are just so lovable in their own ways, honestly. That goes for Uncle Alec and Uncle Mac too!

Maybe I'm just a romantic, but I think a huge part of my enjoyment increasing is the matured ages of the characters, hence romance plotlines. I love courting and hidden feelings and disapproving elders and semi-love triangles... I just ate it all up! But the good news is that for people who are less interested in those bits, we still get a lot of the kinds of scenes from the first book. Lovely moments in Rose and Phebe's friendship, Rose doing her best to be good and charitable and make Uncle proud, the boys being foolish... it's all still there. I love the messages of self-improvement and selflessness that are always given by Rose and, in this book, often reflected in the boys.

Alright I suppose I'm starting to ramble at this point, so I'll just leave it at this. Rose in Bloom is equally charming as Eight Cousins, but with higher stakes- and for that reason I really loved it.

Another wonderful Alcott book. This one is just a delight.

هر چند از همون مقدمه هم به نظر میاد تمایل چندانی به نوشتن ادامه برای کتاب قبلی نداشته و "there is no moral to this story " ولی باز هم همون شیوه نگارش که [گاهی تا حد تقلید] الهام بخش خیلیا بوده و افکار مترقیش [بیشتر در اوایل کتاب] خواننده رو تحت تاثیر قرار میدن، افکار فردی از حدود 150 سال قبل که حداقل از تک تک کسانی که در مملکت ما کاره ای هستن قرنها جلوتره.

To chyba najlepsza książka Alcott.
Towarzyszyło mi dużo emocji i przeżywałam praktycznie, każde mniejsza lub większe wydarzenie. Często się denerwowałam, ale jak się pod koniec okazało zupełnie nie potrzebnie! „Róża w rozkwicie” jest prawdziwą różyczką na mojej półce, koniecznie sięgnijcie.
A co do Rose, jest w tej części zupełnie inna niż w „Ośmioro kuzynów”.

For many years (until I read Jane Eyre the second time), this was my absolute favorite book. It is perhaps the reason I love 'nerds.' While many women grew up loving Mr. Darcy, I grew up loving Mac. He was my ideal love interest. He suffered long and noblely for love of Rose and I admired that with all of my little heart. I dreamed of being Rose. Of course, I would have accepted him at once instead of stringing him along so. ;) Regardless, after over fifteen readings (wearing out my old copy so that I had to by a new one) I still find myself liking the lovable Mac, laughing uproariously at him learning to dance. This is a delightful book and well worth the read, even if you don't fall in love with Mac. ;)

I've fallen into an Alcott rabbit hole this month, and I don't see an end in sight... Thoroughly enjoyed this sequel to Eight Cousins. <3

Este livro é a continuação de Oito Primos. Agora temos a nossa protagonista Rosa já crescida e senhora do seu nariz, ou quase, pois ainda há a carrada de tias que gostam de dar palpites e claro, os bons conselhos do tio Alec.

Os primos também cresceram e chegaram à idade de assumir responsabilidades e constituir família. Quase todos encaram o facto com naturalidade, à excepção de Archie, que prefere continuar a divertir-se com os amigos. A quem tem amor e a quem ainda ouve é à sua prima Rosa, no entanto esta não está certa de o amar e o comportamento dele contribui para essa hesitação, até que à conta da sua estroinice o pior acontece a Archie, que nessa altura, e tarde demais se redime.

Nesta altura outro primo, Mac, que vivia mais na sombra porque gostava mais de ler e trabalhar do que de bailes e festas começa a desabrochar e a mostrar-se um verdadeiro cavalheiro e como num bom romance, confessa o seu amor por Rosa. Esta por ainda ter Archie presente e nunca ter pensado em Mac de tal forma hesita. Mas nada que um longe da vista, longe do coração não resolva, neste caso de forma favorável a Mac.

Não sei se este romance é adaptado da obra ou está reproduzido integralmente, na edição nada o diz, mas pareceu-me muito apressado e com pouco desenvolvimento das personagens. Ou talvez eu já tenha lido demasiados romances de época para intuir o que vai acontecer aos protagonistas. :D Gostei bastante do Mac e tenho pena de não ter sido mais desenvolvido.

No entanto não foi uma má leitura porque estes romances em que o galã não é óbvio logo ao início sempre me falam ao coração :)

Ciepła, zabawna, pouczająca. Nie jestem zadowolona z pewnych wątków, ale ogólnie fauła bardzo mi się podobała. Polecam.

Rose, of a wealthy New England family, is returning from some "finishing" years in Europe. Now she has to deal with the complications of being an heiress. She is expected to participate in fashionable society, marry a man to manage her fortune, and NOT follow the profession she has chosen, which is philanthropy. Rose was raised to be lamentably "strong-minded," the old term for an independent woman. How is she to find love, when the people in her class are raised to be fortune hunters? She wants to prove herself, and then to be loved for herself.

Rose's life is an account of a charming family, a young woman's quest to be a good person, and ultimately the kind of love she wants. I couldn't guess how many times I read this in my girlhood. In the last few years I have listened to it twice.

Storytelling at its best

Alcott never ceases to impress me with her beautiful and well written stories. Although, Little Women will always be my favorite, Rose In Bloom is a treasured tale as well.

It wasn't the worst book, but to me was far less enjoyable than Little Women, which is probably what brings most readers to LMA's other books. Rose, the heroine, was less realistic and multidimensional than she was in Eight Cousins, the predecessor to this book. LMA must have realized how sickeningly perfect her portrayal of Rose is, since she goes out of her way in the preface to point out that Rose isn't supposed to be an example of a "model" woman, despite the fact that she very much comes off that way in the story. Rose in Eight Cousins was loving, kind, and eager to learn, but also shy, vain, and a little smug or snobby at times. She has a mixture of positive and negative traits like everyone does. Rose in Rose in Bloom is *allegedly* not perfect, but we only know that because LMA takes pains to point it out to us and creates tortured scenarios to display Rose overcoming her "vices" and "failings" (e.g., the scene in the dress shop, which is a far more contrived and moralistic version of the scene in Little Women where Beth encounters Mr. Laurence in the fish market). Otherwise, she seems basically perfect -- rich, beautiful, self-sacrificing and noble, benevolent, charitable...you name the Victorian virtue and Rose possesses it.

Over the course of the story, twenty-year-old Rose, under the influence of her puritanical uncle Alec, overcomes such horrible temptations as French novels, pretty dresses, glasses of Champagne, and society balls, and instead comes to guilt herself into thinking she prefers staying at home every night with her old aunt reading the "improving" books which her uncle has pre-screened for her and deemed suitable. I found this portrayal to be problematic in many ways. First of all, Rose clearly enjoys having fun with her girlfriends and buying a new outfit every now and then, and I find it hard to see the problem in that, as long as she doesn't overdo it. (I don't think this viewpoint necessarily arises from the fact that I'm a modern reader whereas the book was written in the Victorian era -- Rose's contemporaries also seem to find her a little strange for not allowing herself to have any fun.) It's depressing that her uncle seemingly has such a low opinion of her self-control that he instills a strong sense of guilt in her for wanting and enjoying the same things as most women of her age and social class. Second, I found the emphasis on feminine innocence disconcerting and in conflict with some of LMA's more feminist leanings. She wants her heroines to be independent and self-sufficient, but also so innocent and sheltered that they can't read a mildly racy French novel without being corrupted. I lost track of how many times she used the word "innocent" to describe Rose or likened her to some sort of flower (or "innocent bloom," as LMA would have put it). Further to this point, Uncle Alec's infantilization of Rose was a huge issue for me. He professes to be all for women's rights, especially in the first book, but he still wants to control every thought in Rose's head and make sure they are in sync with his own, and emotionally manipulates her to get the results he wants. (Her incredible level of guilt over things like wanting to have a social life beyond her cousins or wanting to dress up in fashionable outfits was painful to read.)

[Spoilers below....details on some of the relationships and Charlie's story arc.]

I found the strong point of the story to be the romantic relationships, as Rose's struggles in this regard are portrayed naturally and well. The pressure Rose feels from her loving but overbearing family to "fix" and then marry Charlie, the ambivalence she herself feels toward him, and the sadness mingled with freedom she feels when he dies are what made her character sympathetic and relatable in some way. She wants to do the best she can by someone she truly cares about, but is unsure how to reconcile his happiness and emotional needs with her own. As a result of what happened with Charlie, her relationship with Mac progressed a little more slowly than I, as a reader, would have liked (lots of skimming there), but it wasn't hard to understand why she would be wary of throwing herself into another relationship. I was also glad for Rose that her relationship with Mac, who embodies many of Uncle Alec's good traits without the controlling and manipulative aspects, replaced her relationship with Uncle Alec as the central one in her life. However, between the cousin-marriages, the excessive moralizing, the mostly one-dimensional characters, and the lip service to feminism while keeping the main character emotionally dependent on and dominated by a man, I just couldn't get behind this book.

beautiful writing but the incest was not it