Although he discourages her from the professional study of medicine, he educates her in physiology, a subject her aunts consider inappropriate for girls, so she can understand and take charge of her own health. For example, in choosing Rose's wardrobe, Uncle Alec rejects current women's fashions (such as corsets, high heels, veils, and bustles) in favor of less restrictive, healthier clothing. Alcott uses the novel to promote education theories and feminist ideas, many of which appear in her other books.

Various chapters illustrate the evils of cigar-smoking, ' yellow-back' novels, high fashion, billiards, and patent nostrums, while promoting exercise, a healthy diet, and wholesome experiences of many kinds for girls as well as boys. Like all of Alcott's books for young people, the story takes a high moral tone. At the same time, she is suddenly confronted with a male guardian and seven male cousins, none of whom she knows well, after losing her beloved father, the only man in her life. Motherless for most of her life, 13-year-old Rose looks to her many aunts, her friends, and the housemaid Phebe as feminine role models.

Rose must define for herself her role as the only woman of her generation in her family and as an heiress in Boston's elite society.

She also makes friends with Phebe, her aunts' young housemaid, whose cheerful attitude in the face of poverty helps Rose to understand and value her own good fortune.Įach chapter describes an adventure in Rose's life as she learns to help herself and others make good choices. Through his unorthodox theories about child-rearing, she becomes happier and healthier while finding her place in her family of seven boy cousins and numerous aunts and uncles. When Rose's guardian, Uncle Alec, returns from abroad, he takes over her care. It is the story of Rose Campbell, a lonely and sickly girl who has been recently orphaned and must now reside with her maiden great aunts (yet having a guardian), who are the matriarchs of her wealthy Boston family. Rose and her Aunts, frontispiece illustration to the first edition, Roberts Bros, Boston, 1875Įight Cousins, or The Aunt-Hill was published in 1875 by American novelist Louisa May Alcott.

Eight cousins by louisa may alcott