Résumé
Résumé de Les huit cousins
À qui s’adresse-t-il ?
For readers who love family stories, nineteenth century domestic life and young characters who grow up on the page. Fans of Little Women will enjoy Rose's world of cousins, friendship and family kindness.
De quoi parle ce livre ?
Eight Cousins is a novel for young readers by Louisa May Alcott, published in 1875. Alcott was already known for Little Women, and here she turned to a different kind of girl. Rose Campbell is thirteen, rich, orphaned and pale, and she has just come to live among relatives she barely knows. The book follows her through one year in the Massachusetts home of her family, the Campbell clan.
Alcott wrote it with a purpose that she makes plain in the story. She wanted to ask how a girl should be raised. Should she be kept indoors, dosed with medicine, dressed in tight clothes and taught to be ornamental? Or should she run, work, eat plain food and learn useful things? Rose's guardian is her Uncle Alec, a doctor who has firm views on this, and he decides to try an experiment on her. Around him swirl two fussy great aunts, a houseful of aunts and uncles, and seven boy cousins of every temper.
You get a warm domestic story with plenty of humor, a good deal of quarrelling and making up, and a young heroine who slowly finds her feet. You also get a picture of family life in New England in the 1870s, with its manners, worries and ideas about health. Let us begin where Rose does, on the doorstep of two kind and nervous old ladies.
Dans ce résumé
- 1Rose arrives among her auntsFree
- 2A guardian begins an experiment
- 3Seven cousins fill the house
- 4Fresh air, work and a stronger body
- 5Phebe, a friend from the kitchen
- 6Cousins make mistakes and Rose learns
- 7What the book says about girls
- 8Family, money and growing up
- 9How Alcott tells the story
Point clé 1 sur 9
Rose arrives among her aunts
The story opens with Rose Campbell sitting in a quiet room, sad and alone. Her father has died, and she has been sent to the home of her great aunts, Plenty and Peace. Their house stands on a spot the family calls the Aunt Hill, because so many Campbell relatives live close by. Rose is thirteen, and she has no brothers or sisters.
The two aunts mean well, and their names suit them. Aunt Plenty loves to feed and fuss over people, and Aunt Peace is gentle and easily upset. They see Rose as a delicate flower that might fade at any moment. So they plan to give her remedies, keep her warm and indoors, and watch her every cough.
Rose herself is not sure who she is. She is rich, and she is sad, and she has been raised with few companions. She is also a little proud and a little shy. She expects the aunts to be kind but dull, and she expects the relatives she has never met to look down on her, or to bore her.
Alcott uses this opening to set up the problem of the book. Rose is not truly ill, but she is weak and low in spirit, and everyone around her treats her as breakable. That treatment is part of what keeps her weak. A reader senses that something must change, and that the change will have to come from outside the aunts' parlor.
The outside comes in the shape of a guardian. Rose's father had named her Uncle Alec to look after her, and he is expected soon. The aunts are anxious about what he will do. They remember him as a wild young man who went to sea, and they are not sure he will understand a girl.
That’s 1 of 9 key points.
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Who’s who
- Rose Campbell
- Rose is a thirteen-year-old orphaned heiress who comes to live among her great aunts and seven boy cousins.
- Uncle Alec
- Uncle Alec is Rose's guardian, a doctor whose practical ideas about health challenge the family's protective habits.
- Aunt Plenty
- Aunt Plenty is Rose's affectionate great aunt, who shares a home with her sister and fusses over their niece.
- Aunt Peace
- Aunt Peace is Aunt Plenty's gentle sister and Rose's great aunt, concerned for the girl's comfort and safety.
- Phebe
- Phebe is an orphaned kitchen servant in Aunt Plenty's household whose singing and character draw Rose's friendship.
- Archie
- Archie is Rose's eldest boy cousin, a steady presence among his more impulsive younger relatives.
- Mac
- Mac is Rose's quiet, bespectacled cousin, more interested in books and study than in the other boys' games.
- Charlie
- Charlie is Rose's charming, vain cousin, whose wish to appear grown up concerns his relatives.
About this edition
Every format is free to start, and print and large print are at cost.
- LengthAbout 75,000 words
- Reading timeAbout 5 h
- FormatseBook, large-print eBook, audiobook, 15-minute summary
- LanguagesEnglish and 12 other languages
Questions about Les huit cousins
What is Eight Cousins about?
It tells of Rose Campbell, a thirteen year old orphan who goes to live with her family on the Aunt Hill. Her doctor guardian tries to make her strong, and she makes friends among her cousins.
Who are the eight cousins in Eight Cousins?
The title counts Rose and her seven boy cousins. They include Archie, Mac, Steve, Charlie, Will, Geordie and Jamie, each with a different temper and place in the family.
When was Eight Cousins written?
Louisa May Alcott published it in 1875. It is a work of fiction.
Is there a sequel to Eight Cousins?
Yes. Alcott wrote Rose in Bloom, which continues the story of Rose and her cousins as they grow into young adults. It is usually read after this book.
What is the main message of Eight Cousins?
Alcott argues that girls grow best when they have fresh air, useful work, honest friends and trust. She also shows that family and kindness can heal a lonely child.