A couple of months ago, I read about Thoreau’s two-year isolation from society as he ventured to the woods of Ralph Waldo Emerson, where he built himself a cabin beside Walden Pond in Concord, Massachusetts. Commonly discussed in it is the concept of transcendentalism, a movement prominent during the American Civil War which encourages man to be self-reliant while at the same time, to be spiritually conscious and connected to nature amid modern changes.

From there, I remember the 1994 Little Women adaptation wherein Winona Ryder’s Jo March strikes a conversation with Professor Bhaer and states that her parents were part of “a rather unusual circle in Concord.” Bridging fiction to reality, Louisa May Alcott’s father was a transcendentalist.

And this little fairy book, which Louisa May Alcott lovingly called as her firstborn, connected the dots for me among the three authors. Thoreau led young Louisa May Alcott to the world of Fairyland as she and her family visited him in Walden during his isolation. And from that glimpse of inspiration, she weaved stories of floras and faunas, of fairies and flowers, of good triumphing over evil. Most tales were a bit preachy, and sometimes boring and repetitive, but nothing that would disappoint industrious children like the March sisters. And so upon publication and once Louisa May Alcott gifted her Flower Fables to Emerson’s daughter, you can expect that Miss Ellen Emerson enjoyed every bit of whimsy and magic in it.

J'ai lu ce recueil de contes dans le cadre du Parcours victorien (et aussi parce que je l'avais acheté pendant ma visite de la maison de Louisa May Alcott à Concord).
Comme en parallèle, j'ai lu le deuxième tome d'ACOTAR, je me dis que ça a probablement rendu ma lecture des Flower Fables un peu pâle en comparaison.
MAIS replacé dans son contexte historique, ce recueil a été écrit par une adolescente de seize ans au XIXè siècle. Il y a des histoires de fées qui aident les humains ou de fées qui s'entraident. Il y a aussi tout un monde invisible à nos yeux de mortels où les fées sont responsables du réveil des fleurs au printemps, de souffler le vent qui transportera les graines, de soigner les insectes et les oiseaux et de faire pousser le corail.
Bref, c'est poétique, très mignon et pas du tout négatif. Tout le monde est plein de bonnes intentions et c'est très doux et très chou.
Je conseille cette lecture aux enfants parce que même si on y parle d'être gentil et patient (et qu'il n'y a que des petites filles dans ce rôle actif, qui s'explique par le fait que Louisa n'avait que des sœurs), il n'y a aucune mention de religion chrétienne puisque les petit.e.s dieux et déesses ici, ce sont les fées de ces contes!
C'était un joli moment de magie et je ne le regrette pas!

reading this felt like being transported into your childhood daydreams and coming out of them inspired by touching moral lessons and feeling fully at peace and content. but alas, one can only dream and dream and dream

While I'm sure this is a delight for children, especially the religious children of civil-war era America, I found this children's book saccharine and strangely uninspiring. Even the darker moments (if you can really call them that) of these fables come off as anti-climactic and shallow, and I feel that the moral lessons of each tale have had their impact lessened because of a sort of forced censorship. It seemed like any consequences the protagonists of each tale suffered for not heeding the moral lesson being taught them was rather harmless, as it was assured that nothing (not even death) could be final. Just as long as they worked hard, they could even resurrect the dead, which again felt rather trite to me. Not to sound harsh, but I feel that giving children the idea that you can bring back someone who's died just by wishing for it hard enough a little false. Even though it'd be a lot harder to include a tale like this in a set of fables, I would've rathered that in some instances they taught the audience of the story that in some cases, you will not be able to get what you want, even when you work long and hard. Or perhaps discuss how change will come to everyone and that it is better to accept change and learn to adapt than to endlessly toil and wish for things to go back to the way they were. I feel I might be asking too much of a set of fables that are meant to teach good values to children. Oh well. At least it was a quick enough read once I realized each of the fables was nearly the same in its essentials. Work hard and be kind and patient.

I wonder if this was an early work of Alcott's because even Little Women had more of a balance between its sentimentality and realism. I prefer Alcott's gothic stories, and shall stick to those and the sequel (sequels? Can't remember) to Little Women.

A little heavy too on the morals for me and the writing was a bit overwrought.