Comic Tragedies

Comic Tragedies offers a rare and revealing glimpse into the theatrical imagination behind Little Women, gathering youthful plays written by Louisa May Alcott and her sister Anna Bronson Alcott Pratt. Presented under the playful names "Jo" and "Meg," and originally described as having been acted by the "Little Women," these dramatic pieces belong to the family world that later fed Alcott's most famous fiction: parlour theatricals, heightened emotion, disguise, melodrama, sisterly collaboration, and the intense imaginative life of the Alcott household.The collection includes romantic, historical, and melodramatic pieces such as "Norna; or, The Witch's Curse," "The Captive of Castile; or, The Moorish Maiden's Vow," "The Greek Slave," "Ion," "Bianca: An Operatic Tragedy," and "The Unloved Wife; or, Woman's Faith." First published in book form in 1893 by Roberts Brothers, Comic Tragedies is especially valuable for readers interested in Alcott beyond Little Women: her early drama, her family circle, her theatrical instincts, and the way youthful playacting helped shape one of the most enduring bodies of nineteenth-century American fiction. This SMK edition is a strong companion volume to Alcott's fiction, juvenile works, and family-centred classics. It will appeal to readers of Louisa May Alcott, Little Women, nineteenth-century American women writers, literary juvenilia, classic family literature, and historical drama with a distinctly Alcottian blend of earnest feeling, humour, performance, and sisterly invention.