Hey
everyone! Today I have a review of Civil
War Hospital Sketches by Louisa May Alcott. You may be familiar with her
work; she’s most known for Little Women,
Little Men, and Jo’s Boys. To
give you an idea of how this fits chronologically into her work, she was a
nurse in the Civil War for six weeks in 1862-63, got sick, went home and wrote Little Women, which was published in
1868.
Civil War Hospital Sketches tells the story of Tribulation Periwinkle
and her experiences being a Civil War nurse. While her experiences resemble
that of Alcott’s, it’s important to remember they are not the same because it
can get really confusing between the two. It is through Tribulation writing
about her war experiences, a lot along the lines on how she would write letters
back to her family. There`s also a postscript at the end, which neatly sums up
her narrative.
In
many ways, this book is exactly what it sounds like: short chapters about life
in the Civil War. She writes about getting a train ticket, her travel to the
front, and her experiences there. Not to give too much away, I found the ways
in which her war experiences changed her particularly interesting. Nursing was
a very different profession from how it is now, and these women and men went
into this with essentially no training.
Another
interesting idea this book slightly deals with is early feminism. Alcott begins
with Tribulation saying, “I want something to do.” After being offered what was
considered proper for a single woman to do (Write, teach, marry), her brother
mentions nursing soldiers. Rather than being spurred by patriotism or a desire
to keep the Union together, she is instead looking for some sort of life
experience. This contrasts nicely with a character we meet later, who has
joined the war effort because he believes in what he is fighting for.
This
book flounders a little at the end. We have this pivotal moment then it just
tapers off. The entire falling action is packed into one chapter. The first
half is very heavy in war experience with the second half being very lack
luster.
I’d
definitely recommend this for fans of Alcott, especially if you want to explore
beyond Little Women, Little Men, etc.
Her writing style is still prevalent. I would also recommend this for people
who are interested in war experiences in particular women’s war experiences. This
was the main draw for me. For the class it was a good text to begin the class
with, as it gave us some information on the American Civil War, which is the
focus of the class.
Have you read this book? What did you
think? Let me know in the comments.
