For years, I stopped reading Little Women at Laurie’s proposal, so dissatisfied I felt with how things would turn out – yes, I was one of those readers in that awkward category of having fallen utterly in love with Louisa May Alcott’s heartfelt book, while being extremely unhappy about the fact that Beth died and Laurie didn’t return to win Jo.

I completely stood by Jo’s decision to reject Laurie – he had, after all, frittered away the first three years of college playing pranks and flirting. He was blessed with everything the world could offer, and seemed to value none of it. He had come to propose to Jo with no plan for his future – the only thing he was certain of was that he didn’t want to run his grandfather’s ships. He said he wanted to compose brilliant music - but at this point, he hadn’t even so much as written a single song (while the woman he had proposed to had published a book).

What I didn’t agree with however, were the reasons she actually gave him as to why she rejected him – she said they would quarrel, they were too similar, they were both stubborn with quick tempers and strong wills, and the line that absolutely broke my heart upon reading it, to be uttered by a woman such as Jo March, “You’re a great deal too good for me.” The only thing that made sense to me was her quoting Marmee saying they were not suited for marriage (how could Jo, after all, act against the advice of the mother she held in such high regard?).

Then after being rejected, how could Laurie have given Jo up? (If only he had read Pride and Prejudice, and been chastened by the example of Fitzwilliam Darcy!) He went to Europe to fritter away more of his talent, money and time. He wrote Jo some letters to ask whether she could possibly love him at some point in the future – at the time when Beth was deathly ill, and Jo was on the verge of losing her (how could he have expected anything but a refusal, and to be told she wanted to hear nothing about marriage, as her heart was full of Beth?)

And why did the Laurences not do more to save Beth?

I could have lived with Louisa’s plot choices, had I not then read biographies of her own life. Eva LaPlante’s Marmee & Louisa, a dual biography of Louisa and her mother written by a descendant of the family, moved me in particular. I started to think - I cannot change actual history. But fictional history can be recreated – limited only by the imagination, and the compulsion to write it into being.

And so I found myself starting to write this. It is partly an imagining of the woman Louisa’s sister Elizabeth might have become; partly a tribute to her mother Abigail, who played such a pivotal role in her life – and who, in another time, might have been recognized as the enterprising and compassionate leader that she was. Finally, it is a story of the life Louisa May Alcott herself might have led - the opportunities she might have been given, and the love with which she might have been lavished and so richly deserved.

My sincere gratitude to Louisa May Alcott - for writing Little Women and the irrepressible Jo March into being; for her mother Abigail, who enabled and encouraged her to write; and for her sister Elizabeth, who loved her dearly. And to Andrew – without whose patience, perseverance, and unyielding affection, this would have been unimaginable. You are as much a part of this, as the words on the page.