An integral part of my childhood. Wonderful book.

...Still a little creeped out by that part where Uncle Alec picks her up and talks to her while she's sleeping. But anyway.

Antiquated

Yikes...some of the "lessons" are...not great...

Lily picked up an ancient copy of this at a Little Free Library and it took us nearly 9 months to finish it, reading parts of a chapter before bed. Fortunately, this book is really a collection of serialized stories, so it was easy to pick up again after any amount of time.

Definitely not my favorite LMA. Full of very antiquated ideas, especially of gender roles. But Lily enjoyed it, and the language was very effective at putting her to sleep. 😉

If you've read any Louisa May Alcott, the general ideas and characters will be familiar. The characters are all very high-minded and very concerned with morality, building character, proper behavior, etc. Being written nearly 150 years ago, some of the ideas on health, class and race relations, and gender roles are very antiquated, and can even seem a bit bigoted. But you have to remember the time in which it was written. The way they describe a Chinese man is particularly interesting.

The basic plot follows Rose, a girl of means, who is orphaned and goes to live on the "Aunt-Hill" with her many aunts, her seven boy cousins, and her devoted guardian, Uncle Alec. We see her grow, change and learn over the course of an experimental year, in which Uncle Alec has complete charge over her upbringing, with no interference from the aunts. At the end of the year, they are to decide whether it has been a success, and whether Rose should stay with Uncle Alec, or move in with one of her aunts. Does Rose have a good year? Does she stay with Uncle Alec? I'll never tell - you have to read it.

Though older books can be a bit difficult to read, due to the different language and writing styles of more than a century ago, I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and plan to read the sequel "A Rose in Bloom" as well.

I love Louisa May Alcott! This book was amazing. It reminded me of "The Secret Garden" and "A Little Princess", but it definitely was unique. This book sucked me in, and I finished it in a couple of days. I love all the lessons I learned from "Eight Cousins"... in an entertaining way!!! Rose was so sweet, but she still had her flaws. I loved all the lessons she learned. And I loved the relationship between Rose and Uncle Alec (and all the other characters). I'm so excited to read the sequel :)

Yes it's an old book, and yes you can feel how dated it is, but I donno, I still really enjoyed it, watching how Rose went from a timid pale thing, into a healthy boisterous girl who knew her own mind!
Having 7 male cousins sure does help!

It's a cute read for something a little more, shall we say, historical feeling?