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The family is central to each of Louisa May Alcott's novels, and Eight Cousins or, The Aunt Hill (1875) is no exception. However, this relatively obscure novel -- it has received almost no critical attention other than minor references and reviews in critical works that focus on Alcott's other writings -- is somewhat unusual. Though a children's novel, it clearly targets adults by discussing the politics of family structures or, more specifically, of mothering. In Eight Cousins, Alcott critiques and evaluates certain conventions, particularly those conventions concerning mothers and their roles in the domestic sphere. Curiously, the ideal mother in the novel, the one whose childrearing techniques are most successful, the one who teaches other women how to be ideal mothers, is a man. One might assume that Alcott's use of a male mother is an anti-feminist, even misogynistic blunder on the part of Alcott, who is otherwise known for her support of feminist causes,(1) since it could imply that this is yet another thing women must learn from men. But this assumption would reduce Alcott's novel to something less than it actually is. On the contrary, the creation of a male mother is a subversive technique whereby Alcott accomplishes several things: since the male mother is a physician, Alcott uses the character to contradict the medical discourse of the 1870s that presumed female physiological inferiority; she blurs traditional gender roles within the family on a fundamental level; and by virtue of the fact that the male mother is a biological uncle to the child he raises, Alcott slightly displaces the supremacy of biological parents and creates a space for uncles and aunts as parent figures, adults who actively participate in the raising of children.
The Question of Audience
An extensive examination of mothering discourses is something not usually found in a novel for children. Alcott's preface to Eight Cousins or, The Aunt Hill clearly indicates that the novel is written for children, that it "was intended to amuse the young folks, rather than suggest educational improvements for the consideration of the elders." Further, Alcott, in her own handwriting, dedicates the work "To The [sic] many boys & girls whose letters it has been impossible to answer...." And the central action of the novel, like...