Smith Club of San Francisco
and Marin

What would you say to a Book Club Event led by one of your former Smith College Professors? It's happening! The Smith College Alumnae Association is making this possible by flying out the professor of our choosing. Our membership recently selected professor Skarda. Please join us for this unique event on Sunday, October 7th at 2 pm at a centrally located alum's home in San Francisco. Please let us know if you would like to attend.

Patricia Skarda, Professor of English Language and Literature will be discussing:
Little Women by Louisa May Alcott, March by Geraldine Brooks, and The Little Women by Katharine Weber.

Join us for a talk and discussion with one of our favorite Smith Professors, Patricia Skarda. The content of the talk and the selections are described by Professor Skarda below.

Louisa May Alcott's Little Women (1868-69) has spawned a modern retelling by Katharine Weber called The Little Women (2003) and a completing Pulitzer-Prize-winning narrative, March by Geraldine Brooks (2005), that provides us with the Civil War experiences of Mr. March, father of Meg, Jo, Beth, Amy and husband to Marmee. These three novels, taken together, recall the delights of our youthful reading of Alcott's famous conduct book while they push us to see that the context in time and history of any fiction characterizes and determines the force of the narrative. Weber resets her novel in New York and New Haven, where Meg is a junior at Yale and where Jo and Amy come to live; the story, written by Jo, includes comments by both Meg and Amy that transform the fiction into a metafiction, self-consciously analyzing the text as the story weaves its way through a year in the life of very modern girls. Brooks builds on the historical setting of the Civil War, backtracking through the courtship and early married life of Marmee and Mr. March, the memorable parents of Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy, safe at home in Concord while the ravages of the Civil War take their toll on everyone down South. The intertextuality of these three stories weave a web of intrigue and resonance that will stay with us as long as has their progenitor, Little Women, still worth reading and rereading. Which of these three novels you prefer and why will challenge you to determine what makes a novel last.

Date: Sunday, October 7, 2007

Time: 2:00 p.m.

Location: A private home in San Francisco

Fees: SFM Smith Club members are free; non-members are $10

Contact: Linda Woo '91 at lindawoo@smith.alumnae.net

Wine and Cheese Served