| Notes |
['The article in the magazine Keskisuomalainen 20.12.1918 says (about the new editions of the books published together?): "In all these books the American female writer is precise and has fine intuition when she describes the psyche and mental construction of children, and she interprets her perceptions in a fitting way. She does that all with such a warmth and empathy towards the ones described, that the reader gets warm and lives with the characters and events. \'Pikku miehiä (Little men)\' tells about the free, joyful, natural life and healthy mental and physical development of the ten years old inmates of the American magnet school and boarding school. The leaders of the institute find tactful out the character and tendencies of each inmate. Friends, nature, favourite hobbies, work and play, as well as fondness to the lovely leaders of the place and small life experiences are the ways that aim to polish and constitute the characters of the young inmates. It\'s a slow process, but the treatments and the preciseness of the loving educators get the target and the hobits, talents and tendencies, virtues and faults of the children are revealed for reader as real and convincing. The female writer wants to underline the significance of individual education beside our normal mass education, where the individual and his/her features get buried to the mass and shaping the character to a whole personality and finding the suitable ways of life is impossible. Eight cousins tells about 13 years old Rosa, who comes from a wealthy home. She is taken care by pitying and nurturing, conservative aunts, who almost spoil and medicate her to ruins. After getting to uncle Alec\'s natural care and education she starts to develop like a healthy sweet child and starts to like and enjoy everything that is good for her health and growing. Unnoticed she becomes the most lovable person in her family, and everyone, her 7 boy cousins, old and middle aged uncles and aunts want to be her favorites. Her virtues and faults, her wish to be freed from the faults, especially the vanity so common for girls, and become self-sacrifacing and lovable is described lively and with warmth. The boys with their wild plays, wanting so hard to be men and a fine gentlemen, despising girls, then cigarets, still at the bottom the strong longing for purity and empathy, are living reality. ’Pikku naisia (little women’) tells about four girls, that live poorly when their dad is in the war. They are trying their best under the guidance of the sweet mother to learn to decline with joy. The writer leads them to different small situations and pictures their charaters clearly and awakens empathy, still honestly revealing their weeknesses and how they compensate each other. Alcott’s books are the favourite books of young, especially young girls. The lively, exciting presentation and the pithy way of telling and before all the empathy towards the psyche of the young and the love towards them draw the reader. Even for the elder, that still rememeber the golden memoeries of youth, there is a lot of nice things. And especially for the educators they open new sides from the psyche of the young. The behaviour of the characters, especially boys, might seem too noisy, wild and extreme to be true, but then one have to remember that the persons are Americans, and now there is a chance to get to know their life and habits." JWaug16 ']
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