Impressionable Roses & French Novels
If you ever wonder how much the world has changed, consider
the following scene from Louisa May Alcott’s A Rose in Bloom.
(1876).
Dr. Alec discovers his 20 year-old niece, Rose reading a
French novel and asks her to hand it over.
Rose is wistful at the
interruption “for she had reached the heart of the romance and found it
wonderfully fascinating”.
Dr. Alec admonishes her “Finish it if you choose: only
remember, my girl, that one may read at forty what is unsafe at twenty, and
that we can never be too careful what food we give that precious yet perilous
thing called imagination.”
July marks another birthday for me and I’m amused that I’m
of the age I can “safely” read what is unsafe at twenty. The good doctor even closes the book quickly
“to keep the objectable beings from escaping”.
I can only imagine the dear uncle’s reaction had he
discovered Rose reading Fifty Shades of Gray.
