Thematic Battle: Understood Betsy vs Eight Cousins

Understood Betsy, Dorothy Canfield Fisher, illus Kimberly Bulken Root.
ISBN: 0805060731
Read October 9, 2013

Eight Cousins, Louisa May Alcott, illus Ruth Ives.

ISBN: Nelson-Doubleday Hardcover 1958 (MCMLVIII).

Re-read October 9, 2013

I never thought I'd say this, but I actually like Fisher's book better than Alcott's. Weird.

To be clear, Eight Cousins is a long-time favorite, and I've read it at least 5 times, maybe as many as 10 times over.  (I don't like Rose in Bloom, the sequel, as well as I do Eight Cousins, but that's another post.)

In contrast, this is the first time I have read Understood Betsy.  

I really like it.  I don't know if it's the deft touch with the moralizing, or the very carefully developed tongue-firmly-in-cheek descriptions of the "delicate" little child creating more trauma to satisfy the delicate aunt's fearmongering, or the only somewhat obviously shoehorned-in Montessori principles, but it really is a very clever, very well-written, very straightforward read.  

Sadly, the more I read Alcott, the more it starts to feel Elsie Dinsmore-ish, or (horrors) Uncle Arthur's Bedtime Stories-ish.  She's just so moralistic, and the preaching tone is starting to grate on me as I get older (and to be perfectly honest, less interested in having God show up in everything just as a matter of course or culture).

So in a total shock to myself as much as anyone else, I found Understood Betsy to be more readable and more modern, where Eight Cousins is more melodramatic and ostentatious.  On the other hand, they both are better than a lot of what's out there.  I would be interested to read them both in sequence (it works well because Betsy is around 8 to 10, and then Rose is a pre-teen) and see how it goes.  I do have to admit that the action is more present and prevalent in Eight Cousins, where Understood Betsy is fairly straightforward and only has a few discrete adventures.

I think for an upcoming post I'll compare and contrast Rose in Bloom (which I read immediately following Eight Cousins, and it grated me something fierce) and Jo's Boys.  Both are roughly the same book, but for some reason, Jo's Boys always struck me as being much more progressive and modern (read less sexist and less preachy) than Rose in Bloom.  I find that interesting.