Eight Cousins is in fact a treatise on the raising of young girls, written at a time when health was not widely considered a high priority. Milk and oatmeal and bread and exercise, an education in which information is discussed rather than merely memorized, practical skills and comfortable warm clothing and affection are what Rose needs, and she receives all of them plus many adventures shared with her cousins and the housemaid, Phebe.

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Louisa May Alcott The Author

It helps that the whole family is wealthy, for the adventures involve horses, carts, boats and such stuff as the Marches could never have afforded, but what helps even more is Alec's attitude: he wants Rose to be a tomboy before she has to settle down and be ladylike.

Aunt Clara, who wants the young heroine to be a fashion plate and marry a rich man, is a genuinely warm and loving individual, she's just empty-headed and unenlightened! Aunt Jane, who wants Rose sent back to school to be stuffed full of disconnected facts, is gently and covertly mocked for overindulging her own sons in contrast.

Only Aunt Myra, who prophesies ill health and an early grave for the child, is dealt with at all sternly. Alec's "experiment" in which he is to have sole charge of Rose for a year proves his theories correct, for Rose grows healthy, knowledgeable and beautiful, satisfying everyone.