Literature presents many different ways of observing the new year. Much like real life, the options range from big parties to quiet stay-at-home gatherings… and existential crises.
In Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women, Meg and Jo March attend a New Year’s Eve party at the home of their family friend Mrs Gardiner. ‘Down they went, feeling a trifle timid, for they seldom went to parties, and informal as this little gathering was, it was an event to them.’ This is the moment that Jo converses with Laurie for the first time and sparks fly as they watch the New Year’s Eve party from their shared point of refuge in a small curtained recess. They mock the dancing that takes place in the next room and they laugh together for the rest of the evening (activity that surely appeals to most non-dancers).
Charles Dickens issues a warning in his novella The Chimes. Toby Veck is a ticket porter, on his feet in ‘leaky shoes’ all day.
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