My Owl (Group 4) : My Owl: a Passage from 'An Artists Life Abroad'

May Alcott Nieriker

My Owl (Group 4)

<p style='text-align: justify;'> This short story, written by May Alcott Nieriker in approximately 1873, is a semiautobiographical account of Alcott's experiences as a foreign artist living in Europe. In the story, the first-person narrator is accompanied on her travels by a stuffed owl that she buys in Paris, which acts as a companion and arguably a good luck charm for success. During her time travelling with the owl, she finds her paintings displayed in the prestigious Paris Salon, and even meets a man revealed to later become her husband. Through this text, we are given an insight into the life of a female foreign artist travelling through Europe in the late nineteenth century, as well as a delightful tale of the unlikely companionship between a woman and a stuffed owl. </p>