Little Women; Or, Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy

A little about the story

Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy March are growing up in a household where money is scarce but opinions, affections, and ambitions are plentiful. With their father away during the American Civil War, the sisters and their mother try to make an ordinary life out of work, disappointments, celebrations, and the needs of their neighbors. Each girl has a different idea of the future, and even small domestic events can expose the distance between those hopes.

Louisa May Alcott gives the family’s everyday experiences the shape of a larger education in independence and responsibility. The novel makes room for theatrical games, artistic plans, friendships, and arguments without pretending that growing up simply means abandoning them. As opportunities and expectations change, the sisters must discover what they are prepared to compromise and what they want to protect. Its warmth rests on a clear awareness that family closeness does not erase differences, and that becoming oneself can involve both loyalty to others and resistance to the roles they imagine.

Things You May Not Know About Little Women

• Originally published in two parts. The story appeared in 1868 and 1869, before the two parts became familiar as one combined volume.
• An autobiographical starting point. Alcott drew on life with her own sisters, while reshaping family experiences into the fictional household of the Marches.
• A second title in some editions. The later portion has often been published as Good Wives, so the contents of books called Little Women can vary.
• Jo’s writing has roots. Jo’s literary ambitions reflect Alcott’s knowledge of earning money through writing, rather than serving only as a decorative character trait.
• The family continues elsewhere. Alcott returned to this fictional world in Little Men and Jo’s Boys, following lives beyond the original novel.