Little Women; Or, Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy
Louisa May Alcott
Little Women; Or, Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy
55 chapters·19h 38m listening
4.18from 2,535,932 ratingson Goodreads
"Little Women; Or, Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy" by Louisa May Alcott is a coming-of-age novel published in 1868-1869. The story follows four sisters—Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy March—as they navigate the passage from childhood to womanhood in Civil War-era Massachusetts. Loosely based on Alcott's own family, the novel explores themes of domesticity, work, and love while depicting the joys and struggles of nineteenth-century women's lives. Through their adventures and challenges, the March sisters embody different aspects of young American womanhood.
Contains spoilers for the entire book
- Themes
- Atmosphere
About the book
Published in two parts in 1868 and 1869, Little Women follows the four March sisters as they grow up in a small New England town while their father serves as a chaplain in the Civil War. Meg longs for pretty things, Jo wants to write, Beth is shy and devoted to home, and Amy is set on being a lady, while their mother, Marmee, guides them with gentle firmness. Louisa May Alcott based the novel partly on her own family, and it treats ordinary domestic life, including poverty, work, friendship and illness, as worthy of serious attention. Jo March, independent, ambitious and impatient with convention, became one of the best-loved heroines in American fiction and a model for generations of readers who wanted to write.
Characters
Meg March — Eldest sister
The eldest and prettiest sister, who longs for nice things and a comfortable home.
Jo March — Second sister
A tomboyish, hot-tempered girl who wants to be a writer.
Beth March — Third sister
A shy, gentle sister who loves music and home.
Amy March — Youngest sister
The artistic youngest sister, who wants very much to be a lady.
Marmee — The girls’ mother
Mrs March, a wise and loving mother running the house while her husband is at war.
Laurie — Neighbour
Theodore Laurence, the lively boy next door, who becomes the sisters’ friend.
Mr Laurence — Laurie’s grandfather
A gruff, wealthy old man with a kind heart.
Aunt March — Great-aunt
A rich, sharp-tongued old aunt for whom Jo works as a companion.
About the author
Louisa May Alcott (1832–1888) was an American novelist who wrote Little Women in a few months, at a publisher's request for "a book for girls", and drew it from her own childhood with three sisters in Concord, Massachusetts. Her family were abolitionists whose house was a stop on the Underground Railroad, and she served as a nurse in a Union hospital during the Civil War until typhoid fever ended it. The book's success supported her family for the rest of her life. She also wrote sensation stories under the name A. M. Barnard, a fact not discovered until the 1940s.