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With their father away as an army chaplain in the American Civil War, the four March sisters and their mother, whom they call Marmee, face a hard winter in a…
With their father away as an army chaplain in the American Civil War, the four March sisters and their mother, whom they call Marmee, face a hard winter in a New England town. Meg, the eldest, longs for pretty things; Jo, a tomboy with a quick temper, wants to be a writer; Beth is shy and gentle and loves music; Amy, the youngest, is vain and artistic. The book follows them from Christmas to Christmas and then into adulthood, through plays in the attic, friendship with Laurie, the lonely boy next door, illness, work, love and loss.
Context and significance
Louisa May Alcott wrote the first part in 1868, at her publisher's request for a story for girls, and the second part, often called Good Wives, followed in 1869; both are based on her own family. Readers begged for Jo to marry Laurie, and Alcott deliberately refused. Jo is one of the great heroines for anyone who wants to write. The family's story continues in Little Men and Jo's Boys.
About the author
Louisa May Alcott (1832–1888) grew up in Concord, Massachusetts, daughter of the idealistic and often penniless educator Bronson Alcott; Emerson and Thoreau were family friends and teachers. To support her family she sewed, taught, worked as a servant and wrote sensational thrillers under a pen name.
During the Civil War she nursed soldiers in Washington until she fell gravely ill. When her publisher asked for a book for girls, she wrote Little Women (1868), drawn from her own family, and it made her famous and secure. She campaigned against slavery and for women's right to vote.