Little Women (1868–69) is Louisa May Alcott's novel about the four March sisters, Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy, growing up in a New England town while their father serves in the American Civil War. Largely drawn from the author's own family, and especially from Jo, the tomboyish sister who wants to be a writer, it has remained a best-loved book for more than a century and a half.
The story
In the first part, the four sisters and their mother, whom they call Marmee, try to make the best of their poverty during the war. They put on plays, make friends with Laurie, the lonely grandson of their rich neighbour, and struggle with their faults: Meg's vanity, Jo's temper, Beth's shyness and Amy's selfishness.
The second part follows them into adulthood. Meg marries, Jo goes to New York to write, Amy travels in Europe, and the gentle Beth falls ill. The book ends with the family reunited around Marmee, years later.
The Alcott family
Louisa May Alcott was the second of four daughters of the philosopher and teacher Bronson Alcott; the family lived in Concord, Massachusetts, in a house called Orchard House. Meg, Beth and Amy are based on her sisters Anna, Elizabeth and May, and Jo on herself.
Unlike Mr March, Bronson Alcott was not a chaplain in the war, but Louisa herself served as a nurse in a Union hospital in Washington in 1862–63, an experience she described in Hospital Sketches.
A book written to order
In 1867 the Boston publisher Thomas Niles asked Alcott for a book for girls. Not enthusiastic at first, she wrote the first part in about two and a half months in 1868. It was published by Roberts Brothers on 30 September 1868 and was an immediate success.
Readers wrote in demanding to know whom the girls would marry, and the second part followed in April 1869; in Britain it was long published separately under the title Good Wives. Alcott went on to write Little Men and Jo's Boys about the same family.
Anecdotes
Royalties rather than a fee
Thomas Niles offered Alcott either a flat sum for the copyright or a share of the sales. On his advice she kept the copyright and took royalties, a decision that made her financially independent and allowed her to support her whole family.
Jo will not marry Laurie
Many readers wanted Jo to marry Laurie. Alcott refused to please them, writing to a friend that she would not marry Jo to Laurie to please anyone, and made her marry instead the German professor Friedrich Bhaer.
Frequently asked questions
When was Little Women published?
The first part on 30 September 1868, the second in April 1869, by Roberts Brothers in Boston.
Is Little Women based on a true story?
Largely. The March sisters are modelled on Louisa May Alcott and her three sisters, and many episodes come from their life in Massachusetts.
What is Good Wives?
The title under which the second part of Little Women was long published in Britain.