Little Women

Louisa May Alcott was an American novelist best known as author of the novel Little Women, Good Wives and the sequels Little Men and Jo's Boys. The first part of the series – "Little Women" is a semi-autobiographical account of Louisa May Alcott's childhood with her sisters in Concord, Massachusetts. The novel tells the story of four teenaged sisters and their mother, Marmee. The family lives in a new neighborhood in Massachusetts in genteel poverty. Having lost all his money, their father is acting as a pastor, miles from home, involved in the American Civil War. The women face their first Christmas without him. Meg and Jo March, the elder two, have to work in order to support the family: Meg teaches a nearby family of four children; Jo assists her aged great-aunt March, a wealthy widow living in a mansion, Plumfield. Beth, too timid for school, is content to stay at home and help with housework; Amy is still at school. Meg is beautiful and traditional, Jo is a tomboy who writes; Beth is a peacemaker and a pianist; Amy is an artist who longs for elegance and fine society. Jo is impulsive and quick to anger. One of her challenges is trying to control her anger, a challenge that her mother experiences…

Part two also known as "Good Wives", followed the March sisters into adulthood and their respective marriages. "Little Men" detailed Jo's life at the Plumfield School that she founded with her husband Professor Bhaer at the conclusion of Part Two of Little Women. And J"o's Boys" completed the "March Family Saga". Alcott made women's rights integral to her stories, and her fiction became her "most important feminist contribution" — even considering all the efforts Alcott made to help facilitate women's rights during her lifetime.