Little Women
Louisa May Alcott (1868)
“Four sisters, one Civil War winter, and the question America still hasn't answered: can a woman want more than she's allowed to have?”
At a Glance
The March sisters — Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy — navigate poverty, war, love, and growing up in Concord, Massachusetts during and after the Civil War, guided by their mother Marmee and the memory of their absent father. Jo wants to be a writer; Meg wants comfort; Beth wants peace; Amy wants beauty. Each gets what she truly needs, though not always what she wants. Told in two parts, the novel follows them from girls to women — and asks, quietly but insistently, why those two things should require any sacrifice at all.
Read full summary →Why This Book Matters
Little Women was an immediate bestseller in 1868 — Alcott's publisher printed the first edition of 2,000 copies reluctantly, immediately ordered a second run, and within months the novel was the most discussed American book of the season. It created the genre of domestic realism for young women, established that girls' lives were worthy of serious literary attention, and has never gone out of print. It has outsold almost every novel written by Alcott's male contemporaries.
Diction Profile
Warm and accessible, with occasional literary and biblical register for moral scenes — domestic realism that sounds like a very intelligent woman talking to you across a kitchen table
Moderate