The story follows the lives of the four March sisters-Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy-and details their passage from childhood to womanhood.

Louisa never married, concluding that 'liberty is a better husband than love.' She died in 1888 and is buried in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery in Concord.Little Women is a coming-of-age novel written by American novelist Louisa May Alcott, originally published in two volumes in 18 at the request of her publisher. Its success guaranteed financial stability for Louisa, who continued the March family's story in Good Wives, Little Men and Jo's Boys. In a time when children's books were morality tales featuring idealised, two-dimensional protagonists, Little Women was revolutionary, peopled as it was by relatable, flawed, fully realised characters. This resulted in Little Women, which is largely based on the experiences of the author and her three sisters. In 1868 Louisa was asked by her publisher to write 'a girls' story'. Her nursing career was brief as she contracted typhoid, but she wrote Hospital Sketches, a truthful and poignant account based on letters she wrote home to her family in Concord, and it was published to great acclaim. When the American Civil War began, Louisa, who fervently opposed slavery, lamented that women weren't able to fight, and volunteered as a nurse at the Union Hospital in Georgetown, Washington. She also wrote poetry and short stories for popular magazines, and melodramatic novels under a pseudonym. Like the character of Jo March in Little Women, young Louisa didn't conform to the restrictions placed on girls of the period: 'No boy could be my friend till I had beaten him in a race,' she claimed, 'and no girl if she refused to climb trees, leap fences.' And, also like Jo, she was highly imaginative and writing was an early passion.Īs her family was often in financial difficulty, Louisa worked from a young age to support her family, taking any position available: a governess, domestic servant, seamstress and teacher were among her jobs. Good Wives is the second book in the series.Ībout the Author: Louisa May Alcott was born in Pennsylvania in 1832. A perennial classic with fans the world over. Little Women is one of the most beloved novels in children's literature.

But the tie that binds the sisters brings them together when tragedy strikes, for only with each other can they find the comfort they need.Īlso in Virago Classic Children's Books: LITTLE WOMEN, LITTLE MEN, JO'S BOYS

As Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy become young women, they take separate paths in life, following their dreams, finding love, becoming wives, and travelling the world. With four lively, attractive women in one house and a dashing young bachelor in the neighbouring one, romance can only be a matter of time. 'Life and love are very precious when both are in full bloom'

Little women and good wives