Little Women (Barnes & Noble Classics Series)

Table of Contents

 

 

 

 

“Christmas won’t be Christmas without any presents.” (page 11)

 

“I’m the man of the family now Papa is away, and I shall provide the slippers, for he told me to take special care of Mother while he was gone.” (page 14)

 

“I’ll try and be what he loves to call me, ‘a little woman,’ and not be rough and wild, but do my duty here instead of wanting to be somewhere else.” (page 18)

 

Boys are trying enough to human patience, goodness knows, but girls are infinitely more so. (page 71)

 

“Little girls shouldn’t ask questions.” (page 76)

 

“Housekeeping ain’t no joke.” (page 114)

 

“Have regular hours for work and play, make each day both useful and pleasant, and prove that you understand the worth of time by employing it well. Then youth will be delightful, old age will bring few regrets, and life become a beautiful success, in spite of poverty.”

(page 121)

 

“Wouldn’t it be fun if all the castles in the air which we make could come true, and we could live in them?” (page 143)

 

“People don’t have fortunes left them in that style nowadays, men have to work and women to marry for money. It’s a dreadfully unjust world.” (page 158)

 

She could not speak, but she did “hold on,” and the warm grasp of the friendly human hand comforted her sore heart, and seemed to lead her nearer to the Divine arm which alone could uphold her in her trouble. (page 183)

“Beth is my conscience, and I
can’t
give her up. I can‘t! I can’t!”

(page 183)

 

Jo’s face was a study next day, for the secret rather weighed upon her, and she found it hard not to look mysterious and important. Meg observed it, but did not trouble herself to make inquiries, for she had learned that the best way to manage Jo was by the law of contraries, so she felt sure of being told everything if she did not ask. (page 202)

It takes people a long time to learn the difference between talent and genius, especially ambitious young men and women. (page 250)

 

Amy sailed away to find the Old World, which is always new and beautiful to young eyes, while her father and friend watched her from the shore, fervently hoping that none but gentle fortunes would befall the happy-hearted girl, who waved her hand to them till they could see nothing but the summer sunshine dazzling on the sea. (page 302)

 

“Girls are so queer you never know what they mean. They say no when they mean yes, and drive a man out of his wits just for the fun of it.” (pages 351-352)

 

Little they cared what anybody thought, for they were enjoying the happy hour that seldom comes but once in any life, the magical moment which bestows youth on the old, beauty on the plain, wealth on the poor, and gives human hearts a foretaste of heaven. (page 457)

Published by Barnes & Noble Books
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New York, NY 10011

 

 

Little Women, or, Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy,
was published in two volumes
in October 1868 and April 1869, respectively. They were combined
into a single volume in 1880.

 

Published in 2004 with new Introduction, Notes, Biography, Chronology,
Inspired By, Comments & Questions, and for Further Reading.

 

Introduction, Notes, and For Further Reading

Copyright © 2004 by Camille Cauti.

 

Note on Louisa May Alcott, The World of Louisa May Alcott and
Little
Women,
Inspired by
Little Women,
and Comments & Questions
Copyright © 2004 by Barnes & Noble, Inc.

 

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or
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are trademarks of Barnes & Noble, Inc.

 

ISBN-13: 978-1-59308-108-9 ISBN-10:1-59308-108-1

eISBN : 978-1-411-43257-4

LC Control Number 2003112463

 

Produced and published in conjunction with:
Fine Creative Media, Inc.
322 Eighth Avenue
New York, NY 10001

 

Michael J. Fine, President and Publisher

 

Printed in the United States of America

QM

7 9 10 8

Louisa May Alcott was born on November 29, 1832, in Germantown, Pennsylvania, the second of four daughters of Amos Bronson and Abigail Alcott. Her mother, known in the family as “Abba,” was from a distinguished Boston family. Her father, a self-educated son of farmers, was an educator and reformer; his controversial and often unpopular teaching philosophies kept him from steady employment and the family (Louisa called it the “Pathetic Family”) continually on the edge of poverty. The Alcotts often relied upon the generosity of family and friends, including American essayist and poet Ralph Waldo Emerson, who frequently provided financial support.

When Louisa was two, the family moved to Boston to be near Abba’s family and Emerson. They would move frequently between Boston and Concord for the rest of Louisa’s life. Bronson Alcott became part of a group of writers and philosophers known as the Transcendentalist Club, which included Emerson and writer Henry David Thoreau, both of whom Louisa idolized. Throughout her life Louisa was brash and moody, with a quick tongue that often angered her father.

Alcott wrote her first stories at age fifteen, during what she called her “sentimental period.” As a teenager, she pursued many dramatic and literary endeavors: producing and acting in family theatricals; creating a series of tales for Emerson’s young daughter, Ellen, which she called
Flower Fables;
and founding a family newspaper, the
Olive Leaf.
Her first published work was the poem “Sunlight,” which appeared pseud onymously in
Peterson’s Magazine
in 1851.

Louisa’s father didn’t earn sufficient income to support the family, so Louisa, her mother, and her sisters worked—Abba as one of the nation’s first social workers, the girls at sewing and teaching. Alcott viewed herself as a pillar of financial and emotional support to her female relatives. She was devastated in 1858 when her younger sister, Elizabeth, died of scarlet fever and her elder sister, Anna, announced her engagement.

During the American Civil War, Alcott moved briefly to Washington, D.C., to work as a Union Army nurse, until a bout with typhoid cut her service short. While convalescing, she reworked her letters to her family into a series called
Hospital Sketches;
published in 1863, it brought her favorable notice as a writer. Over the next several years she published a number of children’s collections and anonymously wrote fantastic and gothic tales. In 1867 she was offered the editorship of the children’s magazine
Merry’s Museum.
The following year, commissioned by the publisher Roberts Brothers, she wrote
Little Women
in six weeks. With the publication of
Little Women,
Alcott gained immense fame and achieved long-sought financial security for herself and her family. The sequel Little Men:
Life at Plumfield with Jo’s Boys
was published in 1871.