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Louisa May Alcott's father Bronson Alcott approached publisher Thomas Niles about a book he wanted to publish. Their talk soon turned to Louisa. Niles, an admirer of her book Hospital Sketches, suggested she write a book about girls which would have widespread appeal. She was not at first interested and instead asked to have her short stories collected. He pressed her to do the girls' book first. In May 1868, she wrote in her journal: "Niles, partner of Roberts, asked me to write a girl's book. I said I'd try."
She later recalled she did not think she could write a successful book for girls and did not enjoy writing one. "I plod away", she wrote in her diary, "although I don't enjoy this sort of thing." By June, she sent the first dozen chapters to Niles and both thought they were dull. Niles's niece Lillie Almy, however, reported that she enjoyed them. The completed manuscript was shown to several girls, who agreed it was "splendid". Alcott wrote, "they are the best critics, so I should definitely be satisfied."
The four March sisters and their mother, whom they call "Marmee", live in New England during the Civil War. Mr. March is a chaplain in the Union Army and rarely at home. The March girls suffer many privations because of the war and their poverty, but contrive to be happy by performing charitable services for neighbors, staging home theatricals, and attending parties. Theodore "Laurie" Laurence III, the grandson of Mr. Laurence, their wealthy next-door neighbor, makes their acquaintance and falls in love with Jo, the tomboy of the March family. Meg, the eldest, is a governess who wishes she were rich. Beth is Jo's pet; she is shy, quiet, and very musical. All she ever wants is to be at home. Amy is the youngest sister. She is a selfish, pretty little artist who often fights with Jo. At the end of the first part of Little Women, Meg is engaged to Laurie's tutor John Brooke; Beth has recovered from a terrible illness she contracted from helping a poor, starving family; Jo wants to write a great novel; and Amy is growing less selfish and more womanly every day. In addition, their father has come home from war. At the beginning of Good Wives, Meg and John are getting married. They have twins, a boy and a girl named Daisy and Demi. Daisy is very sweet and loving, while Demi is mischievous and curious about everything. Laurie graduates from college and proposes to Jo. However, she doesn't want to marry him; he has always been just a brother to her. He goes to Europe to get over his failed proposal. Amy is already there; her aunt sponsored the trip and is taking care of her as she tours all over. Jo goes to New York to try to make something of herself, but she realizes that her writing dreams might be unattainable. But she does make a very good friend: Professor Friedrich Bhaer, who tutors in the house she stays in. Meanwhile, Beth's illness comes back and she eventually dies, leaving a very lonely Jo behind. Amy is still in Europe when Beth dies. She is all alone in a foreign land until Laurie comes to her; they spend months together and a love blossoms. They marry and have one daughter, Bess. Professor Bhaer comes to visit the March family and proposes to Jo, who accepts. They marry and open a boys' school (as well as having two boys of their own, Rob & Teddy) and their story continues in the sequel Little Men and Jo's Boys. The book closes with the whole family together in Jo's apple orchard, reflecting on their lives & how they each have everything they need.
Characters
Little Women is a coming-of-age story about family love, loss, and struggle set in mid-nineteenth-century New England. The young woman at its center, Jo March, is a fictional character based on the author Louisa Alcott. Jo March is bold, outspoken, brave, daring, loyal, cranky, principled, and real. She is a dreamer and a scribbler, happiest at her woodsy hideout by an old cartwheel or holed up in the attic, absorbed in reading or writing, filling page after page with stories or plays. She loves to invent wild escapades, to stage and star in flamboyant dramas. She loves to run. She wishes she were a boy, for all the right reasons: to speak her mind, go where she pleases, learn what she wants to know — in other words, to be free.
At the same time, Jo is devoted to the fictional March family, which was closely modeled on the Alcott family: a wise and good mother, an idealistic father, and four sisters whose personalities are a sampler of female adolescence. But while Jo March marries and is content within the family circle, Louisa Alcott chose an independent path. Descriptions of Louisa by her contemporaries matched Alcott’s first description of Jo March in Little Women: “Fifteen-year-old Jo was very tall, thin, and brown, and reminded one of a colt, for she never seemed to know what to do with her long limbs, which were very much in her way. She had a decided mouth, a comical nose, and sharp, gray eyes, which appeared to see everything, and were by turns fierce, funny, or thoughtful.” Frederick Llewellyn Willis wrote that his cousin Louisa Alcott was “full of spirit and life; impulsive and moody, and at times irritable and nervous. She could run like a gazelle.
Margaret "Meg" March: At sixteen, she is the oldest sister. She is considered the beauty of the March household and she is well-mannered. Meg runs the household when her mother is absent. Meg also guards Amy from Jo when the two quarrel, just as Jo protects Beth. Meg is employed as a governess for the Kings, a wealthy local family. Because of the genteel social standing of her family, Meg is allowed into society. However, after a few disappointing experiences (first, the Kings' eldest son is disinherited for bad behavior, and later she visits her friend Annie Moffat and discovers that her family believes Mrs. March is plotting to match her with Laurie only to gain his family's wealth), Meg learns that true worth does not lie with money. She falls in love with Mr. John Brooke, Laurie's tutor, whom she marries. Meg bears twin children, Margaret "Daisy" and John Laurence "Demi" (short for Demi-John), and then has second daughter, Josie.
Elizabeth "Beth" March: Thirteen years old when the novel opens, Beth is a quiet, kind girl, and a pianist. She enjoys taking care of her dolls. Beth has a hospital for six dolls, all of them invalids, passed down by her sisters. Docile and shy, she prefers to be home schooled and avoids most public situations. At the beginning of the book, Alcott describes her as a sweet girl with a round face and brown hair. She has a close relationship with Jo, despite their different personalities. Beth also loves her cat and kittens, who she devotes much time to. Beth also loves music. She is a pianist but is often sad because she cannot take lessons or have a fine piano. She later receives a cupboard piano from Mr. Laurence, and is deeply happy. Beth enjoys charity work, and helps her mother nurture poor families at the beginning of the novel. Later, when her mother is in Washington caring for their father, Beth comes down with scarlet fever, caught while looking after a family with sick children. Although Jo and Meg do their best to nurse her, Beth becomes so dangerously ill that they send for their mother to return home. However, before Mrs. March arrives, Beth's fever breaks. Beth recovers but she is left permanently weakened by the illness. In the second part of the book, as her sisters begin to leave the nest, Beth wonders what will become of her, as all she wants is to remain at home with her parents. When Beth's health eventually begins a rapid decline, the entire family nurses her - especially Jo, who rarely leaves her side. Finally, the family began to realize that Beth will not live much longer. They separate a room for her, filled with all the things she loved best; her kittens, piano, father's books, Amy's sketches, her beloved dolls, and her family. In her last year, Beth is still trying to make it better for those who will be left behind. She is never idle, except in sleep. But soon, Beth puts down her sewing needle, saying that it grew "so heavy", never to pick it up again. In her final illness, she discusses the spiritual significance of her death to Jo. Very ill yet peaceful and content to be with her family, she dies quietly on a spring night just before dawn.
Amy March: The youngest sister—age twelve when the story begins—Amy is interested in art. She is described by the author as a 'regular snow-maiden' with curly golden hair and blue eyes, 'pale and slender' and 'always carrying herself' like a very proper young lady.[5] She is dissatisfied with the shape of her nose which she attempts to fix with a clothespin. She is "cool, reserved and worldly" which sometimes causes her trouble. Often "petted" because she is the youngest, she can behave in a vain and spoiled way, and throws tantrums when she is unhappy. Her relationship with Jo is sometimes strained; the literary Jo particularly dislikes when Amy uses big words, mispronouncing them or using them incorrectly. Their most significant argument occurs when Jo will not allow Amy to accompany Jo and Laurie to the theater. In revenge, Amy finds Jo's unfinished novel and throws it all in the fireplace grate, burning years of work. When Jo discovers this, she boxes Amy's ears and tells her, "I'll never forgive you! Never!" Amy's attempt to apologize to Jo are unsuccessful. When Laurie and Jo go skating, Amy tags along after them, but she arrives at the lake too late to hear Laurie's warning about rotten ice. Under Jo's horrified stare, Amy falls through the ice, and is rescued by Laurie's prompt intervention. Realizing she might have lost her sister, Jo's anger dissolves and the two become more close. When Beth is ill with scarlet fever, Amy is sent to stay with Aunt March as a safety precaution. Aunt March grows fond of her, as Amy's natural grace and docility are more to her taste. Amy is invited to accompany Uncle and Aunt Carrol and cousin Flo on a European trip. Although she enjoys travelling, after seeing the works of artists such as Michelangelo and Raphael, Amy gives up her art, because she believes herself to be lacking in talent. In Europe, Amy meets up with Laurie, and shortly after Beth dies, they marry. Later, Amy gives birth to daughter Elizabeth (Bess).
Margaret "Marmee" March: The girls' mother and head of household while her husband is away at war. She engages in charitable works and attempts to guide her girls' morals and to shape their characters, usually through experiments. She confesses to Jo (after the argument with Amy) that her temper is as volatile as Jo's own, but that she has learned to control it.
Robert "Father" March: Formerly wealthy, it is implied that he helped friends who could not repay a debt, resulting in the family's poverty. Ascholar and a minister, he serves as a colonel in the Union Army and is wounded in December 1862.
Hannah Mullet: The March family maid. She is of Irish descent and very dear to the family. She is treated more like a member of the family than a servant.
Aunt Josephine March: Mr. March's aunt, a rich widow. Somewhat temperamental and prone to being judgmental, she disapproves of the family's poverty, their charitable work, and their general disregard for the more superficial aspects of society's ways. Her vociferous disapproval of Meg's impending engagement to the impoverished Mr. Brooke becomes the proverbial 'last straw', convincing Meg to affiance herself with the young man.
Uncle and Aunt Carrol: Sister and brother-in-law of Mr. March.
Theodore "Laurie" Laurence: A rich young man who is a neighbor to the March family. Laurie lives with his overprotective grandfather, Mr. Laurence. Laurie's father had eloped with an Italian pianist and was disowned. Both died young, and as an orphan, Laurie was sent to live with his grandfather. Laurie is preparing to enter at Harvard and is being tutored by Mr. John Brooke. He is described as attractive and charming, with black eyes, brown skin, curly black hair, and small hands and feet. In the second book, Laurie falls in love with Jo and offers to marry her. She refuses, and flees to New York City. Laurie will eventually marry Amy March.
Mr. James Laurence: A wealthy neighbor to the Marches and Laurie's grandfather. Lonely in his mansion, and often at odds with his high-spirited grandson, he finds comfort in becoming a benefactor to the Marches. He protects the March sisters while their parents are away. He was a friend to Mrs March's father, and admires their charitable works. He develops a special, tender friendship with Beth, who reminds him of his deceased granddaughter, and he gives Beth his daughter's piano.
John Brooke: During his employment with the Laurences as a tutor to Laurie, he falls in love with Meg. When Laurie leaves for college, Brooke continues his employment with Mr. Laurence as an assistant. He accompanies Mrs. March to Washington D.C. when her husband is ill. When Aunt March overhears Meg rejecting John's declaration of love, she threatens Meg with disinheritance on the basis that Brooke is only interested in Meg's future prospects. Eventually Meg admits her feelings to Brooke, they defy Aunt March (who ends up accepting the marriage), and they are engaged. Brooke serves in the Union Army for a year and is invalided home after being wounded. Brooke marries Meg a few years later when the war has ended and she has turned twenty.
The Hummels: A poor German family consisting of a widowed mother and seven children. Marmee and the girls help them by bringing food, firewood, blankets and other comforts. Three of the children die of scarlet fever and Beth contracts it while caring for them.
The Kings: A wealthy family who employs Meg as a governess. They are not described any further in the book.
The Gardiners: Wealthy friends of Meg's. The Gardiners are portrayed as goodhearted but vapid.
Mrs. Kirke: A friend of Mrs March's who runs a boarding house in New York. She employs Jo as governess to her two girls.
Professor Friedrich "Fritz" Bhaer: A poor German immigrant who was a famous professor in Berlin but now lives in Mrs. Kirke's boarding house and works as a language master, seeing some of his students in Mrs. Kirke's parlor. He and Jo become friendly and he subtly critiques Jo's writing, encouraging her to become a serious writer instead of writing "sensation" stories for weekly tabloids. The two eventually marry, raise Fritz's two orphaned nephews, Franz and Emil, and their own sons, Rob and Teddy.
Franz and Emil Hoffmann: Mr. Bhaer's two nephews whom he looks after following the death of his sister. Franz is two years older than Emil.
Tina: The small daughter of Mrs. Kirke's French washerwoman: she is a favorite of Professor Bhaer's.
Miss Norton: A worldly tenant living in Mrs. Kirke's boarding house. She occasionally takes Jo under her wing and entertains her.
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