About the Author
Louisa May Alcott was born on November 29, 1832, in Germantown, Pennsylvania, where her father, Bronson Alcott-a transcendentalist philosopher and an educator-directed a school for […]
Little Women
Setting
Little Women is set in the 1860s in a New England town modeled on Concord, Massachusetts. Most of the action in Part I revolves around […]
Themes and Characters
Like John Bunyan’s allegorical work Pilgrim’s Progress, in which Christian faces many obstacles in his journey from the City of Destruction to the Celestial City, […]
Literary Qualities
In writing Little Women, Alcott broke much new ground while adhering, structurally, to many conventions of mid-nineteenth-century young adult literature. The novel is an unusual […]
Social Sensitivity
Although Alcott herself was politically active and cared deeply about the social and ethical issues of her time, she preferred to keep Little Women on […]
Related Titles
There are two sequels to Little Women. Little Men is set at Plumfield School, which Jo and her husband run according to educational theories similar […]