Welcome to Little Women: The Introduction and Afterword.

First published in two volumes in 1868 and 1869, Little Women follows Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy March from girlhood into adult life. The sisters share a home, a mother they call Marmee, an absent father serving during the Civil War, and the pressures of reduced family circumstances. Yet they do not share one temperament or one idea of happiness. Meg values beauty, affection, and domestic stability. Jo wants freedom, authorship, action, and a life larger than conventional femininity seems to permit. Beth finds meaning in music, home, and quiet service. Amy pursues art, refinement, social opportunity, and the discipline required to turn taste into achievement.

Alcott drew on her own family life in Concord, Massachusetts, while transforming experience into fiction. Her father, Bronson Alcott, was an idealistic educator and reformer whose experiments often left the family financially insecure. Her mother, Abigail May Alcott, carried much of the practical burden.