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Little Women

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'''''Little Women''''' is a novel by Louisa May Alcott published on September 30, 1868, concerning the lives and loves of four sisters growing up during the American Civil War. It was based on Alcott's own experiences as a child in Concord, Massachusetts. After much demand, Louisa May Alcott wrote a sequel, '''''Good Wives''''', which was published in 1869 and is often published together with ''Little Women'' as if it were a single work. ''Good Wives'' picks up three years after the events in the last chapter of ''Little Women'' ("Aunt March Settles The Question"), and includes characters and events often felt by fans to be essential to the ''Little Women'' story. Alcott later wrote ''Little Men'' and ''Jo's Boys and How They Turned Out'', which followed the lives of the girls' children.

Characters
{{spoilers}} *'''Josephine''' or '''"Jo"''': the protagonist of the novel, is a tomboy and the second-oldest sister. She is very outspoken and has a passion for writing. Jo cuts off her long hair (her best feature) and sells it to a wig shop to get money for her mother to visit their father, a wounded American Civil War Civil War chaplain. She refuses the family friend Theodore Laurence's (Laurie's) proposal of marriage, and later marries professor Fritz Bhaer. *'''Margaret''' or '''"Meg"''': the eldest sister. She is described as being very pretty, with smooth hair and small, white hands. She is the most responsible and helps run the household in her mother's absence. While working as a governess for wealthy friends, she falls in love with Mr. John Brooke, Laurie's poor tutor. She eventually marries Mr. Brooke and bears twin children, Margaret ("Daisy") and John, Jr. ("Demi", short for "Demi-John"). *'''Elizabeth''' or '''"Beth"''': the second-youngest sister, is a quiet young woman who loves playing piano. She is shy and docile and engages with charity; while her mother is nursing their father, she contracts scarlet fever from a poor family and nearly dies. Beth never fully recovers her health and dies young. She is described as having a round face, and appearing younger than her years. *'''Amy''': the youngest sister and a talented artist, Amy is described as a beautiful young girl with blonde hair and blue eyes. She cares about her family, but is also deeply self-centered and vain. In her youth she is a spoiled and is inclined to throw tantrums when things do not go her way. She eventually travels abroad thanks to her aunt, and finally marries Laurie. *'''"Marmee"''': the girls' mother and head of household while her husband is away. She engages in charitable works and attempts to guide her girls' moral characters. (Her name is also Margaret.) *'''Theodore "Laurie" Laurence''': a charming and rich young man who lives next door to the March family with his stern grandfather. After Jo refuses to marry him he flees to Europe to study art. While there, he falls in love and marries Amy. *'''Hannah Mullet''': The maid of the March family, an older woman, who (from a letter written in the first person in the text) is described as kind and loyal, if lacking in formal education. *'''Aunt March''': a rich widow. She lives alone in her mansion. Actually Mr. March's aunt, she disapproves of his family's charitable work and loss of wealth, while throwing weight around with hers. To Amy's dismay, she is sent to be Aunt March's "companion" when Beth is ill. Her tenure there does the spoiled little girl good, and Aunt March eventually pays her way to Europe. *'''Mrs. Kirke''': A friend of Marmee's who runs a boarding house in New York. She employs Jo as governess for a time. *'''Professor Friedrich (Fritz) Bhaer''': A poor, Germany German immigrant, living in Mrs. Kirke's boarding house and tutoring her children. He and Jo become friends and he critiques Jo's work, encouraging her to become a serious writer instead of writing "sensation" stories for weekly tabloids. The two eventually marry. *'''Mr. March''': Formerly wealthy, it is implied that he helped unscrupulous friends who did not repay the debt, resulting in the family's poverty. A great scholar and a minister, he serves as a chaplain for the Union Army. *'''Mr. Laurence''', a wealthy neighbor to the Marches. Lonely in his mansion, and often at odds with his high-spirited grandson, Laurie, he finds comfort in becoming a benefactor to the Marches. He admires their charity, and develops a special friendship with Beth, who reminds him of his dead granddaughter. *'''John Brooke''': tutor to Laurie, a naturalized citizen (he is England English). He falls in love with Meg; she initially denies him until Aunt March prohibits the match, at which point she realizes she is in love as well. He serves in the Union Army after late 1861, and marries Meg after the war. Other characters: '''The Kings''': family who employ Meg as a governess. '''The Gardiners''': wealthy friends of Meg's. Before the Marches lost their wealth, the two families were societal equals. The Gardiners are portrayed as vapid and believing in marriage for money and position. Meg's friend Sallie Gardiner eventually marries Ned Moffat, but is unhappy in her marriage. '''Uncle and Aunt Carrol''': Sister and brother-in-law of Mr. March. They accompany Aunt March and Amy to Europe with their daughter, Florence. PLOT: Alcott's original work explores the overcoming of character flaws through application of the Bible, which each girl receives as a Christmas present in the opening chapters. Each of the March girls displays a major character flaw: Meg: avarice, Jo: anger, Beth: crippling shyness, Amy: selfishness. They overcome their flaws through lessons learned the hard way. Chapter titles in part one are taken from the place settings in the book, ''The Pilgrim's Progress'', a favorite novel of the March family. Most of the flaws are in check for a time after lessons are learned, but even as young women the girls must work out these flaws in order to become archetype archetypical mothers, wives, sisters, and citizens. The Christian theme of the novel is usually lessened in film versions. Of the many popular versions, the four-hour miniseries with Day, Birney, and Plumb is considered most faithful to the novel.

Notable adaptations

Film
*Little Women (1933 film) 1933 version: Katharine Hepburn as Jo, Spring Byington as Marmee. *Little Women (1949 film) 1949 version: Elizabeth Taylor as Amy, June Allyson as Jo, Janet Leigh as Meg, Margaret O'Brien as Beth, Mary Astor as Marmee, and Peter Lawford as Laurie. *Little Women (1978 film) 1978 version: Meredith Baxter as Meg, Susan Dey as Jo, Eve Plumb as Beth, William Shatner as Friedrich Bhaer, Greer Garson as Aunt March, and Robert Young (actor) Robert Young as Grandpa James Lawrence. *Little Women (1994 film) 1994 version: Susan Sarandon as Marmee, Winona Ryder as Jo, Kirsten Dunst as the younger Amy, Claire Danes as Beth, and Christian Bale as Laurie. Additional versions appeared in 1917, 1918, 1946,1948, 1950, 1958, 1970, 1979, and 2001 [http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0017301/].

Anime
In 1987, the Japanese animation studio ''Nippon Animation'' did an anime adaptation titled ''Ai no Wakakusa Monogatari'' (The Story of Love's Young Grass). The series was part of the studio's ''World Masterpiece Theatre'' series of animated adaptations of classic Western literary works. The series was directed by Fumio Kurokawa with character designs by Yoshifumi Kondo. Saban Entertainment produced an English dubbed version (''Tales of Little Women'') which aired on HBO in the United States in 1990, and the series has also achieved immense popularity in Europe (''Una per tutte, tutte per una'' in Italy, ''Les quatre filles du Docteur March'' in France). This series changed the name of the town in which the series takes place from "Concord" to "Newcord", and also added episodes depicting scenes not from the novel at the beginning as a way of introducing the characters and educating the Japanese audience about the American Civil War, but is otherwise a faithful and highly regarded adaptation. Nippon Animation also produced an anime adaptation of ''Jo's Boys'' in 1993 for the World Masterpiece Theatre, titled ''Wakakusa monogatari: Nan to Jo-sensei'' (The Story of Young Grass: Nan and Mrs. Jo) and directed by Kozo Kusuba. Two other anime adaptations of ''Little Women'' were made in the early 1980s: a 1980 TV special produced by Toei Animation and directed by Yugo Serikawa, and ''Wakakusa Monogatari yori: Wakakusa no Yon Shimai'' (From the Story of Young Grass: Four Sisters of Young Grass), a 1981 Toei/Kokusai Eigasha TV series directed by Kazuya Miyazaki and from the same animation team. The 1981 TV series was also released in the United States on video, courtesy of Sony. Still, Nippon Animation's 1987 version is the most successful and also widely regarded as the best of all anime adaptations of the story. In addition, ''Bakuretsu Tenshi'' (''Burst Angel'' in English), a 24-episode anime TV series which aired in 2004 on TV Asahi and is released in the U.S. by Funimation Productions, features main characters named Meg, Jo and Amy â€” which, although the series has nothing to do with Alcott's novel, attests to the popularity the story enjoys in Japan to this day.

Opera and musical
In 1998 Little Women (opera) the book was adapted as an opera by composer Mark Adamo. In January 2005, a Broadway theatre Broadway musical adapted from the book opened at the Virginia Theatre in New York City with book by Allan Knee, score by Jason Howland and lyrics by Mindi Dickstein. The musical starred pop singer Maureen McGovern, of "The Morning After" fame.

External links
{{Wikisource}} *ISBN 0140380221
- IMDb
- ''Little Women'' at [http://www.amlit.com/ American Literature]
- Full text presented one chapter at a time *{{gutenberg|no=514|name=Little Women}} Category:1868 books Category:Autobiographical novels es:Mujercitas fr:Les Quatre Filles du docteur March ja:è‹¥è?‰ç‰©èªž sv:Unga kvinnor (film, 1949)

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