Little Women (Masterplots II: Women’s Literature Series)
At a glance:
- Author: Louisa May Alcott
- First Published: 1868
- Type of Work: Novel
- Type of Plot: Domestic realism
- Time of Work: The 1860’s
- Setting: The northeastern United States
- Principal Characters: Jo March, Meg March, Beth March, Amy March, Mrs. March (“Marmee”), Mr. March, Theodore Laurence, Mr. Laurence, Aunt March, Friedrich Bhaer, John Brooke
- Genres: Long fiction, Social realism, Bildungsroman, Domestic realism, Didactic literature
- Subjects: Maturation or coming of age, Values, Family or family life, New York, North America or North Americans, Northeast, U.S., United States or Americans, Mothers, Parents and children, Love or romance, Gender roles, Nineteenth century, New York City, Marriage, Villages, Friendship, Manners or customs, Social life, New England, Poverty or poor people, Women’s issues, Civil War, Sisters, Women, Death or dying, Small-town life, Work or workers, Italy or Italians, Sacrifice, Materialism, Career women, Victorian era or Victorianism
- Locales: New York, NY, Italy, New England
Form and Content
Written in response to a publisher’s request for a “girls’ book,” Little Women is an enduring classic of domestic realism, tracing the lives of four sisters from adolescence through early adulthood. The narrator is omniscient and intrusive, frequently interrupting the narrative to provide moral commentary. Often didactic and sentimental, the novel nevertheless realistically portrays family life in the mid-nineteenth century United States. Like female counterparts of John Bunyan’s Christian from Pilgrim’s Progress, the four “little...
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