From the Publisher
Timeless, heartwarming tale of the four young March sisters
Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy their mother Marmee, and other memorable
characters. Generations of readers have enjoyed this story of the
joys, heartaches, and triumphs of a warm, close-knit family, poor
in material wealth, but rich in love and devotion to one
another.
About the Author
Louisa May Alcott, generally considered to be a writer of sentimental fiction for children, has received renewed critical attention from scholars examining her adult fiction and previously uncredited gothic thrillers. These works reveal a darker, more complex side of this author. Alcott was born in Germantown, Pennsylvania, in 1832. Two years later with her family she moved to Boston and in 1840 to Concord, which was to remain her family home for the rest of her life. Her father, Bronson Alcott, was a transcendentalist and friend of Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau. Alcott early realized that her father could not be counted on as sole support of his family, and so she sacrificed much of her own pleasure to earn money by sewing, teaching, and churning out potboilers. Her reputation was established with Hospital Sketches (1863), which was an account of her work as a volunteer nurse in Washington, D.C. Alcott's first works were written for children, including her best-known Little Women (1868--69) and Little Men: Life at Plumfield with Jo's Boys (1871). Moods (1864), a "passionate conflict," was written for adults. Alcott's writing eventually became the family's main source of income. Throughout her life, Alcott continued to produce highly popular and idealistic literature for children. An Old-Fashioned Girl (1870), Eight Cousins (1875), Rose in Bloom (1876), Under the Lilacs (1878), and Jack and Jill (1881) enjoyed wide popularity. At the same time, her adult fiction, such as the autobiographical novel Work: A Story of Experience (1873) and A Modern Mephistopheles (1877), a story based on the Faust legend, shows her deeper concern with such social issues as education, prison reform, and women's suffrage. She realistically depicts the problems of adolescents and working women, the difficulties of relationships between men and women, and the values of the single woman's life.
Trade Paperback
608 Pages, 5.19 x 8.25 x 0.68 in
March 24, 2000
English
0486410234
9780486410234