Little Women is a coming-of-age novel written by American novelist Louisa May Alcott (1832-1888) which was originally published in two volumes in 1868 and 1869. Alcott wrote the book over several months at the request of her publisher. The story follows the lives of the four March sisters-Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy-and details their passage from childhood to womanhood. It is loosely based on the lives of the author and her three sisters. Scholars classify it as an autobiographical or semi-autobiographical novel. The novel addresses three major themes:
domesticity, work, and true love, all of them interdependent and each necessary to the achievement of its heroine’s individual identity.
According to Sarah Elbert, Alcott created a new form of literature, one that took elements from Romantic children’s fiction and combined it with others from sentimental novels, resulting in a totally new format. Elbert argues that within Little Women can be found the first vision of the
All-American girl
and that her various aspects are embodied in the differing March sisters. The book has been translated into numerous languages, and frequently adapted for stage and screen.