Little Women is a coming-of-age novel written by American novelist Louisa May Alcott, originally published in two volumes in 1868 and 1869 at the request of her publisher. [1] [2] The story follows the lives of the four March sisters—Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy—and details their passage from childhood to womanhood. Loosely based on the lives of the author and her three sisters, [3] [4] :202 it is classified as an autobiographical or semi-autobiographical novel. [5] [6] :12 Gillian Armstrong directed a 1994 adaptation, starring Winona Ryder as Jo, Trini Alvarado as Meg, Samantha Mathis and Kirsten Dunst as Amy, and Claire Danes as Beth. The film received three Academy Award nominations, including Best Actress for Ryder. [ citation needed] The Vaughans – English friends of Laurie's who come to visit him. Kate is the oldest of the Vaughan siblings, and prim and proper Grace is the youngest. The middle siblings, Fred and Frank, are twins; Frank is the younger twin.

Word comes that Mr. March is very ill with pneumonia and Marmee is called away to nurse him in Washington. Mr. Laurence offers to accompany her but she declines, knowing travel would be uncomfortable for the old man. Mr. Laurence instead sends John Brooke to do his business in Washington and help the Marches. While in Washington, Brooke confesses his love for Meg to her parents. They are pleased, but consider Meg too young to marry, so Brooke agrees to wait. In parallel though, Gerwig shows us something else. Jo is alone, at a print shop, watching through a glass window like a mother peering into a hospital nursery as her novel – Little Women – is bound and embossed. It is the book that is placed in her empty hands, and she clutches it to her heart. The March sisters’ personalities are drastically different in Little Men...in that they don’t really have them. Gone is Amy’s impetuous streak. Jo, too, has been fully tamed—she’s busy raising two sons and 18 orphans. There is a Canadian musical version, with book by Nancy Early and music and lyrics by Jim Betts, which has been produced at several regional theatres in Canada. While Marmee is in Washington, Beth contracts scarlet fever after spending time with a poor family where three children die. As a precaution, Amy is sent to live with Aunt March and replaces Jo as her companion and helper. Jo, who already had scarlet fever, tends to Beth. After many days of illness, the family doctor advises that Marmee be sent for immediately. Beth recovers, but never fully regains her health and energy.

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Bird, Elizabeth (July 7, 2012). "Top 100 Chapter Book Poll Results". School Library Journal "A Fuse No. 8 Production" blog. Archived from the original on July 13, 2012 . Retrieved August 22, 2012. In addition, the ending of the story is similar in both the book and the newest film adaptation is fairly, but the journey to that finale is ultimately different and a lot of the details change. For example, in the movie, Jo very on-the-nose writes her own version of Little Women, which is ultimately published by the same publisher who published her "trash stories" previously. She doesn't want her main character to marry in her book, but that same publisher pushes for that character to get married, in a move that mirrors what happens with Jo and the Professor. Jo also has to be egged by her family to go after the professor in the movie. In the year between the release of Little Women and its follow-up, Good Wives, Alcott faced pressure from fans, who wrote "to ask who the little women marry, as if that was the only aim and end of a woman’s life," and a similar pressure from publishers, who "[insisted] on having people married off in a wholesale manner." Apter, T. E. (2007). The Sister Knot: Why We Fight, why We're Jealous, and why We'll Love Each Other No Matter what. W. W. Norton & Company. p.137. ISBN 978-0-393-06058-4.

Isaac, Megan Lynn (2018). "A Character of One's Own: The Perils of Female Authorship in the Young Adult Novel from Alcott to Birdsall". Children's Literature. 46: 133–168. doi: 10.1353/chl.2018.0007– via JSTOR. So like Alcott, Jo of the film concedes that marriage was “an economic prospect for women” and agrees to marry off her heroine with an eye on her book’s profitability. There was another musical version, entitled "Jo", with music by William Dyer and book and lyrics by Don Parks & William Dyer, which was produced off-Broadway at the Orpheum Theatre. It ran for 63 performances from February 12, 1964, to April 5, 1964. It featured Karin Wolfe (Jo), Susan Browning (Meg), Judith McCauley (Beth), April Shawhan (Amy), Don Stewart (Laurie), Joy Hodges (Marmee), Lowell Harris (John Brooke) and Mimi Randolph (Aunt March). Find sources: "Little Women"– news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR ( September 2021) ( Learn how and when to remove this template message)

Laurie travels to Europe with his grandfather to escape his heartbreak. At home, Beth's health has seriously deteriorated. Jo devotes her time to the care of her dying sister. Laurie encounters Amy in Europe, and he slowly falls in love with her as he begins to see her in a new light. She is unimpressed by the aimless, idle, and forlorn attitude he has adopted since being rejected by Jo, and inspires him to find his purpose and do something worthwhile with his life. With the news of Beth's death, they meet for consolation and their romance grows. Amy's aunt will not allow Amy to return unchaperoned with Laurie and his grandfather, so they marry before returning home from Europe. Girls write to ask who the little women marry, as if that was the only end and aim of a woman’s life,” Alcott wrote in her journal. Also, Little Women has several textual and structural references to John Bunyan’s novel The Pilgrim’s Progress. [35] Jo and her sisters read it at the outset of the book and try to follow the good example of Bunyan’s Christian. Throughout the novel, the main characters refer many times to The Pilgrim’s Progress and liken the events in their own lives to the experiences of the pilgrims. A number of chapter titles directly reference characters and places from The Pilgrim’s Progress.