Little Women (Sterling Unabridged Classics Series) »

Born in Germantown, Pennsylvania, on November 29, 1832, Louisa Alcott was the rebellious, independent, humorous, sometimes astringent and always outspoken second daughter of Bronson and Abba May Alcott. There can be little argument that her parents were the greatest influence on Louisa s life, both for good and for ill. Louisa spent her early years in the company of such luminaries as Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, and Nathaniel Hawthorne. During a childhood which swung between privilege and poverty, between renown and disgrace, between security and instability, Alcott found within herself the moral courage and physical stamina which undergird Little Women.

The spirit of the March sisters in Little Women embodies the real American experience. For the first time, in a book written primarily for young people, children could recognize themselves in the characters of Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy who spend the Civil War dealing with poverty and the pangs of growing up while waiting for their father to return from war. People from around the country could identify with the hopes, sorrows, laughter and trials of protagonists who talked and behaved much as they did because they were reading about lives already familiar to them in the fabric of their own world.