LITTLE WOMEN



Author:


Louisa May Alcott

First edition:


Little Women, 1868

Main Illustrators:


Brock Kliros Marie Merill Smith


In short:


Mag, Jo, Beth and Amy are the four different daughters of a nice-hearted mother, affectionally called Marmee. Their father, who went bankrupt for generosity, is away at war. Life for them is not easy at all, but Christmas is coming and the elder sisters are going to a social ball. The days go by and the Matches go on several activities, sometimes laughing, sometimes crying. Pretty Meg is a really successful maid. Boyish Jo writes a lot in the attic and her sister will read her short stories in a local magazine. But suddently, just after their father has fallen seriously ill, sweet Beth contracts scarlet fever in her Samaritarian efforts to help a sick family of their neighbourhood. The novel turns to a dramatic tone but at the end, we are left with the other three sisters congratulating Meg and her fiance.
The novel is about little women and their progress into young womanhood with the additional strains of romance, Beth's terminal illness, the pressures of marriage and the outside world. The joys they find in a loving and creative family life, as well as the individual growth each experiences through small trials and large, comprise one of the major pieces of American juvenile literature.


Selection of edition:


Oeuvres (Works), illustrated by Sol Eytinge, Roberts, 1873.
Little Women, illustrated by Thea Kliors, Dover Classics, 1997.
Les Quatre Filles du Docteur March, illustrated by Adrien Marie, Hetzel.
Little Women, illustrated by Frank Thayer Merrill, Roberts, 1880.
Little Women, illustrated by Alice Barber Stephens, 1902.
Little Women, illustrated by C.E. Brock, Pearson, 1904.
Little Women, illustrated by Jessie Wilcox, Brown, 1915 (8 ill.)


Adaptations:


Alcott's drama has been adapted to the screen by several directors. In 1933, George Cukor filmed a version of the American classic with Katherine Hepburn starring Jo March. Mervyn Le Roy's film of 1949 was also quite successful, and notice Elisabeth Taylor's role as Amy March. The most recent adaptation is Gillian Amstrong's Little Women of 1994, with Susan Sarandon playing Marmee March and Winona Ryder her boyish daughter Jo.