Key themes
- Each sister as a different map of womanhood — and what each costs
- Jo March and the woman writer who must choose between art and life
- The domestic as both prison and the ground of love
About this book
Four sisters growing up in Civil War New England; warm, wise and quietly radical about what a woman's life can be.
Published in two volumes in 1868-69, Little Women was written quickly on contract and became an immediate sensation. Alcott reportedly disliked the sentimental domesticity she was asked to provide but created characters and a world that outlasted her ambivalence.
Discussion questions
- Jo is the novel's most beloved character and the one who most clearly represents Alcott's own ambivalence. How does the novel treat Jo's desire for independence — as heroic, as dangerous, or as something that must be contained?
- The four sisters — Meg, Jo, Beth, Amy — embody four different ways of being a woman in the 19th century. Whose life would you most and least want — and what does your answer say about what the novel values?
- Beth's death is one of Victorian literature's most discussed sentimental passages. How does Alcott handle it — and does sentiment serve the novel here or betray it?
- Alcott resisted the publisher's request to marry Jo off but eventually gave her Professor Bhaer instead of Laurie. Does the ending feel right — and what would the novel mean if Jo had remained unmarried?
- Little Women was autobiographical and the March family is based on the Alcotts. Does knowing this change how you read the characters — particularly Jo, who represents Alcott herself?
Get the book
Links open an Amazon search. As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.
Read together or read next
Books that make a good pairing or natural follow-up.
Reading it with your group?
Get Little Women
As an Amazon Associate and Bookshop.org affiliate we earn from qualifying purchases.