Little Women
Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy March come of age in Concord, Massachusetts while their father is away as a Union Army chaplain, their mother holds their genteel poverty together, and the boy next door, Laurie, drifts into their orbit. Louisa May Alcott traces each sister's ambition, from Jo's writing and refusal to marry for security to Meg's traditional household to Amy's pursuit of art in Europe and Beth's quiet constancy, across nearly a decade of chapters. The novel has been read for a century and a half as both a family chronicle and an early, forthright portrait of women imagining lives beyond the expectations handed to them.
Where Little Women keeps showing up
Two of our editors' lists feature this novel.
Books in conversation with Little Women
A few of the closest reads from our full list.
What you might want to know about Little Women
The questions readers send us most often, answered without spoilers.
Four sisters, Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy March, grow up together in Civil War Massachusetts while their father is away as an army chaplain. Across two volumes the novel follows their plays, illnesses, marriages, and writing.
Yes. Little Women was first published in 1868 and 1869 (in two volumes) and is in the public domain. Free editions are available legally through Project Gutenberg, Standard Ebooks, and similar archives.
Yes, many times. Notable film adaptations include 1933 (Katharine Hepburn), 1949 (June Allyson), 1994 (Winona Ryder), and 2019 (Saoirse Ronan, directed by Greta Gerwig). The Gerwig version is widely considered the most ambitious adaptation.
Little Women was written by Louisa May Alcott, published in 1868 by The Floating Press.
Little Women is 396 pages in standard print editions, though page counts vary slightly between hardcover, paperback, and large-print formats.
At an average reading pace of about 250 words per minute, Little Women takes most readers 6 to 9 hours to finish.
Little Women is a standalone novel by Louisa May Alcott, not part of a series.
Little Women is available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats from Amazon, Bookshop.org, ThriftBooks, and most major bookstores.
