Little Men, Louisa May Alcott
Little Men, Louisa May Alcott
List: $17.99 | Sale: $12.59
Club: $8.99

Little Men

Author: Louisa May Alcott

Narrator: Justine Eyre

Unabridged: 10 hr 2 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 02/15/2010

Includes: Bonus Material Bonus Material Included


Synopsis

Little Men brilliantly extends the March family saga begun in Louisa May Alcott's classic Little Women. Jo—now married to the good-natured Professor Bhaer and with sons of her own—has become the unflappable matron of an extended family at Plumfield, a school that the Bhaers have founded with Aunt March's legacy. Jo's rambunctious youngsters grow up in an atmosphere full of high spirits and misadventure—a world enlivened by Alcott's unique powers of observation and sympathy.

About Louisa May Alcott

Louisa May Alcott was born in Germantown, Pennsylvania, on November 29, 1832. She and her three sisters—Anna, Elizabeth, and May—were educated by their father, philosopher/ teacher Bronson Alcott, and raised on the practical Christianity of their mother, Abigail May.

Louisa spent her childhood in Boston and in Concord, Massachusetts, where her days were enlightened by visits to Ralph Waldo Emerson's library, excursions into nature with Henry David Thoreau, and theatricals in the barn at Hillside. Like her character Jo March from Little Women, young Louisa was a tomboy.

For Louisa, writing was an early passion. She had a rich imagination, and often her stories became melodramas that she and her sisters would act out for friends. At age fifteen, troubled by the poverty that plagued her family, she vowed to make something of herself. Confronting a society that offered little opportunity to women seeking employment, Louisa remained determined; whether as a teacher, seamstress, governess, or household servant, for many years Louisa did any work she could find.

Louisa's career as an author began with poetry and short stories that appeared in popular magazines. In 1854, when she was twenty-two, her first book, Flower Fables, was published. Another milestone along her literary path was Hospital Sketches, which was based on the letters she had written home from her post as a nurse in Washington, D.C., during the Civil War.

When Louisa was thirty-five, her publisher asked her to write a book for girls. Thus, she wrote Little Women, which is based on Louisa and her sisters' coming of age and is set in Civil War New England. Jo March was the first American juvenile heroine to act from her own individuality; a living, breathing person rather than the idealized stereotype that was then prevalent in children's fiction.

In all, Louisa published over thirty books and collections of stories. She died on March 6, 1888, only two days after her father.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Fabian on September 01, 2020

Do yourself a favor, o learned reader of mine: if you love Jo from "Little Women" with as much fervor as her progenitor, Bronson Alcott's famed and very original daughter*, then do not read this sequel. Its like the "Go Set a Watchman" of its time. But worse! Uninspired drudge, it makes one compelli......more

Goodreads review by Jesse on July 16, 2015

There is not another book in all of literature that I hold as dear as this one; I never expect to find another that gives me half as much pleasure. It would be impossible to count how many times I've read it over the years (it has to be dozens and dozens by now), and it remains a locale of constant......more

Goodreads review by Calista on February 16, 2019

I adore the book 'Little Women'. I read that when I was much younger. I have read much more widely since then and I have become accustomed to the modern pacing. My point is, I think I would have enjoyed this a little bit more when I was younger. As a modern reader, pacing and stories have changed. T......more

Goodreads review by Werner on July 26, 2019

Note, July 26, 2019: I've just edited this review to correct a chronological error --thanks for pointing it out, Shannen! Although this is the second novel of Alcott's Little Women trilogy (Part 2 of Little Women, the first novel, was first published separately as Good Wives, but after that, the two......more