Synopses & Reviews
At Plumfield, an experimental school for boys, the little scholars can do very much as they please, even slide down banisters. For this is what writer Jo Bhaer, once Jo March of Little Women, always wanted: a house “swarming with boys…in all stages of…effervescence.” At the end of Little Women, Jo inherited the Plumfield estate from her diamond-in-the-rough Aunt March. Now she and her husband, Professor Bhaer, provide their irrepressible charges with a very different sort of education—and much love. In fact, Jo confesses, she hardly knows “which I like best, writing or boys.” Here is the story of the ragged orphan Nat, spoiled Stuffy, wild Dan, and all the other lively inhabitants of Plumfield, whose adventures have captivated generations of readers.
Review
"The Thackeray, the Trollope, of the nursery and the schoolroom."—
Henry James
Review
“A natural source of stories...she is, and is to be, the poet of children.”—Ralph Waldo Emerson
“The novelist of children…the Thackeray, the Trollope, of the nursery and the schoolroom.”—Henry James
“The best boys—in the literary sense—that we have ever come across.”—London Spectator
Synopsis
In picturesque nineteenth-century New England, tomboyish Jo, beautiful Meg, fragile Beth, and romantic Amy come of age while their father is off to war.
Synopsis
The beloved sequel to Little Women, this classic continues the story of Jo March, who goes on to get married and inherit an estate with which she creates an experimental school for boys.
Synopsis
This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book.
Synopsis
The beloved sequel to Little Women, this classic continues the story of Jo March, who goes on to get married and inherit an estate with which she creates an experimental school for boys.
About the Author
Louisa May Alcott was born in Germantown, Pennsylvania, in 1832, and grew up in Concord, Massachusetts. She was the second of four daughters of Abba May and Bronson Alcott, a prominent transcendentalist thinker and social reformer whose idealistic preoccupations caused him to neglect his family’s practical needs. Louisa began to shoulder her family’s financial burdens at a young age—as a domestic, as a teacher, and as a writer, producing everything from sketches of her Civil War nursing experiences to pseudonymous, lurid thrillers. Fame and fortune came with the publication of
Little Women in 1868-1869, a novel based upon her childhood experiences. This was followed by other books in the
Little Women Series, all of them enormously popular:
An Old-Fashioned Girl in 1870,
Little Men in 1871,
Eight Cousins in 1875, its sequel,
Rose in Bloom, in 1876,
Under the Lilacs in 1878,
Jack and Jill in 1880, and finally, in 1886,
Jo’s Boys, the sequel to
Little Men. Among her other books was the autobiographical novel
Work: A Story of Experience in 1873. She was active in the women’s suffrage and temperance movements until her death in 1888.
John Matteson holds doctoral degrees from Harvard and Columbia Universities. He is a professor of English at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York City and is deputy director of the Leon Levy Center for Biography. Matteson is the author of
The Lives of Margaret Fuller and
Eden's Outcasts: The Story of Louisa May Alcott and Her Father. For the latter book, he was awarded the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for Biography.
J. T. Barbarese is the author of three books of poems, including
A Very Small World, and a translation of Euripedes’
The Children of Heracles. His poems have appeared in
The Atlantic Monthly, Boulevard, The Georgia Review, The Denver Quarterly, The Cortland Review and
Poetry, and his literary journalism in numerous publications, from
The Journal of Modern Literature to
the New York Times. He is an assistant professor of English and creative writing at Rutgers University, where he teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in poetry, fiction, playwriting, Romanticism and children’s literature.
Table of Contents
Little Women Preface
Part I
1. Playing Pilgrims
2. A Merry Christmas
3. The Laurence Boy
4. Burdens
5. Being Neighborly
6. Beth Finds the Palace Beautiful
7. Amy's Valley of Humiliation
8. Jo Meets Apollyon
9. Meg Goes to Vanity Fair
10. The P. C. and P. O.
11. Experiments
12. Camp Laurence
13. Castles in the Air
14. Secrets
15. A Telegram
16. Letters
17. Little Faithful
18. Dark Days
19. Amy's Will
20. Confidential
21. Laurie Makes Mischief, and Jo Makes Peace
22. Pleasant Meadows
23. Aunt March Settles the Question
Part II
24. Gossip
25. The First Wedding
26. Artistic Attempts
27. Literary Lessons
28. Domestic Experiences
29. Calls
30. Consequences
31. Our Foreign Correspondent
32. Tender Troubles
33. Jo's Journal
34. A Friend
35. Heartache
36. Beth's Secret
37. New Impressions
38. On the Shelf
39. Lazy Laurence
40. The Valley of the Shadow
41. Learning to Forget
42. All Alone
43. Surprises
44. My Lord and Lady
45. Daisy and Demi
46. Under the Umbrella
47. Harvest Time
Afterword