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Little Women

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Novels

   Little Women is a novel by Louisa May Alcott published on September 30,
   1868, concerning the lives and loves of four sisters growing up during
   the American Civil War. It was based on Alcott's own experiences as a
   child in Concord, Massachusetts. After much demand, Louisa May Alcott
   wrote a sequel, Good Wives, which was published in 1869 and is often
   published together with Little Women as if it were a single work. Good
   Wives picks up three years after the events in the last chapter of
   Little Women ("Aunt March Settles The Question"), and includes
   characters and events often felt by fans to be essential to the Little
   Women story.

   Alcott later wrote Little Men and Jo's Boys (which followed the lives
   of the girls' children), and An Old Fashioned Girl, Rose in Bloom and
   How They Turned Out.

Plot introduction

   Alcott's original work explores the overcoming of character flaws by
   following the example of Christian in Pilgrim's Progress (many of the
   chapter titles in this first part are allusions to the allegorical
   concepts and places in Pilgrim's Progress). The girls' "guidebooks" in
   their figurative quest are the Bibles they each receive on Christmas
   morning in Chapter two. Each of the March girls displays a major
   character flaw: Meg, greed; Jo, anger; Beth, crippling shyness; and
   Amy, selfishness. They overcome their flaws through lessons learned the
   hard way. Most of the flaws are in check for a time after lessons are
   learned, but even as young women the girls must work out these flaws in
   order to become archetypal mothers, wives, sisters, and citizens. Yet
   despite the moralizing in Little Women, and Alcott’s employment of the
   often used theme of "the good die young" (Beth) when it was published
   it was considered a break from the didactic, prescriptive literature of
   its time.

   In the course of the novel the girls become friends with their
   next-door neighbour Laurie, who becomes a special friend of Jo. As well
   as the more serious themes outlined above, the book describes the
   activities of the sisters and their friend, such as creating a
   newspaper and picnicking, and the scrapes that Jo and Laurie get into.

Characters

   Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.
     * Josephine or "Jo": The protagonist of the novel. Jo is a tomboy and
       the second-oldest sister. She is very outspoken and has a passion
       for writing. Her bold nature often gets her into trouble. She is
       especially close to her younger sister Beth, who helps her become a
       gentler person. Jo cuts off her long hair "her one beauty" - as Amy
       calls it, and sells it to a wig shop to get money for her mother to
       visit their father, a wounded Civil War chaplain. She refuses the
       proposal of marriage from family friend Theodore Laurence
       ("Laurie"), and later marries Professor Fritz Bhaer.

     * Margaret or "Meg": The eldest sister. She is described as being
       very pretty and somewhat vain about her looks, with smooth hair and
       small, white hands. She is the most responsible and helps run the
       household in her mother's absence. Meg also guards Amy from Jo when
       they have fights, just like Jo protects Beth. Due to the family's
       poverty she must work as a governess for wealthy friends. After
       having bad experiences with some rich people, Meg learns to
       tolerate being poor, and eventually discovers that true worth does
       not lie with money. She falls in love with Mr. John Brooke,
       Laurie's poor tutor. She eventually marries Mr. Brooke and bears
       twin children, Margaret ("Daisy") and John, Jr. ("Demi", short for
       "Demi-John").

     * Elizabeth or "Beth": The second-youngest sister, is a quiet, kind
       young woman who loves playing the piano and looking after her
       dolls. She is docile and shy almost to a fault. Beth also engages
       with charity. While her mother is nursing their father, she
       contracts scarlet fever from a poor family and ultimately dies,
       never recovering from her illness. She is described as having a
       round face, and appearing younger than her years.

     * Amy: The youngest sister and a talented artist, Amy is described as
       a beautiful young girl with golden hair (in curls) and blue eyes
       (she is described as having the general traits of a "snow maiden").
       She cares about her family, but is also very self-centered and
       vain, often feeling the need to have what all of the other girls
       have and feeling that she is of "high importance". In her youth she
       is slightly spoiled and is inclined to throw tantrums when things
       do not go her way, being often "petted" since she was the youngest.
       She eventually travels abroad thanks to her aunt Carrol, and
       finally marries Laurie in Good Wives.

     * Margaret March a.k.a. "Marmee": The girls' mother and head of
       household while her husband is away. She engages in charitable
       works and attempts to guide her girls' morals and shape their
       characters.

     * Theodore "Laurie" Laurence: A charming, playful, and rich young man
       who lives next door to the March family with his stern grandfather.
       He is often misunderstood by his grandfather, who loves him, yet
       worries that Laurie will follow in his father's footsteps. His
       father was a free-spirited young man who eloped with an Italian
       pianist and was disowned for that, only to die young of illness
       along with his wife and eldest daughter; Laurie is the only one of
       their little family who survives, and then he's sent to live with
       Mr. Laurence. After Jo refuses to marry him he flees to Europe to
       study art. While there, he falls in love with and marries Amy.

     * Hannah Mullet: The maid of the March family, an older woman, who
       (from a letter written in the first person in the text) is
       described as kind and loyal, if lacking in formal education.

     * Aunt March: A rich widow. She lives alone in her mansion and Jo is
       employed to wait on her each day. Actually Mr. March's aunt, she
       disapproves of his family's charitable work and loss of wealth,
       while throwing her weight around with hers. Amy is sent to be Aunt
       March's "companion" when Beth is ill; though at first she is
       dismayed, her tenure there does the spoiled little girl good.

     * Mrs. Kirke: A friend of Marmee's who runs a boarding house in New
       York. She employs Jo as governess to her two girls, Kitty and
       Minnie, for a time.

     * Professor Friedrich (Fritz) Bhaer: A poor, German immigrant, who
       lives in Mrs. Kirke's boarding house and tutors her children. He
       and Jo become friends and he critiques Jo's work, encouraging her
       to become a serious writer instead of writing "sensation" stories
       for weekly tabloids. The two eventually marry.

     * Mr. March: Formerly wealthy, it is implied that he helped
       unscrupulous friends who did not repay the debt, resulting in the
       family's poverty. A great scholar and a minister, he serves as a
       chaplain for the Union Army.

     * Mr. Laurence: A wealthy neighbour to the Marches. Lonely in his
       mansion, and often at odds with his high-spirited grandson, Laurie,
       he finds comfort in becoming a benefactor to the Marches. He
       admires their charity, and develops a special friendship with Beth,
       who reminds him of his dead granddaughter (Laurie's deceased
       sister).

     * John Brooke: Tutor to Laurie, a naturalized citizen (he is
       English). He falls in love with Meg; she initially rejects him
       until Aunt March prohibits the match, at which point she realizes
       she is in love as well. He serves in the Union Army after late
       1861, and marries Meg after the war.

   Other characters:

   Franz and Emil: Mr. Bhaer's two nephews whom he looks after following
   the death of his sister.

   Miss Norton: A worldly tenant living in Mrs. Kirke's boarding house.
   She occasionally takes Jo under her wing and entertains her.

   The Kings: Family who employ Meg as a governess.

   The Hummels: Very poor German immigrant family. Marmee and the girls,
   though poor themselves, try to help them. Their baby dies of scarlet
   fever and Beth contracts it while caring for the child.

   The Gardiners: Wealthy friends of Meg's. Before the Marches lost their
   wealth, the two families were societal equals. The Gardiners are
   portrayed as good-hearted but vapid, and believing in marriage for
   money and position. Meg's friend Sallie Gardiner eventually marries Ned
   Moffat, but is unhappy in her marriage.

   Uncle and Aunt Carrol: Sister and brother-in-law of Mr. March. Amy
   travels to Europe with them and their daughter Florence.

Major themes

   The Christian theme of the novel is usually lessened in film versions.
   Of the many popular versions, the four-hour miniseries with Dey,
   Birney, and Plumb is considered most faithful to the novel.

Notable adaptations

Play

   Little Women, a play in four acts, adapted by Marian De Forest from the
   story by Louisa May Alcott, opened on Broadway at the Playhouse
   Theatre, on October 14, 1912. The production was directed by Jessie
   Bonstelle and Bertram Harrison. The cast included Marie Pavey, Alice
   Brady, Gladys Hulette and Beverly West. It ran for 184 performances.

   The play was revived on 18 December 1916 at the Park Theatre for 24
   performances.

   Another revival opened on 7 December 1931 at the Playhouse Theatre in a
   production directed by William A. Brady, Jr. with Jessie Royce Landis,
   Marie Curtis and Jane Corcoran. It ran for 17 performances.

Literature

   In 2005, Geraldine Brooks published March, a novel exploring the gaps
   in Little Women, telling the story of Mr. March during the Civil War.
   It won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.

Film

     * 1933 version: Katharine Hepburn as Jo, Spring Byington as Marmee.
     * 1949 version: Elizabeth Taylor as Amy, June Allyson as Jo, Janet
       Leigh as Meg, Margaret O'Brien as Beth, Mary Astor as Marmee, and
       Peter Lawford as Laurie.
     * 1978 version: Meredith Baxter as Meg, Susan Dey as Jo, Eve Plumb as
       Beth, William Shatner as Friedrich Bhaer, Greer Garson as Aunt
       March, and Robert Young as Grandpa James Lawrence.
     * 1994 version: Susan Sarandon as Marmee, Winona Ryder as Jo, Kirsten
       Dunst as the younger Amy, Claire Danes as Beth, Christian Bale as
       Laurie and Samantha Mathis as the older Amy.

   Additional versions appeared in 1917, 1918, 1946,1948, 1950, 1958,
   1970, 1979, and 2001 .

Opera and musical

     * In 1998 the book was adapted as an opera by composer Mark Adamo.

     * In January 23, 2005, a Broadway musical adapted from the book
       opened at the August Wilson Theatre in New York City with book by
       Allan Knee, score by Jason Howland and lyrics by Mindi Dickstein.
       The musical starred pop singer Maureen McGovern (Marmee), of The
       Morning After fame, Sutton Foster (Jo March), and Jenny Powers (Meg
       March). The show closed on May 22, 2005. A national tour, again
       starring Maureen McGovern, began August 30 of that year.

Anime

   In 1987, the Japanese animation studio Nippon Animation did an anime
   adaptation titled Ai no Wakakusa Monogatari (The Story of Love's Young
   Grass). The series was part of the studio's World Masterpiece Theatre
   series of animated adaptations of classic Western literary works. The
   series was directed by Fumio Kurokawa with character designs by
   Yoshifumi Kondo. Saban Entertainment produced an English dubbed version
   (Tales of Little Women) which aired on HBO in the United States in
   1988-89, and the series has also achieved immense popularity in Europe
   (Una per tutte, tutte per una in Italy, Les quatre filles du Docteur
   March in France, Mujercitas in Spain).

   This series changed the name of the town in which the series takes
   place from "Concord" to "Newcord", and also added episodes depicting
   scenes not from the novel at the beginning as a way of introducing the
   characters and educating the Japanese audience about the American Civil
   War, but is otherwise a faithful and highly regarded adaptation. Nippon
   Animation also produced an anime adaptation of Jo's Boys in 1993 for
   the World Masterpiece Theatre, titled Wakakusa monogatari: Nan to
   Jo-sensei (The Story of Young Grass: Nan and Mrs. Jo) and directed by
   Kozo Kusuba.

   Two other anime adaptations of Little Women were made in the early
   1980s: a 1980 TV special produced by Toei Animation and directed by
   Yugo Serikawa, and Wakakusa Monogatari yori: Wakakusa no Yon Shimai
   (From the Story of Young Grass: Four Sisters of Young Grass), a 1981
   Toei Animation/ Kokusai Eigasha TV series directed by Kazuya Miyazaki
   and from the same animation team. The 1981 TV series was also released
   in the United States on video, courtesy of Sony. Still, Nippon
   Animation's 1987 version is the most successful and also widely
   regarded as the best of all anime adaptations of the story. As an
   interesting aside, seiyuu Keiko Han was cast in both the 1981 (as Beth)
   and 1987 (as Meg) TV series.

   In addition, Bakuretsu Tenshi (Burst Angel in English), a 24-episode
   anime TV series which aired in 2004 on TV Asahi and is released in the
   U.S. by Funimation Productions, features main characters named Meg, Jo
   and Amy — which, although the series has nothing to do with Alcott's
   novel, attests to the popularity the story enjoys in Japan to this day.

   A nod to the characters can be seen in the English release of the
   Nintendo 64 game, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. In the Forest
   Temple, the player must solve four puzzles hosted by ghosts by the
   names of Amy, Beth, Joelle and Meg in order to progress through the
   game.

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