Little Women — The Companion Edition (eBook)

"Christmas won't be Christmas without any presents." With that grumble, Louisa May Alcott opens the most beloved family novel in American literature — and this edition gives you the whole of it.

This is the complete Little Women: Part First (Roberts Brothers, Boston, 1868) and Part Second (1869; published in Britain as Good Wives) in one volume — all forty-seven chapters, 185,663 words, unabridged, collated against scans of the original Roberts Brothers printings. Part First alone is not the whole work, and this edition never pretends otherwise: the marriages, the farewell in "The Valley of the Shadow," and the harvest at Plumfield all live in Part Second, and all of them are here.

Around the novel stands a companion written for reading together: an introduction telling how Alcott — who had never wanted to write a girls' book — wrote it to order in Concord in a matter of weeks, and how her readers' letters demanded the second part; a Who's Who of the March household and their world, each entry with the thread to watch; four explainers — the Civil War home front, the March household economy and period money (what Jo's twenty-five dollars for her hair really meant), the Pilgrim's Progress frame Alcott builds the whole novel on, and transcendentalist Concord, where Emerson and Thoreau were the Alcotts' neighbours; a short life of Louisa May Alcott; a six-meeting reading schedule, three meetings per part; and discussion questions for every stretch of the book plus a whole-book set — spoiler-fenced by part, so Part Second's outcomes stay secret until their chapters.

The novel's text is public domain worldwide. All companion material is original to this edition. This is an independent publication, not affiliated with or endorsed by any film or stage adaptation, and no likeness or design from any adaptation is used.

Formats: EPUB eBook ($9.99, this listing). Paperback and hardcover follow on KDP; the printable Book Club Kit is available in this store.