Little Men: Life at Plumfield with Jo's Boys

Little Men: Life at Plumfield with Jo’s Boys is a novel by American author Louisa May Alcott, first published in 1871. The novel reprises characters from Little Women and is considered by some the second book in an unofficial Little Women trilogy, completed with Alcott’s 1886 novel Jo’s Boys, and How They Turned Out: A Sequel to Little Men. It tells the story of Jo Bhaer and the children at Plumfield Estate School. It was inspired by the death of Alcott’s brother-in-law, revealing itself in one of the last chapters, when a beloved character from Little Women passes away. It has been adapted to a 1934 film, a 1940 film, a 1998 film, a television series, and a Japanese animated television series.

An Old-Fashioned Girl

An Old-Fashioned Girl is a novel by Louisa May Alcott. It was first serialized in the Merry’s Museum Magazine between July-August in 1869 and consisted of only six chapters. For the finished product, however, Alcott continued the story from the chapter “Six Years Afterwards,” ending with nineteen chapters. The book revolves around Polly Milton, the old-fashioned girl who titles the story. Polly visits her wealthy friend Fanny Shaw in the city and is overwhelmed by the fashionable and urban life they live, but also left out because of her “countrified” manners and outdated clothes. The novel was the basis of a 1949 musical film starring Gloria Jean as Polly.

Little Women

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Little Women is a novel by American author Louisa May Alcott (1832-1888), originally published in two volumes in 1868 and 1869. Alcott wrote the books rapidly over several months at the request of her publisher. The novel follows the lives of four sisters, Meg; Jo; Beth; and Amy March, detailing their passage from childhood to womanhood, and is loosely based on the author and her three sisters.

     Little Women was an immediate commercial and critical success, and readers demanded to know more about the characters. Alcott quickly completed a second volume (entitled Good Wives in the United Kingdom, although this name derived from the publisher and not from Alcott.) It was also successful. The two volumes were issued in 1880 in a single work entitled Little Women. Alcott also wrote two sequels to her popular work, both of which also featured the March sisters: Little Men (1871) and Jo’s Boys (1886.) Although Little Women was a novel for girls, it differed notably from the current writings for children, especially girls. The novel addressed three major themes: domesticity, work, and true love, all of them interdependent and each necessary to the achievement of its heroine’s individual identity.”