Little Women Books

Read Little Women, Little Men, and Jo's Boys in that order. Library of America describes those three complete novels as the March family trilogy, and each later book moves forward in Jo's life and the lives of the children at Plumfield.

Little Women first appeared in two parts in 1868 and 1869; the second part is also known as Good Wives. Most modern complete editions—including the edition represented on this page—contain both parts under the title Little Women, so Good Wives should not be counted as a separate fourth novel.

Sources: Library of America's official March family trilogy edition, Penguin Random House's Little Women continuations.

These classics include illness and a central character's death, grief, poverty, war-related absence, an injury from falling through ice, school punishment, romantic disappointment, and later references to shipwreck, crime, and murder. Nineteenth-century gender expectations, religious language, and social attitudes may invite discussion, and unabridged editions use older vocabulary and long descriptive passages.