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Little Women

by Louisa May Alcott

The four March sisters face a Christmas with no presents.

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Original language: EnglishLevel: Intermediate3,539 characters · ≈ 6 minSource: Project Gutenberg

Opening lines

“Christmas won’t be Christmas without any presents,” grumbled Jo, lying on the rug.

“It’s so dreadful to be poor!” sighed Meg, looking down at her old dress.

“I don’t think it’s fair for some girls to have plenty of pretty things, and other girls nothing at all,” added little Amy, with an injured sniff.

“We’ve got Father and Mother, and each other,” said Beth contentedly from her corner.

The four young faces on which the firelight shone brightened at the cheerful words, but darkened again as Jo said sadly, “We haven’t got Father, and shall not have him for a long time.” She didn’t say “perhaps never,” but each silently added it, thinking of Father far away, where the fighting was.…

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About the book

Little Women is a coming-of-age novel by American writer Louisa May Alcott, originally published in two volumes in 1868 and 1869 and loosely based on the author's own life. It follows the four March sisters—Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy—as they grow from childhood into womanhood, addressing themes of domesticity, work, and true love. The book was an immediate success, has been translated into many languages, and is frequently adapted for stage and screen.

About the author

Louisa May Alcott (November 29, 1832 – March 6, 1888) was an American novelist, short story writer, and poet. She is best known for the novel Little Women (1868) and its sequels Good Wives (1869), Little Men (1871), and Jo's Boys (1886).

Summary prepared with AI from Wikipedia: Little Women (CC BY-SA)

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Word glosses and sentence translations are generated in context by AI models (DeepSeek and Zhipu GLM), and every word is checked to have a gloss. AI can make mistakes; you can report problems from the book page.

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