little women (puffin classics)

Puffin Classics: the definitive collection of timeless stories, for every child

Rediscover the Puffin Classics collection and bring the best-loved classics to a new generation - including this charming edition Little Women complete with a stunning new cover. Christmas won't be the same this year in the March household, with Father at war and Mother struggling to make ends meet. But even though times are tough, the March sisters' spirits remain high! Together, through love, heartache, and a 'misplaced' manuscript, Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy learn that growing up and into the 'little women' society expects them to be is going to be much harder than they thought...

Louisa May Alcott (1832-88) was brought up in Pennsylvania, USA. She turned to writing in order to supplement the family income and had many short stories published in magazines and newspapers. Then, in 1862, during the height of the American Civil War, Louisa went to Georgetown to work as a nurse, but she contracted typhoid. Out of her experiences she wrote Hospital Sketches (1864) which won wide acclaim, followed by an adult novel, Moods. She was reluctant to write a children's book but then realized that in herself and her three sisters she had the perfect models. The result was Little Women (1868) which became the earliest American children's novel to become a classic.