Little Women

Little Women Summary | Part 1: Chapter 1 Summary

Louisa May Alcott's best-known book opens with the four main characters feeling somewhat sorry for themselves. Sisters Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy March sit around the fireplace in their small but comfortable home discussing how bleak Christmas will seem with no presents and their father away at war. The sisters discuss how they ought to spend their own dollars to buy small presents for themselves. The idea that they deserve Christmas presents leads to each girl complaining about the hardships of her daily life.

Alcott briefly describes the physical attributes of each sister:

¬         Meg is a pretty sixteen year old with fair skin and soft brown hair.

¬         Jo, fifteen, is tall with large hands and feet. She is somewhat gangly and clumsy. Alcott describes her as a colt. Jo has long, thick brown hair.

¬         Beth, who is thirteen, is shy and quiet. She has rosy cheeks and smooth hair.

¬         Amy is the youngest and most beautiful sister. She has blond curls and striking blue eyes.

The mood in the room changes as the clock strikes six in the evening and signals the arrival of Marmee, the girl's beloved mother. As the sisters prepare for Marmee, a gentle Beth says she will spend her dollar to buy new slippers for her mother. The sisters agree to buy their mother Christmas gifts rather than spend their money on themselves.

Marmee has a letter from Mr. March, who is a chaplain with the Union Army during the Civil War. The girls gather around their mother as she reads the message to his daughters:

"Give them all my dear love and a kiss…A year seems very long to wait before I see them, but remind them that while we wait we may all work, so that when I come back home I may be fonder and prouder than ever of my little women."

The letter touches the little family, and the girls recall lessons they have learned from acting out scenes from their favorite book, The Pilgrim's Progress. The sisters vow to live out these lessons in real life and make their father proud.