Little Women was an immediate commercial and critical success, with readers eager for more about the characters. Alcott quickly completed a second volume (titled Good Wives in the United Kingdom, though the name originated with the publisher and not Alcott). It was also met with success. The two volumes were issued in 1880 as a single novel titled Little Women. Alcott subsequently wrote two sequels to her popular work, both also featuring the March sisters: Little Men (1871) and Jo's Boys (1886).
The novel has been said to address three major themes: "domesticity, work, and true love, all of them interdependent and each necessary to the achievement of its heroine's individual identity." According to Sarah Elbert, Alcott created a new form of literature, one that took elements from romantic children's fiction and combined it with others from sentimental novels, resulting in a totally new genre. Elbert argues that within Little Women can be found the first vision of the "All-American girl" and that her various aspects are embodied in the differing March sisters.
The book has been translated into numerous languages, and frequently adapted for stage and screen.
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Louisa May Alcott (1832-1888) föddes och levde i USA. Alcott var dotter till filosofen och fritänkaren Bronson Alcott, som ingick i kretsen av transcendentalister. Fadern var särskilt intresserad av pedagogiska experiment, och Louisa May Alcott ägnade en stor del av sitt liv åt att förverkliga faderns idéer.
Hon är mest känd för sin ungdomsroman Unga kvinnor (Little Women), som senare lett till flera filmatiseringar, men har även skrivit fabler, gotiska berättelser och romaner för vuxna.
