It is doubtful whether any novel has been more important to America's female writers than Louisa May Alcott's Little Women, the story of the four March sisters living in genteel poverty in Massachusetts in the eighteen-sixties.Little Women is a novel by American author Louisa May Alcott (1832-1888) which was originally published in two volumes in 1868 and 1869. Following the lives of the four March sisters - Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy - the novel details their passage from childhood to womanhood and is loosely based on the lives of the author and her three sisters.'Perhaps no other book provided a greater guide, as I set out on my youthful path, than Louisa May Alcott's most beloved novel, Little Women.' - Patti Smith'Little Women is about the resourcefulness, power, and imagination of women' - The Atlantic'From Simone de Beauvoir to Stephenie Meyer, the world that Louisa May Alcott created has been an inspiration for generations of female writers.' - The New Yorker'Don't let the diminutive title fool you. Little Women is major.' - New York Times