Little Women

Louisa M. Alcott
Abridged by W. Dingwall Fordyce
Illustrations by Norman Little

Louisa May Alcott’s beloved children’s novel Little Women is one of the classics of American literature. The novel follows the lives of the March sisters Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy and details their passage from childhood to womanhood during the years of the American Civil War. The story was loosely based on Alcott and her sisters’ own experiences of growing up in Concord, Massachusetts. The book became an immediate roaring success when it was published on 30 September 1868. The first two thousand copies sold out at once and it has never been out of print since. This 150th-anniversary facsimile edition faithfully reproduces an abridged version of the book published in 1910. It presents the story in an easy-to-read format, accompanied by delightful colour drawings illustrating key moments in the story by the Australian artist Norman Little. Beautifully produced as a quarter-bound hardback printed on high-quality paper, it is a perfect gift for readers of all ages.

Louisa May Alcott (1832–88) was an American novelist and poet, best known as the author of the novel Little Women (1868) and its sequels Little Men (1871) and Jo’s Boys(1886).

W. Dingwall Fordyce was the author of the adventure novels for children Our Secret Society, The Gun-Runners, In Search of Gold and The Jewelled Lizard, among other books. He also wrote abridged versions of classic novels, including Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels, Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Tanglewood Tales and Louisa M. Alcott’s Little Women.

Norman Little (1883–1917) was an Australian artist and illustrator. He illustrated several books, including The Gateway to Tennyson and Faust and Marguerite, and produced many drawings, watercolours, and oil paintings of rural and military life. One of his paintings is held by the National Army Museum. He served with the Royal Fusiliers 11th Batallion as a lieutenant, and was killed in action in 1917.