Little Men: Life at Plumfield with Jo’s Boys

Little Men: Life at Plumfield with Jo’s Boys
Louisa May Alcott

HarperCollins is proud to present its incredible range of best-loved, essential classics.Little Men is the delightful unofficial sequel to Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women, reprising the much-cherished characters of the March family and friends, as well as some unforgettable new ones.The warm-hearted and fiesty Jo March returns (now as Jo Bhaer) and, together with husband Friedrich and the inheritance of an estate from Aunt March, opens Plumfield Estate, an unconventional school based on individuality and diversity. Jo’s own boys, a number of rescued orphans, and her nieces are all encouraged to be kind, helpful, and self-sufficient, tending their own gardens and running their own businesses. Fun and learning go hand in hand, and pillow fights are even permitted on Saturdays.Personal relationships are key to the school, as well as to the novel, and the lovable characters get up to plenty of scrapes and adventures, but in the end, even the troublesome among them find redemption in the love and support of the extended March family.

LITTLE MEN

Louisa May Alcott

TO

FREDDY AND JOHNNY,

THE LITTLE MEN

TO WHOM SHE OWES SOME OF THE BEST AND

HAPPIEST HOURS OF HER LIFE,

THIS BOOK IS GRATEFULLY DEDICATED

BY THEIR LOVING

“AUNT WEEDY”

CONTENTS

Title Page (#ud1553bf9-f7a4-5f58-b0c3-4d64bcf111fc)

Dedication (#u32c59b9e-bdc4-5a53-ba2f-6ffa449e1b1e)

History of Collins

Life & Times (#u50d3515a-2766-5885-a599-b73c3196a241)

Chapter 1: Nat

Chapter 2: The Boys

Chapter 3: Sunday

Chapter 4: Stepping-Stones

Chapter 5: Pattypans

Chapter 6: A Fire Brand

Chapter 7: Naughty Nan

Chapter 8: Pranks and Plays

Chapter 9: Daisy’s Ball

Chapter 10: Home Again

Chapter 11: Uncle Teddy

Chapter 12: Huckleberries

Chapter 13: Goldilocks

Chapter 14: Damon and Pythias

Chapter 15: In the Willow

Chapter 16: Taming the Colt

Chapter 17: Composition Day

Chapter 18: Crops

Chapter 19: John Brooke

Chapter 20: Round the Fire

Chapter 21: Thanksgiving

Classic Literature: Words and Phrases adapted from the Collins English Dictionary (#litres_trial_promo)

Copyright (#litres_trial_promo)

About the Publisher (#litres_trial_promo)

History of Collins (#ubec9624d-7cd1-5875-b993-0d83a6f0d064)

In 1819, millworker William Collins from Glasgow, Scotland, set up a company for printing and publishing pamphlets, sermons, hymn books, and prayer books. That company was Collins and was to mark the birth of HarperCollins Publishers as we know it today. The long tradition of Collins dictionary publishing can be traced back to the first dictionary William published in 1824, Greek and English Lexicon. Indeed, from 1840 onwards, he began to produce illustrated dictionaries and even obtained a licence to print and publish the Bible.

Soon after, William published the first Collins novel, Ready Reckoner; however, it was the time of the Long Depression, where harvests were poor, prices were high, potato crops had failed, and violence was erupting in Europe. As a result, many factories across the country were forced to close down and William chose to retire in 1846, partly due to the hardships he was facing.

Age 30, William’s son, William II, took over the business. A keen humanitarian with a warm heart and a generous spirit, William II was truly “Victorian” in his outlook. He introduced new, up-to-date steam presses and published affordable editions of Shakespeare’s works and The Pilgrim’s Progress, making them available to the masses for the first time. A new demand for educational books meant that success came with the publication of travel books, scientific books, encyclopedias, and dictionaries. This demand to be educated led to the later publication of atlases, and Collins also held the monopoly on scripture writing at the time.

In the 1860s Collins began to expand and diversify and the idea of “books for the millions” was developed. Affordable editions of classical literature were published, and in 1903 Collins introduced 10 titles in their Collins Handy Illustrated Pocket Novels. These proved so popular that a few years later this had increased to an output of 50 volumes, selling nearly half a million in their year of publication. In the same year, The Everyman’s Library was also instituted, with the idea of publishing an affordable library of the most important classical works, biographies, religious and philosophical treatments, plays, poems, travel, and adventure. This series eclipsed all competition at the time, and the introduction of paperback books in the 1950s helped to open that market and marked a high point in the industry.

HarperCollins is and has always been a champion of the classics, and the current Collins Classics series follows in this tradition – publishing classical literature that is affordable and available to all. Beautifully packaged, highly collectible, and intended to be reread and enjoyed at every opportunity.

Life & Times (#ulink_488aa615-ccfe-5d27-a1d5-e4937f74407f)

About the Author

Louisa May Alcott was born into a family of American transcendentalists, the second of four daughters. Transcendentalism was essentially a movement initiated in reaction to a feeling that society was eroding its mores and was consequently in need of reform. Alcott was therefore immersed in an environment of progressive thinking and intellectualization during her formative years. This included a strong moral objection to the notion of slavery, which would become the lynchpin of the American Civil War (1861–1865). The Alcotts hid a runaway slave in their house in 1847, such was their level of commitment to the cause.