"C. M. [Hébert] reads the story with the gentle affection and conviction one imagines in Jo March as she reads to her elderly aunt."--AudioFile

This favorite book for children, based on the author's own youthful experiences, describes the family life of the Marches in a small New England community. Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy March are raised in genteel poverty by their loving mother Marmee while their father serves as chaplain during the American Civil War. Jo at 15 is ungainly, unconventional, and enterprising, with an ambition to be an author. Meg, a year older, is pretty and wishes to be a lady. Beth is a delicate child of 13 with a taste for music. Amy is a blonde beauty of 12. The story explores their domestic adventures, their attempts to increase the family's small income, their friendship with the neighboring Laurence family, and their later love affairs and destinies as women.