'Little Women, The Companion Edition' Presents Alcott's Complete Work, Both Parts, 1868 and 1869, in One Volume

"Little Women, The Companion Edition" Presents Alcott's Complete Work, Both Parts, 1868 and 1869, in One Volume

Part First and Part Second together as Alcott's readers demanded them, collated against the Roberts Brothers printings, with a Who's Who, four explainers, and forty discussion questions fenced so Part Second keeps its secrets

NEW YORK, Oct. 30, 2026, In the spring of 1868, a Boston publisher asked Louisa May Alcott to write a book for girls, and Alcott, who recorded in her journal that she had "never liked girls or knew many, except my sisters", wrote it anyway, at speed, and doubted it as she wrote. *Little Women* appeared that autumn and sold out almost at once; readers wrote in demanding more, and demanding, above all, that Jo marry Laurie. The second part followed in 1869 (in Britain it was titled *Good Wives*), and the two parts together became the book the world has read ever since. A new Companion Classics edition, Little Women, The Companion Edition, presents that complete work, Part First (Roberts Brothers, Boston, 1868) and Part Second (1869) in one volume, all forty-seven chapters, 185,663 words, unabridged, taken from Project Gutenberg eBook #514 and collated against Internet Archive scans of the Roberts Brothers printings. Part First alone is not the whole work, and this edition never presents it as such: the part division is marked at Chapter 24, and everything Part Second holds, the marriages, "The Valley of the Shadow," and the harvest at Plumfield, is here.

Around the novel, the companion material, all of it original to this edition, includes an introduction telling how the book was commissioned and written, the reluctant author, the twelve "dull" chapters her publisher doubted too, the niece who wanted to know what happened next, and the readers who lobbied for Jo's marriage like matchmakers; a Who's Who of the March household and their world in fifteen entries, each with the thread to watch; four explainers, the Civil War home front, the March household economy and period money (what Jo's twenty-five dollars for her hair really meant in 1860s wages), the *Pilgrim's Progress* frame Alcott builds the whole novel on, and transcendentalist Concord, where Emerson and Thoreau were the Alcotts' neighbours; a short life of Louisa May Alcott; a six-meeting reading schedule, three meetings per part; and forty discussion questions, chapter-group sets for every stretch of the book plus a whole-book set, spoiler-fenced by part, and within Part Second by chapter group, so the marriages and the death in Part Second stay secret until their chapters.

Alongside the book, the Little Women, Book Club Kit offers the edition's discussion material as a printable PDF (19 pages, US Letter) for reading groups: the six-meeting reading plan across both parts, the Who's Who and the four explainers in full, the short life of Alcott, all forty discussion questions arranged by meeting so nobody reads a spoiler before its chapters, notes pages, and the kit's signature activity, "The Pickwick Portfolio", the March sisters' own family newspaper from Chapter 10, rebuilt as a thirty-minute activity in which the club writes, edits, and reads aloud a Portfolio of its own. The kit is available for $7 through the editor's Payhip store: https://payhip.com/horaceharriottjr

Little Women, The Companion Edition is available now as an eBook ($9.99) through Payhip: https://payhip.com/horaceharriottjr, and in The Classics and Companions Shop on the editor's Linktree. Print editions follow on Amazon (paperback, $19.99; hardcover, $29.99, the 691-page interior exceeds KDP's 550-page hardcover cap at 6×9, so the hardcover will be set in a larger trim at KDP time). The text is public domain worldwide (Louisa May Alcott died in 1888); all companion material is original to this edition. This is an independent publication, not affiliated with or endorsed by any film or stage adaptation, and no likeness or design from any adaptation is used.

About the editor

Horace Harriott Jr. is a New York-based author and editor of more than two dozen books, including The Side Hustle Handbook, Master Playbook and The Ultimate Commissary Cookbook. This edition is part of his Companion Classics series of reading-together editions of public-domain classics.

About the book

Little Women, The Companion Edition, The Complete Work: Part First (1868) and Part Second (1869), With an Introduction, Explainers, and Discussion Questions, Louisa May Alcott (author), Horace Harriott Jr. (editor). Companion Classics, independently published, October 2026. Text: Part First (Roberts Brothers, Boston, 1868) and Part Second (Roberts Brothers, 1869), via Project Gutenberg eBook #514, collated against Internet Archive scans of the Roberts Brothers printings; 47 chapters; 185,663 words; interior proof 691 pages, 6 x 9 in.