Little Men

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Little Men
Author	Louisa May Alcott
Language	English
Genre(s)	children's literature
Publisher	lo
Publication date	1871
Preceded by	Little Women
Followed by	Jo's Boys

Little Men (published 1871) is considered the second book of the Little Women trilogy written by Louisa May Alcott. (The book Good Wives (1869) was originally the sequel to the novel Little Women (1868), however those two novels are now usually published as a single volume.) This book was inspired by the death of her brother-in-law, which reveals itself in one of the last chapters, when a beloved character from Little Women passes away, affecting the entire cast of characters. The final book of the trilogy is Jo's Boys (1886).

[edit] Plot Details

Little Men follows the life of Jo Bhaer and the students who live and learn at the Plumfield Estate School that she runs with her husband, Professor Bhaer. The mischievous children, whom she loves and cares for as her own, learn valuable lessons as they become proper gentlemen and ladies. We also get cameo appearances of almost all the characters found in the previous books, almost all of them happy and well. Meg's older two children, Demi and Daisy joined the school as well as Mr. Bhaer's German nephews Franz and Emil.

The story begins with the arrival of Nathaniel "Nat" Blake, a shy young orphan with a talent for playing the violin and a penchant for telling fibs. Through his eyes we are introduced to the majority of the characters, from the Bhaers' children to other classmates. We follow Nat's life from April through Thanksgiving, meeting new students and playing games and having adventures throughout. Each student has his or her own struggles: Nat lies, Demi is naïve to the point of living out of reality,but is adored by mother and sister alike,and swears that he will be like 'parpar' after John Brooke (Meg's husband) dies, Emil has a bad temper, Dan is rebellious and rude, Tommy is careless (and once sets the house afire), Annie alias Nan is too tomboyish, Daisy is too prim and even weak-willed etc., but they learn to cope with their faults as they grow into young men and women.