Little Women Books in Order by Louisa May Alcott

The Little Women books in order follow the March family from Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy’s youth into the next generation at Plumfield. Louisa May Alcott begins the family saga in Civil War-era Massachusetts, where the sisters face work, love, grief, ambition, and the difficult process of growing up.

Alcott loosely based Little Women on her experiences growing up with three sisters. I think the series has lasted because its characters are warm, flawed, and recognizably human, even when their lives look very different from ours.

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Little Women Books in Order

There are three main Little Women novels. However, some publishers divide them into four books by selling the second half of Little Women separately as Good Wives. I recommend using the three-book order if your copy of Little Women includes all 47 chapters.

Three-Book Order for Complete Editions

  1. Little Women, or Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy (1868–1869)
  2. Little Men: Life at Plumfield with Jo’s Boys (1871)
  3. Jo’s Boys, and How They Turned Out (1886)

This is the simplest order, and it’s the one I recommend for most readers. A complete edition of Little Women contains Part One and Part Two. Part One ends with Chapter 23, while Part Two begins with Chapter 24 and continues through Chapter 47. If your edition has all 47 chapters, read Little Men next.

Four-Book Order When Good Wives Is Separate

Some editions publish only the first part as Little Women and sell the second part as Good Wives. In that case, use this order:

  1. Little Women, or Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy (Part One) (1868)
  2. Good Wives, also published as Little Women: Part Second (1869)
  3. Little Men: Life at Plumfield with Jo’s Boys (1871)
  4. Jo’s Boys, and How They Turned Out (1886)

The original 1869 American volume was titled Little Women: Part Second, not Good Wives. Good Wives became the familiar title for the separately published second part. If your copy of Little Women stops after Chapter 23, read Good Wives before Little Men.

Publication order is also the story order. Part One begins during the Civil War, and Part Two opens after a three-year time jump. Little Men follows Jo and Professor Bhaer as they run Plumfield, a school and extended household for their sons and pupils. Jo’s Boys returns to the Plumfield students ten years later as they begin making their way in the world.

A complete edition of Little Women can be read as a standalone, and I think its ending feels satisfying on its own. If you want to continue, read Little Men next and save Jo’s Boys until after Little Men. That order gives the Plumfield characters and their later lives the context they need.

Optional Little Women Companion

Published after Alcott’s death, Comic Tragedies collects five family plays written and performed by Alcott and her sister Anna. Its title borrows the Jo, Meg, and “Little Women” framing, but it doesn’t continue the March family story. I’d treat it as a bonus for completists and read it anytime after Little Women.

You may also see Aunt Jo’s Scrap-Bag grouped with the series. It is a separate six-volume collection of children’s stories, not a March-family sequel, so I wouldn’t include it in the reading order.

Looking for more books in order?

If you want more romance authors and reading-order guides like this one, start with my Romance Books in Order index.