Little Women cannot fail to provide ample opportunity for lively discussion. Groups should enjoy comparing current standards of behavior, especially as they are publicized in the media or in literature, to the nineteenth-century moral life which Alcott depicts. Discussion groups interested particularly in women's issues should find Little Women an intriguing novel to consider. A good line to pursue is the extent to which readers believe, as many critics do, that subversive feminist elements are detectable in the novel's depictions of domestic values and women's self-denying vir tues. The novel might be discussed in light of a reading of Behind a Mask (1866), or another of Alcott's thrillers.

Little Women draws considerably on Alcott's personal experiences and can be seen as a resource for historical information about children's play, child-rearing practices, household activities, family entertainment, fashion, work outside the home, patriotic and social attitudes, and treatment of...