Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

Zero to Well-Read

Riot New Media Group, Inc.

Arts, Books, Society & Culture

4.7 • 837 Ratings

🗓️ 6 January 2026

⏱️ 92 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Jeff and Rebecca gather around the hearth to discuss Louisa May Alcott's beloved novel about girlhood, family, ambition, and what it means to live a good life. They talk about why Alcott was reluctant to write a “girls’ book,” Little Women's unique combination of moral instruction and domestic realism, and how the March sisters each model a different way of being a woman in a world with narrow choices. Along the way, they explore why Little Women was long dismissed as minor literature, how it became one of the foundational texts of American womanhood, the book’s complicated relationship to marriage, class, and gender, and why Jo March remains a lodestar for readers more than 150 years later. Subscribe to our free newsletter, and become a member for access to early, ad-free listening and bonus content. Follow Zero to Well-Read on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube. Email us: zerotowellread@bookriot.com Thank you to ThriftBooks for being the presenting sponsor of this season of Zero to Well-Read! Zero to Well-Read is a proud member of the Airwave Podcast Network. This content contains affiliate links. When you buy through these links, we may earn an affiliate commission. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	This season of Zero to Well Red is brought to you by ThriftBooks.com.
0:05.0	Today we're talking about Little Women by Louisa May Alcott.
0:09.0	There are more than 1,300 editions available to choose from on ThriftBooks.com.
0:13.7	I'm going to pick out two.
0:15.4	If you're a collector, if you want something really special, there's Little Women,
0:19.9	The Complete Novel by Louisa May Alcott. This one
0:22.7	is published by Chronicle Books in October of 2021. You can get it new for $30 at Thrift Books.
0:28.5	That's more than $12 off the full retail price. What makes this one special, it's beautifully
0:32.5	bound in calligraphy, but in the addition, there are the actual letters and diary entries.
0:38.9	You can pull them out and read them.
0:40.8	It adds a sense of reality to it. So that's a really special one.
0:42.3	If you're looking for a reading copy, something that's some introduction that you can
0:46.0	put in your bag, not worry about messing it up, I suggest the Penguin Classics Edition,
0:50.9	January, 1989.
0:52.3	You can get it for as few as $7 on ThriftBooks.com. You get free shipping
0:56.9	on orders over $15 in the U.S., over 19 million books to choose from, plus every purchase
1:04.0	gets you closer to a free book through the Reading Rewards program. Thanks to Thriftbooks.com
1:08.8	for sponsoring Zero to Well Red.
1:11.3	This is your latest project.
1:14.4	It's heavy with information, data, and exactly 36 pages of waffle.
1:20.6	But with Acrobat Studio, you can create a PDF space, an AI-powered workspace that turns
1:26.3	documents into summaries and insights and even
	...

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