Little Men facts for kids
First edition title page
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| Author | Louisa May Alcott |
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| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Series | Little Women |
| Genre | Children's literature |
| Publisher | Roberts Brothers |
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Publication date
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1871 |
| Media type | |
| Pages | 376 (first edition) |
| Preceded by | Little Women |
| Followed by | Jo's Boys |
Little Men: Life at Plumfield with Jo's Boys, is a children's novel by American author Louisa May Alcott (1832–1888). First published in 1871 by Roberts Brothers, the book reprises characters from Alcott's 1868–69 two-volume novel Little Women, and acts as a sequel in the unofficial Little Women trilogy. The trilogy ends with Alcott's 1886 novel Jo's Boys, and How They Turned Out: A Sequel to "Little Men".
Little Men describes the life of Jo Bhaer and her husband as they run a school and educate the various children at Plumfield. The teaching methods used at Plumfield reflect transcendentalist ideals followed by Alcott's father, Bronson Alcott. Book education is combined with learning about morals and nature as the children learn through experience. Paradoxes in the story serve to emphasize Alcott's views on social norms.
Little Men was written following the death of Alcott's brother-in-law, John Bridge Pratt, who inspired the character John Brooke, while Alcott was visiting Rome. By June 1871, the book had sold 130,000 copies. Reviews at the time said Little Men had the same charm as Alcott's other books, although it was overly idealistic at times, and that Alcott had depicted children well in her writing.
Alcott's classic novel has been adapted to a 1934 film, a 1940 film, a 1998 film, a television series, and a Japanese animated television series.
Plot
The story begins with the arrival of Nat Blake at Plumfield, the school run by Professor Bhaer and Mrs. Josephine Bhaer (née March). Nat, a shy young orphan with a habit of telling fibs, charms the ten other boys attending the school, as well as Mr. and Mrs. Bhaer, with fiddle skills learned from his father. Mrs. Bhaer shares with him that every Sunday, she reviews each student's behavior and whether they were good or they disappointed her that week. Nat resolves to make her proud.
Nat quickly realizes Plumfield is not run by conventional means. Fifteen-minute pillow fights are permitted on Saturdays to keep mischief during the week to a minimum. All the children have their own gardens and pets, and are encouraged to be independent. Nat soon forms a friendship with Tommy Bangs, the troublemaker of the school, who keeps chickens and allows Nat to keep one egg from every dozen found. Nat dreams of buying his own violin with his egg profits. Demi and Daisy, Meg's twin children, also live at Plumfield and Nat becomes close friends with them.
Mr. Bhaer cures Nat of his fibbing habit by making him strike Mr. Bhaer's hand with a ruler when he is caught lying. Nat is only consoled by playing his violin and walking with Daisy, who is normally excluded from playing with the boys. Mrs. Bhaer and Laurie surprise her with a tiny, functional kitchen which the boys are not allowed to play with, and she puts on little parties for the boys with her meager cooking skills.
Nat's wild friend Dan comes to live at Plumfield. Dan originally decides the other boys are "molly-coddles" and leads them in experiments with boxing, smoking, and card games. When one of his games starts the house on fire, Dan, along with Mr. Bhaer's nephews Franz and Emil, put out the fire, and he is sent away to a farm in the country.
Nan arrives as a companion for Daisy, but she is even more of a tomboy than Jo was as a teenager and gets into all sorts of trouble. Dan runs away, and drawn by the idea of seeing the Bhaers again, returns to Plumfield with a broken foot and is nursed back to health by Mrs. Bhaer. When Laurie sponsors a new natural history museum for the school, Dan becomes curator because of his interest in the outdoors.
One day, everyone goes to pick berries and Nat promises to take care of little Rob, but they end up missing the wagon back home. After a joyful reunion, the next day Mrs. Bhaer teaches them a lesson by tying Nat up to a string in one room for the day. Later, Laurie and Amy's daughter, Bess, comes for a visit and all the boys respect her so greatly that their behavior improves from her presence. When Nat is falsely accused of theft by the other boys, Dan takes the fall so Nat is no longer shunned. Dan saves another student named Jack from a fall, leading Jack to admit he stole the money and leave the school. The boys plan to buy Dan a microscope for his kindness. Although Dan cares more for the Bhaers than before, he begins to long for freedom again and Mrs. Bhaer attempts to keep him home with various tasks.
Near the end of the novel, Demi and Daisy's father, John, becomes ill. They are taken to visit him and he dies that night, leaving Demi with an increased feeling of responsibility. A short while later, the boys have a story night in which they trick members of the household into the schoolroom and only let them out when they tell a story. Mr. and Mrs. Bhaer tell moral-based stories of hard work and kindness. At Thanksgiving, they feast on the harvest of each boy's garden, giving thanks for all they have learned and been given, and then they end the night with a play.
Background and publication history
Alcott was first encouraged by her publisher to write a book for girls while employed as an editor for a Boston children’s magazine and began writing the March trilogy a year later in 1868. After her brother-in-law John Pratt, whom the character John Brooke is based on, died of a sudden illness, she resolved to give the profits of the Little Women sequel to her sister to help support the family. With this motivation, she quickly finished the manuscript of Little Men while visiting Rome around Christmas, and the first edition, containing 376 pages, was published by Roberts Brothers in 1871. The book was released the day Alcott returned from her travels abroad. The Taunton Daily Gazette reported 130,000 copies of the book had been sold by June 3, 1871.
Alcott wrote Little Men with no plan beyond describing life at Plumfield. The novel depicts the school as a utopia of coeducation and takes ideas from Alcott's father, Bronson Alcott, “an educational reformer and prominent Transcendentalist.” Alcott said her father's Temple School inspired some of the scenes at Plumfield. Jo's procedure of taking notes on the children's behavior was employed at Bronson's school, Fruitlands, however, Jo's notes were shared in private while Bronson's were shared in public. Alcott commented she felt trapped into propriety having grown up around her father and others like Ralph Waldo Emerson. Additionally, while many say Plumfield is inspired by Temple School or Fruitlands, Alcott herself was a teacher and would have had plenty of her own knowledge and understanding of educational reform during her time.
Adaptations
Film
Little Men was first adapted into a film in 1934 starring Erin O'Brien-Moore and Ralph Morgan. Another film followed in 1940 with Kay Francis as Jo. In 1998, a Canadian feature adaptation starring Mariel Hemingway and Chris Sarandon was released. A Variety review complimented the talent of the young actors, although it also called the 1998 film overly sentimental, saying it was "long on morality but weak on dramatic tension".
Television
In 1993, an animated television series produced by Nippon Animation, Little Women II: Jo's Boys, ran in Japan. Additionally, a Canadian television series, Little Men, aired in 1998 to 1999 for two seasons. In the show, Professor Bhaer has died and Jo runs Plumfield. Regarding the first three episodes, Variety reviewed that the children spoke too much like adults and the show was unoriginal.
See also
In Spanish: Hombrecitos para niños
