Friedrich Bhaer, the German professor who meets Jo in the first blush of her move to New York, is one of the most important characters in Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women. Finally, with this ...

"I grew up in Ireland, and Little Women was one of the first American novels I read—I think I was eight or nine. It’s set during the U.S. Civil War, but features no black characters ...

For Meg, Jo and Amy, though, marriage is the reward for character growth. Amy – whose just desserts for being an obnoxious little cretin throughout the first half of Little Women is to supplant ...