Transcriber's Notes:

We used the version of the book from Little, Brown, and Company: copyright 1896, for this transcription. A scanned copy of this book is available through the internet archive, courtesy of the New York Public Library.

A copy of the first version of the novel, published in 1869, was consulted for emendations, the proper rendering of words hyphenated and split between two lines for spacing, and other issues in transcribing the novel. We are not trying to change this version of the novel back to the 1869 novel, but correct the errors that were made in re-transcribing and updating the text.

Throughout the dialogues, words were used to mimic accents of the speakers. Those words were retained as-is.

Errors in punctuations and hyphenation were not corrected unless otherwise noted below.

The illustrations have been moved so that they do not break up paragraphs and so that they are next to the text that they illustrate. The page number of the illustration might not match the page number in the List of Illustrations.

On page vii, in the Table of Contents, change page 7 to 1 for the beginning of Chapter One.

In the List of Illustrations, for the illustration on page 147, "postmistress" was replaced with "post-mistress".

In the List of Illustrations, for the illustration on page 235, "tea-pot" was replaced with "teapot".

On page 30, the punctuation after 'stained they are' may be a colon, but on page 41 of the 1869 book, it is a semicolon. We used the semi-colon.

On page 34, transcribe red-headed with the hyphen. See page 44 of the 1869 novel.

On page 40, a period was added after "room where old Mr". See page 50 of the 1869 novel.

On page 41, the semicolon after "Laurie went on the box" was replaced with a comma. See page 52 of the 1869 novel.

On page 62, mantel-piece was transcribed with the hyphen. See Page 75 of the 1869 novel.

On page 63, checked the clause "and I've been trying to do it this ever so long." It is written the same way on page 77 of the 1869 book. No change was made.

On page 64, add period after "red and shining with merriment." See page 79 of the 1869 book.

On page 68, changed weet to sweet in 'the damp weet air.' See page 84 of the 1869 novel.

On page 79, add comma after I remain in the letter. See page 95 of the 1869 novel.

On page 84, ferrule was an adjustment from the 1869 book, which only used one r in spelling the word (see page 101). Webster's dictionary spells ferrule with two rs.

On page 109, a period was added after "and the old man quite dotes on them". See page 130 of the 1869 novel.

On page 109, a period was added after "asked another voice". See page 131 of the 1869 novel.

On page 112, change colon to semicolon after "if you don't;"—see page 134 of the 1869 novel.

On page 113, transcribe ear-rings with the hyphen. See page 135 of the 1869 novel.

On Page 123, "One thing remember, my girls:" is written as it appears in the 1896 novel. A comma instead of a colon was used after my girls in the 1869 novel (see page 146). "One thing to remember," may work better today, or even "Remember one thing," but we left this as Ms. Alcott wrote it.

On Page 124, the P. C. is the Pickwick Club from a novel by Charles Dickens. Samuel Pickwick, Tracy Tupman, Augustus Snodgrass, and Nathaniel Winkle were introdued by Charles Dickens in the first chapter of The Pickwick Papers. Samuel Weller makes his first appearance in Chapter Ten of that novel.

On page 128, in the Pickwick Portfolio, there is no period after "it is nearly school time" in N.Winkle's letter. This period was also missing on page 151 of the 1869 novel. The missing period was intentional.

On page 135, the ambiguous punctuation after "Oh, dear, no!" is an exclamation point. See page 160 of the 1869 novel.

On page 146, change buttonholes to button-holes. On page 173 of the 1869 novel, this word was hyphenated and split between two lines for spacing. Transcribing the word with the hyphen matches seven other occurrences of button-hole or botton-holes in the novel. We therefore used the hyphen.

On page 150, "Betty" was replaced with "Bethy". This error was also made in the 1869 novel—see page 177. The character addressed is Beth.

On page 158, a period was added after "still kneeling". See page 187 of the 1869 novel.

On page 160, "hard a lee" is spelled the same way in the 1869 novel (see page 189) and this novel. We left this as is.

On page 166, a comma was added after "Meg" in "Meg obediently following". See page 195 of the 1869 book.

On page 185, "receptable" was replaced with "receptacle". See page 217 of the 1869 novel.

On page 185, transcribe door-way with the hyphen. See page 217 of the 1869 novel. Also, change doorway to door-way a few lines down the same page. See page 218 of the 1869 novel.

On page 189, the comma after "published every day" was replaced with a period. See page 225 of 1869 book.

On page 198, the clause: "Beth, go and ask Mr. Laurence for a couple of bottles of old wine:" was written as it appeared in the 1896 novel. The clause ended in with a semi-colon in the 1869 book (see page 234).

On page 200, change needlework to needle-work. See page 236 of the 1869 novel.

On page 209, "turnovers" was replaced with "turn-overs". See page 246 of the 1869 novel.

On page 214, the single quotation mark before "Head Nurse of Ward" was replaced with a double quotation mark. See page 252 of the 1869 novel.

On page 218, "Year's ago" was replaced with "Years ago". See page 257 of the 1869 novel.

On page 219, "ask him so help" was replaced with "ask him to help". See page 257 of the 1869 novel.

On page 219, add period after "give it to her." See page 258 of the 1869 novel.

On page 230, "two, A.M." is spelled the same way, with the comma, in this book and in the 1869 novel (on page 272). The comma was retained.

On page 244, "postscrips" was replaced with "postscripts". See page 287 of the 1869 novel.

On page 279, place exclamation point after won't in 'No, I won't!' See page 329 in the 1869 novel.

On page 286, "actingly" was replaced with "acting". See page 337 of the 1869 novel.

On page 288, add comma after mankind in the clause "who felt at peace with all mankind even his mischievous pupil." See page 339 of the 1869 novel.

On page 294, transcribe gray-headed with the hyphen. See page 5 of the 1869 novel.

On page 295, add a comma after salary in the phrase "with an honestly-earned salary." See page 7 of the 1869 book.

Checked the clause "But once get used to these slight blemishes" on page 297. The sentence appears the same way on page 10 of the 1869 novel.

Checked the clause "People who hire all these things done for them never know what they lose" on page 298. The sentence has a comma after them, but is otherwise written the same way on page 11 of the 1869 novel.

On page 299, transcribe door-handles with the hyphen. See page 13 of the 1869 novel.

On page 339, "shortcomings" was replaced with "short-comings". See page 62 of the 1869 novel.

On page 345, "furbelows and notions" was written "furbelows and quinny-dingles" in the 1869 novel. See page 59 of the 1869 novel. We made no change, and only point this out because quinny-dingles is such a memorable word that those intimate with the novel may notice the change.

On page 353, change snowbank to snow-bank. See page 79 of the 1869 novel.

On page 363, a double quotation mark was added before "Cross-patch, draw the latch". See page 91 of the 1869 book.

On page 379, change period after Jo to a comma in the clause "as for Jo. she would have gone up". See page 109 of the 1869 book.

On page 380, a comma was added after "all lying down". See page 111 of the 1869 book.

On page 393, the punctuation after 'but so was everybody's' is difficult to read. It could be a colon or semicolon. In the 1869 novel, the mark is a semi-colon (see page 126). We used the semi-colon.

On page 396, the second line of the verse beginning with "'Out upon you," is indented. In the 1869 version, the capital B of "Bold-faced jig!'" is lined-up under Out. We aligned the verse as the 1869 version of the novel--see page 131.

On page 404, add period after heaviness. See page 140 of the 1869 novel.

On page 405, transcribe needle-work with the hyphen. See page 141 of the 1869 book.

On Page 411, a letter is curiously addressed to Betsey, both here and on page 148 of the 1869 book.

On Page 413, removed double quotes around Yes in "Yes," they say to one another, these so kind ladies. Instead, place a single quote in front of Yes, because Bhaer is resuming his quote. The resumed quote concludes with a single quote after me and mine. See page 151 of the 1869 novel. The double quote before 'he is a stupid old fellow' is actually a triple-nested quote, ending in make themselves.

On page 417, transcribe Teddy-ism as Teddyism. See page 155 of the 1869 novel.

On page 451, a period was added after "I can't let you go". See page 196 of the 1869 novel.

On page 463, "Tarantula" was used as the name of a dance, but the author might have meant "Tarantella," which is the name of an Italian dance about tarantulas.

On page 468, transcribe chess-board with the hyphen. See page 218 of the 1869 novel.

On page 512, a period was added after "she said softly". If you see page 272 of the 1869 novel, you will also notice a comma in 'she said, softly.' We added the period but not the comma.

On page 514, the 1869 novel did not have a comma after oar in the sentence: "I'm not tired; but you may take an oar, if you like. See page 525 of the 1869 novel. We did not remove the comma.

On page 527, 'the "the best nevvy in the world."' was replaced with "the best nevvy in the world." See page 290 of the 1869 novel.

On page 527, change he to the in 'like Jenny and he ballad'. See page 291 of the 1869 novel.

On page 531, David and Peggotty refer to two characters from the novel "David Copperfield" by Charles Dickens.

On page 534, change of to off in the clause: Daisy found it impossible to keep her eyes of her "pitty aunty," ... see page 300 of the 1869 novel.

On page 541, "know'st thou the land where the citron blooms," was broken into two stanzas in the book for spacing. We transcribed this as one line. See page 308 in 1869 novel.

On page 551, transcribe Dove-cote with the hyphen. See page 319 of the 1869 novel.

On the first page of ads, a period was added after "THE LITTLE WOMEN SERIES. New Illustrated Edition".

On the second page of ads, in the blurb for the book Comic Tragedies, a period as placed after "Portraits, etc".

After the novel is a list of The Works of Louisa May Alcott. The list is not complete: for example, there are no listings for her work as Flora Fairfield or A.M. Barnard. Nevertheless, the pages are a fine structured outline of Ms. Alcott's best work.

The final page is a listing of eleven stories originally published in other volumes, such as Jo's Scrap-Bag, Lulu's Library, and A Garland for Girls. These works were subsequently published separately in small volumes, generally less than 100 pages, in The Children's Friend Series.