Little Women, Good Wives A Marble W..., Louisa May Alcott
Little Women, Good Wives A Marble W..., Louisa May Alcott
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Little Women, Good Wives & A Marble Woman
Three BBC Radio Full-Cast Dramatisations

Author: Louisa May Alcott

Narrator: Bryony Hannah, Lorelei King, Natasha J Barnes, Bill Paterson, Amanda Root, Tara Ward, Alex Lanipekun, Gayle Hunnicutt, Jemma Redgrave, Marcus D'Amico, Martin Jarvis, John McArdle, Full cast

Unabridged: 6 hr 4 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 06/05/2025

Synopsis

Dramatisations of Louisa May Alcott’s evergreen classic and its sequel, plus her Gothic tour de force about an orphan girl and her controlling guardian

Born in 1832 in Pennsylvania, Louisa May Alcott was best known for Little Women, her phenomenal bestseller loosely based on her childhood experiences with her own sisters. Adapted numerous times for stage and screen, it is dramatised here alongside her follow-up novel Good Wives and the thrilling sensation story A Marble Woman.

Little Women – With their father away fighting in the American Civil War, the four March sisters and their mother are facing a frugal Christmas in their New England home. But their close bond and determination to make the best of things enables them to find happiness despite their poverty. As they forge their path in the adult world, Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy will encounter adventure, challenges, joys and disappointments – and while marriage and motherhood may beckon, their most enduring love is always for each other. Natasha J Barnes, Julianna Jennings, Bryony Hannah and Samantha Dakin star in this iconic coming-of-age tale.

Good Wives– Now young women, the March girls meet with triumph and tragedy in this classic sequel to Little Women. Following Meg’s wedding, Jo finds success with her writing and Amy heads to Europe – but Beth’s health is failing, and her spirits are low. As the family face their greatest sorrow together and look to the future, Jo writes the story of their life – and finds true love at last… Starring Jemma Redgrave, Buffy Davis, Anne Marie Zola, Kara Zediker and Gayle Hunnicutt.

A Marble Woman – Recently orphaned, Cecilia Stein turns up at the door of genius sculptor Bazil Yorke. Her dying mother had told her that Yorke was an old friend, and to trust his kindness. But the reclusive bachelor has neither forgiven nor forgotten his rejection by Cecilia’s mother, and decides to revenge himself by punishing his new ward. Insisting that she must submit her life to art and restrain all her emotions, he strives to turn her into his own creation – but can he control his own heart? Sexual repression, opium addiction and love collide in this dark Gothic tale, starring Bill Paterson and Amanda Root.

First published 1865 (A Marble Woman), 1868 (Little Women), 1869 (Good Wives)

Cast and credits

Little Women
Cast: Natasha J Barnes, Julianna Jennings, Bryony Hannah, Samantha Dakin, Tara Ward, John Bowler, Alex Lanipekun, Finlay Robertson, Joanna Monro, Alison Belbin, Karen Bartke,
Natasha Cowley, Keziah Joseph, Luke MacGregor, Catriona McFarlane, Gunnar Cauthery
Dramatised by Rhiannon Tise
Directed by Tracey Neale
First broadcast BBC Radio 4, 16-27 January 2017

Good Wives
Cast: Gayle Hunnicutt, Jemma Redgrave, Buffy Davis, Anne Marie Zola, Kara Zediker, Marcus D'Amico, Don Fellows, John Guerrasio, Margaret Robertson, Alibe Parsons, Adam Henderson,
Helen Horton, Lorelei King, David Holt, Tamsin Hollo, Faith Brook, Jill Graham, Toni G Barry,
Melanie Hudson, Jonathan Tafler, Martin Jarvis, John Church, Andrew Wincott
Dramatised by Marcy Kahan
Directed by Marilyn Imrie
First broadcast Radio 4, 11 February-18 March 1993

A Marble Woman
Cast: Bill Paterson, Amanda Root, John McArdle, Charles De'Ath, Sarah Parkes, Geoffrey Banks,
Becky Simpson, Robert Pollard
Dramatised by Lavinia Murray
Produced by Pauline Harris
First broadcast Radio 4, 8 April 2000

© 2025 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd. (P) 2025 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd

About Louisa May Alcott

Louisa May Alcott was born in Germantown, Pennsylvania, on November 29, 1832. She and her three sisters—Anna, Elizabeth, and May—were educated by their father, philosopher/ teacher Bronson Alcott, and raised on the practical Christianity of their mother, Abigail May.

Louisa spent her childhood in Boston and in Concord, Massachusetts, where her days were enlightened by visits to Ralph Waldo Emerson's library, excursions into nature with Henry David Thoreau, and theatricals in the barn at Hillside. Like her character Jo March from Little Women, young Louisa was a tomboy.

For Louisa, writing was an early passion. She had a rich imagination, and often her stories became melodramas that she and her sisters would act out for friends. At age fifteen, troubled by the poverty that plagued her family, she vowed to make something of herself. Confronting a society that offered little opportunity to women seeking employment, Louisa remained determined; whether as a teacher, seamstress, governess, or household servant, for many years Louisa did any work she could find.

Louisa's career as an author began with poetry and short stories that appeared in popular magazines. In 1854, when she was twenty-two, her first book, Flower Fables, was published. Another milestone along her literary path was Hospital Sketches, which was based on the letters she had written home from her post as a nurse in Washington, D.C., during the Civil War.

When Louisa was thirty-five, her publisher asked her to write a book for girls. Thus, she wrote Little Women, which is based on Louisa and her sisters' coming of age and is set in Civil War New England. Jo March was the first American juvenile heroine to act from her own individuality; a living, breathing person rather than the idealized stereotype that was then prevalent in children's fiction.

In all, Louisa published over thirty books and collections of stories. She died on March 6, 1888, only two days after her father.

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