Beth Doesn't Always Die in Little Women. Sort Of

From Anne Foster on BookRiot:

If someone asked you does Beth die in Little Women, what would your response be? To me, it’s obvious: of course she did. Her demise is up there in the pantheon of literary deaths alongside Ophelia, Jacob Marley, and Matthew Cuthbert. But, as it turns out, this is not a simple yes or no question. And thus, an investigation.

Louisa May Alcott’s debut novel was published in 1868 with the very long title Little Women: Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy. The Story Of Their Lives. A Girl’s Book. This work, which Alcott never intended to have a sequel, ends with Beth contracting scarlet fever and recovering. 

But her publisher, thrilled with the sales figures for this book and hearing from the public about their desire for a sequel, requested that Alcott provide one. She did, in a second book published in 1869, titled Good Wives.

Most American editions combine both books into a single volume, titled Little Women. In the United Kingdom, the preference is apparently to keep them separated into two volumes. And thus, the existence of two books, both titled Little Women and both by Louisa May Alcott, that end in two entirely different ways.

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