'Little Women' Mystery!!

[suedonim]

I read Little Women years ago and dd2 has just completed it. But the story in my memory appears to be different to the book she's just read. I am certain that Beth died a tragic death when I read it but she survives an illness in dd's book. I've asked several friends, who all say they remember Beth dying and indeed various websites refer to it. But in modern copies of the book, she survives! So, please solve the mystery for me, my friends and I can't all be suffering from false memory syndrome, can we?

that's strange - she definitely does die - but - if it isn't a silly question - have you read it to the end? Because she recovers from her first illness, and doesn't die till later in the book iirc

sorry, just saw that you said your dd had completed it - so it sounds like it's been changed - very odd!

Is it definitely in Little Women that she dies, or in the follow up book - can't remember its name.

Maybe this explains it:

"In 1867 Thomas Niles, an editor at the Roberts Brothers publishing house, suggested that Alcott write a novel for girls. With her father's encouragement, she began to write Little Women the following year. Part I of the novel, first published on October 1, 1868, portrays a year in the life of the March family but is essentially the story of Alcott's own family and its domestic adventures. Meg in the novel is Louisa's older sister Anna; Jo is Louisa herself; Beth and Amy are her younger sisters Elizabeth and May; Marmee is Louisa's mother, Abigail May; and Mr. March is Louisa's father, Bronson. She also memorializes her friend Ralph Waldo Emerson as the kind and beneficent Mr. Laurence.

The book was so popular that readers demanded more. Alcott began writing Part II of Little Women at the beginning of November, delivered the completed manuscript to her publishers on January 1, 1869, and saw it published on April 14, 1869. Entirely fictional, Part II relates the girls' experiences as they attend college, go abroad, and?with the exception of Beth, who dies?get married. Later published together in one volume, the two parts are read today as one continuous novel."

Maybe your current version only has Part 1 of the story?

Hi Suedonim- Beth does die in Good Wives- the next book. They are followed by Little Men and Jo's Boys.

Beth dies is part II of the book Little Women, in chapter 40.

Explained chapter by chapter here

I think that's it - the version I had when I was younger had parts one and two together, but I think part two is often published as Good Wives

have you broken the news to your dd?

Yes, dd got to the end of the book. I'm wondering whether the books have been jigged around a bit so it now appears in a later book. Wish my mum hadn't got rid of all my books!

nope - just checked and Good Wives is totally different - hulababy's right

Oh, that's the answer, thank you! Dd's book must just be Part 1. Dd knows what happens; she told her godmother she was reading it, who made a comment about the sad bit, at which point dd looked rather puzzled. I can now let all my friends know we didn't imagine it.

I am struggling to find a copy on Amazon and Play which has the full story in it.

I think I'll try to hunt down an old copy of LW when I get home, to compare. I'm sure I had Good Wives as well. Maybe my older sister will remember but I won't see her until Easter. Thanks for helping solve the mystery.