Literary Quiz

You've just seen Little Women. Now dry your tears and read the book -- but which version? At your local bookstore you'll be confronted with the Louisa May Alcott classic as well as a new "novelization" based on the screenplay based on the classic. Below is a key passage from each. Can you tell which was written to please the marketing department at Columbia Pictures and which came from the pen of an impecunious schoolteacher, seamstress, nurse and domestic who grew up surrounded by fiery abolitionists and transcendentalists? (Warning! Don't read further if you're male and therefore don't already know how the story turns out.)

"When she turned to Beth, her sister looked as if she had just fallen peacefully asleep. Her hand was tucked under her cheek. When Jo came closer, she realized her sister was past sleep, past dreaming. Jo froze. She waited to see her sister's shoulders rise and fall, for her to begin breathing again.

"Nothing happened.

"Jo took a step forward. She picked up Beth's delicate hand, light now as a bird's wing, and began to cry very softly."

"Seldom except in books do the dying utter memorable words, see visions, or depart with beatified countenances, and those who have sped many parting souls know that to most the end comes as naturally and simply as sleep. As Beth had hoped, 'the tide went out easily,' and in the dark hour before the dawn, on the bosom where she had drawn her first breath, she quietly drew her last, with no farewell but one loving look, one little sigh.

"With tears and prayers and tender hands, Mother and sisters made her ready for the long sleep that pain would never mar again, seeing with grateful eyes the beautiful serenity that soon replaced the pathetic patience that had wrung their hearts so long, and feeling with reverent joy that to their darling death was a benignant angel, not a phantom full of dread."

Alcott wrote the second passage.