The Complete Little Women contains the four novels Little Women, Good Wives, Little Men, and Jo's Boys, as well as 43 original illustrations. Louisa May Alcott ended Little Women (1868) with the words "So the curtain falls upon Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy. Whether it ever rises again, depends upon the reception given the first act of the domestic drama called Little Women." It was an immediate commercial and critical success, and readers wanted to know more about the characters as they navigate a path between domestic obligations and personal growth. Alcott quickly completed a second volume, Good Wives (1869), and later Little Men (1871) and Jo's Boys (1886). The novels follow the lives of the four March sisters-Meg, Beth, Jo and Amy, each very different: