Publishing peeve

Lately I've been reading Louisa May Alcott. It turns out she's written a bunch of stuff, not just Little Women. I've read some of it, but the other day saw that she'd written a book I'd never heard of, called Good Wives, a sequel to Little Women. In my joy at finding new material from a loved author, I rushed to the bookstore to buy my very own copy! The only copies they had were wrapped in plastic, presumably to keep the special edition necklace (real gold, I'm sure!) from becoming detached. I later found out that the plastic wrapping was really a dastardly plot! I began unwrapping the book on the way to the car. Thankfully, Nathan was driving so I could devote my whole attention to my new treasure. I opened up the book and excitedly began to read the first chapter, only to find that it was about Meg's wedding, which I'd read in Little Women. Hoping that it was just kind of a "flashback" sort of device, I flipped to the center of the book. No luck! As I continued to look at chapter titles I discovered that the book was no more than the second half of Little Women, published in its own volume! Why would they do this to me, the unsuspecting, trusting reader!?! You can't even FIND a copy of Little Women that doesn't include the second half, so what's the point in publishing the second half by itself? Obviously, the publisher knew this. Hence, the plastic wrapping and the ploy of the free necklace! How I wish I'd chosen to buy the copy of Jo's Boys instead......

Barbara, I hope you never get involved in something so deceitful! Ha!