Customer Reviews

A Long Fatal Love Chase

5 star:		(44)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

If you read the novel, Little Women and you think you know Lousia May Alcott, think again! This book is not about a family of girls making homespun quilts!

This is a suspense/thriller. With many tragic moments and unsettling events.

A restless girl at the age of 18 desires to lead a romantic and adventureous life. The only problem is she is trapped with her grandfather in home with no visitors or diversions! Until one day a mysterious man comes to call.

Our heroine finally escapes her grandfather's clutches and leaves with this mysterious man that she know very little about. She soon discovers she does not want this much adventure so she tries to escape. Will this man let her go? Does he love her? What does he want from her?

It is so exciting and it was surprising that Louisa May Alcott could write such a book! If you enjoy a good gothic novel, that you can get wrapped up in, give this book a try.

I highly recommend this book, you won't be able to have peace of mind until you finish it!

I found this novel of love and deceit an appealing tale. I recommend this book to young readers who are interested in love and deception. The quality of this writing is dramatic and striked me with interest and curiosity. The fact that young Rosamond was trying to escape from a man who she thought she knew and loved was very thrilling to me. I found myself just dying to know what is going to happen to her in the next chapter. I just couldn't put the book down. Though some parts of the text confused me in some ways, because it was written such a long time ago, I was very interested and eventually understood what was going on. Also, the way Tempest was portrayed, as a mysterious and mystifying man was brilliant. And the way Rosamond falls deeply in love with him and how much she wanted to love a man was well explained. Though the ending wasn't the happily ever after cliché, I found that Alcott wrote the book well just like the rest of her novels she has written. I find Alcott to be an amazing writer with a wonderful imagination and style.

I enjoyed this book immensely - detailed yet easy to follow the plot. Once you get reading it's hard to put down. I didn't expect it to be very exciting since it was written so long ago in a time when stalking was rarely heard about. To my amazement it was very exciting and without any off color subject matter or anything explicit!! Alcott's writing in this book is superb.

Romance, thrilling adventure, and true, gut-wrenching emotion-- this novel by Louisa May Alcott pushes the envelope. Tempest: a man ruled by passion, cruelty and deceit. Rosamond: a young woman, innocent, beautiful, and strong-willed. Tempest seduces fair Rosamond (and the reader) with his devastating charm, mystery, and dangerous good looks. When Rosamond learns of Tempest's treacherous secrets, she vows to escape from his lies. Unfortunately, Tempest is intrigued and further impassioned by the chase as he promises to win her back, at all costs. Determined to break her wild spirit, Tempest succeeds in alienating Rosamond from others. Despite some slow moments, this book is overflowing with action and excitement. The chase is an interesting one and the ending is thoroughly satisfying

This is perhaps one of the greatest literary masterpieces even authored by anyone, anytime, anywhere. A most valuable book in every way that is truly important. When it was first published in 1995, the great writer Steven King wrote the review for the Sunday New York Times Book Review section. He was as wowed by the work as most of Amazon.com's reviewers are. In fact, he credited Louisa May Alcott with just-about-inventing the thriller-chiller-romance genre-alone. The manuscript was of course unpublishable; having been repressed by every entity with which she attempted to get it into print. Now, that it can be held in the highest esteem, perhaps Ms. Alcott will get the credit which this singular artist/writer surely deserves.

A Long Fatal Love Chase has a true obsessed villian, a heroine on the run from him and a man she loves but can never have. For fans of Wuthering Heights or Jane Eyre, this book should be read and kept on your keeper shelf.
Rosamond our heroine wants adventure and to live life. She is bored nd borderlined depressed. She thinks her savior comes to her as an old friend of her grandfather's. Philip marries Rose and whisks her away. Things seem to be perfect in their marriage. Philip and Rose have an incredible love and life. Simply everything Rose ever wanted.
But then Philip's secrets come out. Rose runs away and hence the name of the book comes into play.
Where as Philip started out as the too good to be true hero of this piece, he turns into an obsessed madman. He needs Rose back to complete his life no matter the cost to her or those she encounters.
Philip is so oily and sneaky that even though he does harm the heroine, he can't see the right or wrong in the situation. He has no morals and wants to win. Rose comes across as the stereotypical nieve heroine (Hey, she did love the man afterall) but she learns fast and tries to outwit Philip anyway she can, but the results don't end the way we the readers think it will.
For suspense, drama and an adventure of wits between two passionate people, this book has everything.
This is defintely not Alcott's "Little Women". A very dark and brooding story.

Katiebabs

A friend foisted this book upon me, exclaiming her love it and how it was not like Little Women. She was certainly right on both counts. It is not like any of the other Alcott books which I have read,and having visited her house--I don't remember the tour guide mentioning this book either, or Alcott having written anything like it.

Written to be published as a serial thriller it doesn't suffer from the repetiveness of other serials that have been condensed into novels (Dickens). The plot doesn't just roll it steam rolls, there is a momentum that starts from the first page and the allusions to Mephtistopholes, already that perked my interested, him being one of the most fascinating literary figures I have yet to encounter. Alcott's version of the tempter, Tempest, does not dissapoint either. Philip Tempest is a very fully drawn character a pinch of Bronte's Heathcliff, but with more realism. Rosamund, the heroine is no Catherine however, while spirited she is at heart a very good person, inspiring dedication to all of those who posesses goodness as well.

Time is a blur, a year passes between on chapter in the next in one instance. The ending is a powerful portrait in words. And it ends in a way that even with is tragicalness has a note of triump in it, for good and right. By far for me, the best character was Father Ignatius, classical hero in disguise as a monk. His vows keeping his love for Rosamund at bay, at the same time strengthening her love for him. In each other they are idealy matched and that is what ultimately drives Tempest to his last desperate act.

This book is great for sucking your attention from pretty much everything else, like sleeping while you are turning its pages, it was great,and I would reccomended it to others most certainly. People who liked the darkness of the Brontes will appreciate this (I don't like the Brontes so much, but this book is excellent).

This wonderful story, by Louisa May Alcott, was nothing like Little Women. For those who've read Alcott's other work, reading "Love Chase" provides a look further into Alcott's talents. This book was considered "too sensational" when Alcott first submitted this book for publication and was rejected. Had it not been found among her papers and published this incredible story, no one would ever have been able to experience this wonderful story. This would have been a shame, because it's filled with romance, mystery, intrigue and takes the reader all over Europe to exotic places. I could not put this book down!

I, for one, am glad that this manuscript was recovered, finally and rightfully published. The finaltruimph belongs to Alcott. How many writer's have been known to put out a New York Time Best Seller, something like a hunred years, posthumously. Way to go, Louisa!

Everybody seems to think this book was a tragedy -- bad man, nice girl. Sickly sweet, "stereotypical" . . . BUT I really liked this book. I think the reason I liked it better than everyone else has seemed to is because you can look at it kind of in reverse; I really liked Phillip along with Rosamond at the beginning, but unlike Rosamond I continued to like him throughout the whole book. This is not a story about an evil, seductive man and a sweet, innocent girl. This is a story about a man who *almost* wants a conscience but has quite destroyed his own, who really loves Rosamond and is willing to do anything to get her back, even reform; and about a girl so "innocent" that she has no other reply than cold, unfeeling, hurt pride. It *is* like Pride and Prejudice, as an earlier reader mentioned, but the Prejudice never bends even though Pride humbles himself at her feet. I didn't think the ending was exactly tragical, and I certainly didn't think it was sterotypical. If you look at the book with Phillip as the anti-hero, the ending was quite fitting.

A good book. If you like Alcott's other thrillers, this one will be no exception.

As long as I can remember, I have been a Alcott fan. This book was silly in some ways, but I was not at all disappointed. I enjoyed the characters and the plot, but the real joy to me was to see a favorite author at the beginning of her literary life. While I read this delicate yet earthy romance, I could just see Ms. Alcott depicted as Jo trying to develop her craft while at the boarding house in Little Women. Alcott showed us her romantic side as Jo "fell" for her German teacher-friend who loved books as much as she did; perhaps Jo was writing this little gem!