Louisa May Alcott Unmasked: Collected Thrillers (Paperback)

~ (Author), Madeline B. Stern (Editor, Contributor)

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Elaine Showalter once noted that Alcott wrote stories with both her right hand and her left hand. Before the right hand was spinning the web of domestic charm in novels like Little Women, her left hand was recording the dark underside of domestic relations. Stern, an Alcott specialist who has edited several selections of Alcott thrillers (Behind the Mask Thrillers, 1975; From Jo March's Attic: Tales of Intrigue and Suspense, LJ 12/93), has here collected all the thrillers and sensational stories that Alcott published anonymously in weekly papers before her rise to fame with the publication of Little Women. The tales cast a spellbinding aura around characters thrust into webs spun by evil, deceit, and intrigue. Spurned lovers often exact revenge only to suffer from the poison of their own venomous actions. In "Pauline's Passion and Punishment," for example, the protagonist seeks the death of her former lover only to end with him, through a set of horrible circumstances. Passionate and powerful, the women in these tales anticipate later 19th-century women characters like Edna Pontelier (The Awakening). Essential.?Henry L. Carrigan Jr., Westerville P.L., Ohio
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Editor Stern searched doggedly throughout Alcott's papers to uncover the pseudonyms and publishers linked to her tales of passion, written "for monetary reward as well as psychological release." Although there have been previous publications of Alcott's short thrillers, including Behind the Mask and its sequel Plots and Counterplots, this is the first time, according to Stern, that all the stories have been brought together in one volume and in the order of their original appearance--a boon for scholars as well as fans. Now readers can judge whether Alcott's gothics, filled with heroic women, romantic themes, and stormy plots, are "rubbishy tales," as Alcott called them. Denise Perry Donavin --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 780 pages
• Publisher: Northeastern (April 20, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1555532268
• ISBN-13: 978-1555532260
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.1 x 1.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #183,930 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Incredible, January 17, 2001

By	Julie Fuller - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This is an absolutely breathtaking collection of twenty-nine thrillers from Louisa May Alcott. Each story that I read kept me up until the wee hours of the morning because they were so good! And after I was done reading them, I was still thinking about them for days on end. Powerful women, betrayal, wards/guardians, romance, murder... each plays a delectable part in these brilliant novellettes. You have the masterfully manipulative Jean Muir in the famous story "Behind a Mask: Or a Woman's Power", the admirable villain in "A Nurse's Story", the wonderful Russian/Parisian love story of "Taming a Tartar", the heroic villainess in "The Mysterious Key, and What it Opened", an exquisite character study in "A Marble Woman: or, The Mysterious Model", dark tragedy and hints of incest in "A Whisper in the Dark", and the shockingly villainous hero in "La Jeune; or Actress and Woman" or "A Laugh and A Look". Then there is the delightfully frustrating "My Mysterious Mademoiselle", in which the protagonist is thwarted rather severely in his love interest. Love has a main role in almost all of these stories; usually emphasizing the power balance between the sexes. Alcott has a way of standing things on their heads, and is a master of the surprise ending.

Worth every minute, worth every dollar, this collection includes all of the known thrillers of Alcott, as well as a remarkably throrough and informative introduction by Madeleine Stern.