Six years before she wrote Little Women, and in financial straits, Louisa May Alcott entered "Pauline's Passion and Punishment, " a novelette, in a newspaper contest. Not only did it win the $100 prize, but, published anonymously, it marked the first of the series of "blood & thunder tales" that would provide her livelihood for years. For as she said, "They are easy to 'compoze' & are better paid than moral...works." The gruesome, passionate stories reveal a darker side of Alcott. Published anonymously or under the pseudonym of A. M. Barnard, they appeared in weeklies over a century ago. In their mastery of suspense and psychological drama, and in their embodiment of a startlingly intense - if oblique - feminism, they attest to the multifaceted genius of their creator. "Pauline's Passion and Punishment" features a woman who is scorned by her lover and left with her fury and her desire for revenge. The male hero of "The Mysterious Key" must unearth secrets hidden away in a family tomb if he is to realize true love. Mysterious pasts and all-too-present jealousies conflict for some surprising effects on the holiday mood in "The Abbot's Ghost." And "Behind a Mask" tells the chilling story of a woman thwarted by love, whose main motivation becomes her desire to dominate an entire family.
After having read the first two books of the Little Women series I was interested in reading on. Sadly this book just didn't do it for me. Little Men focuses on Jo and her husband have opened up a boarding school for young boys. We hardly get to see any of the other characters from the first two books and instead get a whole new set of characters to follow.
For me there were far too many new names and children to remember and keep all of their backstories straight that I kept getting them confused because of how similar they were to each other. I did find a few that I liked and I remembered them the most as it seemed that they were Alcott's favorite to write about and would probably be featured in the final book of the series.
Overall this book is one I enjoyed because of how it was able to grow off of the other two. However if your hoping for more of the same of what we saw in the first two books this won't be for you. Jo is still herself for the most part, but instead of writing all the time we see her main focus being on raising these young boys and working alongside her husband to teach and help them grow into fine young men.
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Reading updates
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Started reading
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30 March, 2020:
Finished reading
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30 March, 2020:
Reviewed