Plots and counterplots: More unknown thrillers of Louisa May Alcott

by Louisa May Alcott, Madeleine B. Stern (Editor)

First edition. Edited and with an introduction by Stern who has also added a presentation to this copy. 315, 5 pages. quarter cloth, dust jacket.. 8vo..

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction, Classics, Mystery, Gothic, Womens

319 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1976

About the author

Louisa May Alcott was an American novelist, short story writer, and poet best known for writing the novel Little Women (1868) and its sequels Good Wives (1869), Little Men (1871) and Jo's Boys (1886). Raised in New England by her transcendentalist parents, Abigail May Alcott and Amos Bronson Alcott, she grew up among many well-known intellectuals of the day, including Margaret Fuller, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Henry David Thoreau, and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.
Alcott's family suffered from financial difficulties, and while she worked to help support the family from an early age, she also sought an outlet in writing. She began to receive critical success for her writing in the 1860s. Early in her career, she sometimes used pen names such as A.M. Barnard, under which she wrote lurid short stories and sensation novels for adults that focused on passion and revenge.
Published in 1868, Little Women is set in the Alcott family home, Orchard House, in Concord, Massachusetts, and is loosely based on Alcott's childhood experiences with her three sisters, Abigail May Alcott Nieriker, Elizabeth Sewall Alcott, and Anna Bronson Alcott Pratt. The novel was well-received at the time and is still popular today among both children and adults. It has been adapted for stage plays, films, and television many times.
Alcott was an abolitionist and a feminist and remained unmarried throughout her life. She also spent her life active in reform movements such as temperance and women's suffrage. She died from a stroke in Boston on March 6, 1888, just two days after her father's death.

Reviews

[Carla Remy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm so into Louisa May Alcott now, knowing she was a pulp writer for money (under a pseudonym, of course). I have a soft spot for serials and Victorian melodrama, so I enjoyed this. That said, the plots were pretty insipid.

[Deborah Strom · Rating 2 out of 5]

Only one of these short stories was a mystery. The rest of them were just fiction. If you are a Louisa May Alcott fan then definitely read this book but if you are looking for a mystery pass this one up.

[Jack Goodstein · Rating 3 out of 5]

Two novellas and three short stories from Alcott's stock of pop magazine fiction; a good reminder that even great writers may be willing to boil the pot/

[Jill · Rating 5 out of 5]

Louisa's thrillers continue to captivate and surprise me. They're written in an older style, but their plots and characters feel so modern.

[Val · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’m in the rebel school when it comes to Alcott’s works. Her thrillers are sadly underrated.