Tuesday, June 18, 2013

Behind a Mask

I picked up this book in a quirky little bookstore, intrigued by the idea of reading "thrillers" by Louisa May Alcott, the author of all those books for girls that I read in my youth (I had the whole collection, it was six or eight books... Little Women was only the first). These stories are certainly QUITE different from those.

If you read Little Women, you know that the character Jo March is very much Alcott. These stories equate to the stories Jo "scribbled" away at, the ones Professor Bhaer said were beneath her. I have to say, I tend to agree with him. In fact I found them pretty horrid. They reminded me of the Gothic tales that Jane Austen based Northanger Abbey on, rather lurid and pretty transparent, in my opinion. But they are probably what I should have expected in the writing of an innocent young lady of the era.

It's funny, there are about ten reviews of this book on Amazon, and all of them are four-five stars. I totally disagree with that. I guess it just wasn't my cup of tea.


Behind a Mask

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