<p>A major literary discovery has revealed that Louisa May Alcott wrote under a pseudonym. In order to pay the family debts and at the same time give vent to the pent-up emotions of her 30 years, she, in 1862, decided to write what would be the first of several "blood and thunder" tales. Writing from behind a mask, the mask's name being A. M. Barnard, Alcott was able to let down her literary hair and distill her passion for dramatics as well as her intense feminist anger at a world in which a woman was expected to polish her master's muddy boots. The thrillers contained in this collection were thus written anonymously or under her pseudonym, and were published in various weeklies over a century ago, and before she authored, under her own name, LITTLE WOMEN. This is the first time they appeared together in book form: a tribute to a multi-faceted genius who hailed from Concord, MA; a disconcerting, if titillating, shock to readers in search of consistency. Alcott scholars Madeleine Stern and Leona Rostenberg, partners in one of the country's leading rare-book concerns, played the key roles in the discovery of the pseudonym. Ms. Stern has introduced BEHIND A MASK, PAULINE'S PASSION AND PUNISHMENT, THE MYSTERIOUS KEY, and THE ABBOT'S GHOST with an eminently readable biographical and critical analysis which, in sum, gives us a fascinating look at the other side of Louisa May Alcott.</p>
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Behind a Mask the Unknown Thrillers of Louisa May Alcott PDF

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