I’ve only read ‘Little Women’ by Louisa May Alcott. This is certainly different. It’s like Louisa May Alcott’s evil twin sister wrote this!

The stories in Behind a Mask were definitely darker than Alcott's better well known work, Little Women. I wouldn't call them precisely thrillers. I suppose in today's society, we require more to scare us. They feel more like Pride and Prejudice than Dracula. The main difference being that while the protagonists get what they want, but don't generally deserve to be rewarded.

Who knew? Louisa May Alcott wrote sensation short stories, peopled with manipulative women as opposed to Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy.

What is a sensation story, you ask? From Wikipedia:

The Victorian sensation novel has been variously defined as a "novel-with-a-secret" and as the sort of novel that combines "romance and realism" in a way that "strains both modes to the limit".

I bow down to Ms. Alcott and her ability to write (evidently whatever she chooses.)

This was so good! I've had this on my Want-To-Read shelf forever and finally found it on LibriVox YouTube Channel! My only complaint is I wish it was longer. I have 3 library card and they all only have Little Women and Jo's Boys. Louisa May Alcott was such an amazing writer I don't know why her other book are so hard to get ahold of. I definitely want to read more by her. My mom told me there is one about a stalker that is really good, I'm going to have to hunt that down. If anyone knows the name I would be grateful if you leave it in the comments!

How cool was it to find out that Louisa May Alcott wrote gothic thrillers under another name? I was excited. The first and longest novellette of the collection is Behind A Mask or A Woman's Power (She's very fond of this or business in her titles) and that is fairly stunning. The twist happens immediately and you've no way seen it coming. It's superficially a moral tale but you're rooting for the 'bad' girl the whole time, she is stupendous, and as a rather scathing commentary on the upper class you couldn't really do better. It's interesting to wonder how much Louisa Alcott wanted it so, I discovered in the lovely introduction that although from a old family she herself was in service very briefly, and the venom seems to have stuck. The others are enjoyable if you like rather traditional gothic romances (but still the women characters are the rather kick ass femme fatale sort, which I suppose is hardly traditional, but the morals and the rich families in large dark houses remain), and don't get annoyed by some references to 'passionate' Southerners (Italians and Cubans, mostly the Cuban, and who knows who else) who don't think rather follow their hearts and are usually simple like children.

The other stories are much more of their time and nothing really special in my opinion, but Behind a Mask? The more I think about it the more I like it...

Loved it. I took a class in Victorian literature and this was one of the books we were assigned. I was flabbergasted when I read this. Who would have thought that Alcott was capable of writing such stories. This is the woman who gave us Little Women, and here she is telling us about deceitful women that drive men mad. During our class discussion my professor, who has a PhD in Victorian Lit, told us that Alcott actually hated writing Little Women. These short stories was the style and genre of writing she preferred. The only reason she wrote Little Women was because those types of books were more likely to sell and she needed the money.

Keep the Alcott juveniles.... give me more thrillers! Louisa should be better known for these- they are exciting, fun, and shocking. I loved them, especially The Mysterious Key, and the fabulous anti-heroine Jean Muir.

If I wouldn't have known that Louisa May Alcott had written this, I would never had known. It's very different from Little Woman but it's really shows her writing genus. The extreme talent to write in different genres and being good in both. Yet again I listened to B.J Harrison narrating and I was wary that it would t work as good but I'm glad to report that yet again he delivers a great listening experience. If your even the slightest intrigued to read thriller from the beloved author of Little Women, I highly recommend this

Termed "Blood and Thunder" stories by Miss Alcott herself. For me, these stories were addicting and I scarfed them down faster than I could devour a box of chocolates. Guilty as charged!

I didn't even know that there was a collection of these stories and was pleasantly surprised! My favorite was Behind the Mask, it was not the usual morality tale with the happy ending I have come to expect from Alcott. I would definitely recommend this to anyone who enjoys her other stories or nineteenth century novels.

In this collection of four "blood and thunder tales" I found incredible, powerful female protagonists who were VILLAINS. This was not what I expected of Miss Alcott's writing! Each character quickly enters complicated webs of interaction with the others. Included in each story are unexpected plot twists, with shocking, yet believable, destiny-shaping changes.

I will not give away any spoiling details, but I must share this: one tale seemed perfectly resolved, until the last two lines, which made me completely rethink my interpretation of its title.

If not for the melodramatic approach some of these stories take, I would have given this book a five-star rating. I strongly recommend reading both the Introduction and the Afterward for the greatest insight into the author's "dual penmanship."

These are so awesome. Louisa May Alcott, best known for the sweet and family-friendly girl's story "Little Women" had to earn a living like anybody else, and so, before she was famous, wrote a bunch of anonymous and pseudonymous thrillers for rag newspapers.

They're not anybody's idea of great literature. We've got your hashish use, scorned women trying to ruin their scorners, men marrying their wards only to learn too late that they realy do love them, insanity, and Hindu Thuggism. The plots are refreshingly pre-Freudian, with characters behaving in that delightfully nutty way that characterizes the gothic era. If it weren't such a fat book, it'd be a perfect beach read.