Behind a Mask: A Short Story Collection (Dover Thrift Editions)

The author of Little Women? and other beloved classics, Louisa May Alcott grew up in a community of New England transcendentalists that included Thoreau and Emerson. Because her learned but impractical father was a poor provider, she supported her family by writing magazine stories that were often published anonymously. This collection reveals the "other" Alcott, featuring "Behind a Mask" and "Pauline's Passion and Punishment," thrilling tales of seduction, betrayal, and murder that strike a markedly different tone and characterization from Alcott's best-known work. Other selections include two pieces from Hospital Sketches, the author's fictionalized accounts of her Civil War nursing experiences; "My Contraband," a tale of vengeance involving a Civil War nurse, her Confederate patient, and his former slave; "Happy Women," concerning four "spinsters" with a positive attitude toward their marital status; and "How I Went Out to Service," an autobiographical sketch of a young woman's pursuit of financial independence.

• • Author: Louisa May Alcott
• • Publisher: Dover Publications
• • Publication Date: March 18, 2020
• • Number of Pages: 208 pages
• • Language: English
• • Binding: Paperback
• • ISBN-10: 0486842908
• • ISBN-13: 9780486842905