

A Modern Mephistopheles
Author: Louisa May Alcott
Narrator: C. M. Hbert
Unabridged: 5 hr 52 min
Format: Digital Audiobook Download
Publisher: Blackstone Audio, Inc.
Published: 09/28/2009
Author: Louisa May Alcott
Narrator: C. M. Hbert
Unabridged: 5 hr 52 min
Format: Digital Audiobook Download
Publisher: Blackstone Audio, Inc.
Published: 09/28/2009
Louisa May Alcott was born in Germantown, Pennsylvania, on November 29, 1832. She and her three sisters—Anna, Elizabeth, and May—were educated by their father, philosopher/ teacher Bronson Alcott, and raised on the practical Christianity of their mother, Abigail May.
Louisa spent her childhood in Boston and in Concord, Massachusetts, where her days were enlightened by visits to Ralph Waldo Emerson's library, excursions into nature with Henry David Thoreau, and theatricals in the barn at Hillside. Like her character Jo March from Little Women, young Louisa was a tomboy.
For Louisa, writing was an early passion. She had a rich imagination, and often her stories became melodramas that she and her sisters would act out for friends. At age fifteen, troubled by the poverty that plagued her family, she vowed to make something of herself. Confronting a society that offered little opportunity to women seeking employment, Louisa remained determined; whether as a teacher, seamstress, governess, or household servant, for many years Louisa did any work she could find.
Louisa's career as an author began with poetry and short stories that appeared in popular magazines. In 1854, when she was twenty-two, her first book, Flower Fables, was published. Another milestone along her literary path was Hospital Sketches, which was based on the letters she had written home from her post as a nurse in Washington, D.C., during the Civil War.
When Louisa was thirty-five, her publisher asked her to write a book for girls. Thus, she wrote Little Women, which is based on Louisa and her sisters' coming of age and is set in Civil War New England. Jo March was the first American juvenile heroine to act from her own individuality; a living, breathing person rather than the idealized stereotype that was then prevalent in children's fiction.
In all, Louisa published over thirty books and collections of stories. She died on March 6, 1888, only two days after her father.
Struggling poet/author Felix Canaris is willing to do just about anything to make a name for himself. Also, he's flat broke. So when the wealthy and intimidating Jasper Helwyze comes knocking with a tantalizing offer, Felix doesn't even think twice before trading away his freedom for the fame and co......more
Promising, yet not entirely convinced by this story. Love the characters and how they interact, yet it was hard to get through......more
This was Alcott's Dorian Gray. Her academic, "benefactor and young poet" novel. Can't help but think perhaps she was trying to impress Hawthorne. While the plot was fantastic and I greatly enjoyed the foils of Jasper/Olivia and Felix/Gladys, I feel that some of the potential of this novel was covere......more
a profoundly sensual and lush sensation novel from the prolific young girl's writer, who moonlightened as a thriller writer. alcott should be even more commended than she is for how well she pulls this off.......more