Alternative Alcott (American Women Writers)

Alternative Alcott (American Women Writers) by Alcott, Louisa May. paperback edition. ISBN: 9780813512723.

The discovery in recent years of Louisa May Alcotts pseudonymous sensation stories has made readers and scholars increasingly aware of her accomplishments beyond her most famous novel, Little Women, one of the great international best-sellers of all time. What has been recovered throws new light on the childrens books and asks us to question our assumptions about the supposedly staid and sentimental Alcott. Alternative Alcott includes works never before reprinted, including "How I Went Out to Service," "My Contraband," and "Psyches Art." It also contains Behind a Mask, her most important sensation story; the full and correct text of her last unfinished novel, Diana and Persis; "Transcendental Wild Oats"; Hospital Sketches; and Alcotts other important texts on nineteenth-century social history. This anthology brings together for the first time a variety of Louisa May Alcotts journalistic, satiric, feminist, and sensation texts. Elaine Showalter has provided an excellent introduction and notes to the collection.