博客來Six years before she wrote Little Women, Louisa May Alcott, in financial straits, entered ＂Pauline’s Passion and Punishment,＂ a novelette, in a newspaper contest. Not only did it win the ＄100 prize, but, published anonymously, it marked the first in the series of ＂blood & thunder tales＂ that would be her livelihood for years.
In Behind a Mask, editor Madeleine Stern introduces four Alcott thrillers: ＂Pauline’s Passion and Punishment,＂ ＂The Mysterious Key,＂ ＂The Abbot’s Ghost,＂ and the title story, ＂Behind a Mask.＂ First published in one volume in 1975, they are regarded as Alcott’s finest work in this genre.
