Louisa May Alcott - The Quiet Feminist Goes Dark

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

We've chatted before about Louisa May Alcott. I've suggested that she is The Quiet Feminist. The sort of person who may not (in her case) have been the person who was the driving force for women's rights in the nineteenth century but chipped away at the edges against female inequality.

I also find myself wondering whether I'm the only person who liked everything he's read by Ms Allcott except for Little Women her most famous work.

Which leads us to Behind A Mask a 1866 novella which introduces us to Jean Muir, a governess of the Coventry family in Victorian Britain. She appears quiet and demure.

But things are not is as it seems.(and you just have to add to this) ...da da daaaah!

Of course we have all seen variations on this theme before but the fact that it's Louisa May Alcott doing it makes you want to know what is happening. What she's doing, why she's doing it and will there be dead bodies at the end as Ms Muir is revealed to be a homicidal maniac (spoiler - that doesn't happen).

In this novella there are issues of class attitudes though I suspect the greater issue is that of female rights. After all the fact that the book is subtitled A Woman's Power hints at Ms Alcott's attitudes here. But even viewed simply as an entertainment this novella works. There is a gradual but increasing tension as Jean Muir's intentions are revealed to the reader and whether or not she will obtain them. In fact I'll go as far as to say that judged solely as an entertainment this is the best book I've read this year.

It is more than that though. There is no messing with Miss Muir and it's surprising to me that such a strong female character is not mentioned often enough. Little Women it seems to me colours everything with regard to Louisa Alcott and for the general (and male) reader like me that runs the risk of ignoring her other books as the impression is given that they would be similar. 

I had a look at what I wrote for Little Women and whilst I won't go into absolute detail here I felt that it wasn't written for a fifty something male with an occasional back problem. I just obviously wasn't it's audience and with a title like Little Women fair enough.

Luckily for me as they were free on the Kindle I took the gamble and downloaded some of her other works. And I'm glad I did. Behind The Mask is the sort of book where a woman is the central character but a male reader can read and enjoy it as well. 

Thinking about it perhaps men should read a few other books by Ms Alcott before reading Little Women. Perhaps then she would gain a whole new audience.