I read both of these last summer.
Posted by Barbara on June 29, 1998 at 02:03:56:
In response to Try A Modern Mephistopheles, written by OliviaAnn on June 27, 1998 at 17:58:59
] ] Has anyone read this book by Louisa May Alcott. I just finished it, and its absolutely marvelous though not comparable to Alcott's ultimate genius, Little Women. Is anyone at all interested in a discussion.
] I read A Long Fatal Love Chase as well. It was good, but you really should read A Modern Mephistopheles. That is by far one of her best books. A Long Fatal Love Chase also has that for an alternate title, but A Modern Mephistopheles is not very much like it in plot, except perhaps for some similarities in their endings.
] Olivia
One thing I found so interesting is some reading I did on the side while I was reading these two books. I got the impression (please correct me if I'm wrong) that LMA very much preferred to do this type of writing, much as Jo was drawn to the kind of sensational, gothic type tales she wrote in Little Women. However, after the publication of Little Women, Alcott felt more or less trapped into writing books that were like these, because it wouldn't be seemly to write that other sort of book.
I found A Long Fatal Love Chase to be a very fast, fun read--lots of drams, cliffhangers and plot twists. I couldn't shake the feeling that I was reading something that Jo March wrote, rather than Alcott herself. And of course a few of us have had great fun casting the "movie" (in our dreams, only!) of LFLC. Our choice for Philip Tempest:
And we saw Jeremy Northam as being a very fine priest==was it Father Ignatious?
Personally, I didn't care for A Modern Mephistopoles as much. I'm not sure why.
- Not a priest, please! Constanza 17:33:39 6/29/98
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