Reviews

Bag en maske eller en kvindes magt by Louisa May Alcott

paula_s's review against another edition

4.0

Lo realmente interesante de esta obra es que su genial protagonista-villana va creándose una serie de capas de falsa personalidad que sólo se muestran ante el lector: Alcott manipula a su audiencia tanto como Jean Muir al resto de los personajes (que no dejan de ser arquetípicos, además). Se va entretejiendo una compleja tela de araña que envuelve al lector y lo convierte en cómplice de la protagonista. Uno acaba deseando que esta maliciosa y oscura mujer triunfe al final.

Reseña completa: https://senorasytacitas.wordpress.com/2018/12/27/tras-la-mascara-de-lm-alcott/

julia_may's review against another edition

4.0

This was recommended to me by a fan of Alcott as a work that is nothing like Little Women and I am glad I gave it a chance (Little Women is too wholesome and preachy for me). A conwoman governess pretending to be someone she's not to manipulate one of the many rich men of the family into a marriage? Sign me up! I listened to the audiobook and enjoyed it immensely. It was soapy, it was at times over the top dramatic, but it was also full of plot twists and I didn't want it to end.

laerkelikesreading's review against another edition

mysterious reflective fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No

3.75

stagasaurus's review against another edition

4.0

This really surprised me. I'm on a mission to read all Alcott's books and I'm enjoying seeing her development as a writer. This is totally different theme-wise to anything of hers I've read but the language is almost identical.

I feel like Alcott read all of Jane Austen, Jane Eyre and Vanity Fair and then wrote her own "English Novel". She borrows from all of these.

Spoiler

Gerald says he loves Jean "in spite of himself" and calls her a witch for fascinating him. The first chapter is a brilliant hook.

Jean Muir is an interesting character and I wasn't expecting the ending we got. I really thought it was going to be another dead girl and a moral lecture but she gets away with it and I loved that. It really reminded me of Vanity Fair in that way - there are no real heroes in this story.

The Englishness slips a bit. At one point the idle Englishman's dialogue slides into some American phrasing. Also, you can't get married in your house in Britain. The building as well as the person marrying you has to be registered. In 1836 they expanded that to include synagogues and some other religious buildings but not houses. A special licence could be got so you could marry in a church that you didn't live near but that's about it.

I would love to have been there on Sir John and Jean's wedding night when the "elderly" uncle discovers he has married *shock horror* a thirty year old and not a nineteen year old.

lamusadelils's review against another edition

2.0

Esperaba más, creo.

De niña me gustaban mucho los libros de Alcott y he vuelto a leer fragmentos de sus obras ya adulta, encontrando que a pesar de las constricciones de sus tiempos plasmó ideas mucho más progresistas de lo que parecen a simple vista.

Sabía que había escrito otras cosas, pero nunca me había dado la oportunidad de leerlas, así que al fin me decidí por esta colección de thrillers y no me dejaron buen sabor de boca.

Se nota bastante que a pesar de ser buena escritora, estas historias no le apasionan igual. Se sienten planas y anticuadas.

mjtal's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

marinact22's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

janlc's review

dark mysterious slow-paced

3.0

Sproget er lidt krinklet - man kan godt mærke at den er skrevet i 1800-tallet, og historien bliver lige lovlig vel forklaret til sidst.
Men undervejs er det en god fortælling, og der er lidt at tale om bagefter:
Hvor meget af ens handlinger kan undskyldes med ens vilkår?

saycheeze37's review against another edition

4.0

Started out really slow for me. Almost gave up on it, but so glad I didn't. Such a great story!

ririkolyana's review against another edition

reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I recently reread this novella through a Gothic Lit independent study focusing on the Gothic home and Gothic body and I wanted to up my original score a little bit. I think this novella really shines if taken in conversation with other governess novels of its time. In many ways, this is a direct reply to works like Jane Eyre and Lady Audley's Secret, both governess novels about the socially mobile poor and their relationships with men. I also get a bit of Fosco from The Woman in White vibes from Jean, re: working with a system and exploiting expectations.