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A review by stagasaurus
Behind a Mask, Or, a Woman's Power by Louisa May Alcott
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.
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.
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.