I now understand why Alcott's publisher didn't want to print this in her lifetime. It would have clashed with what I'm sure was a crafted image of the author in line with the themes and tone of Little Women and Little Men: wholesome, innocently romantic, moral. This novel is about obsessive love and the manic desire of one man to control a woman he believed he had the right to possess. The tone Alcott uses in the telling conveys her critique of that seemingly absolute right of men over women, without explicitly getting in to political issues like the right of suffrage for women, of which she was an ardent supporter. While obviously the language of the book is very late 19th century, the story itself is that of a modern psychological thriller. I'm disappointed for Alcott that she didn't see this in print in her lifetime, because it's clear that these are the stories (called "serials" back then) that stoked her fire in her time as a reader and a young writer. But as sometimes happens to actors today who become famous in a certain role, after Little Women she was typecast until the end. I'll be interested to see if some of the other unpublished works come to the surface and demonstrate this fascinating woman's authorial depth as she deserves.