"Think of me what you will, but beware of me in time, for against my will I may do you harm”

In case you were wondering, yes, this is the same Louisa May Alcott who wrote the famous “Little Women”, “Good Wives”, and “Little Men”.
If my research is correct, she wrote this book in 1866, under the pseudonym A. M. Barnard, before she released “Little Women” in 1868.

At first glance, it’s quite surprising that Louisa May Alcott would write something like this. I was a little surprised myself to see this book on the shelf. It seems to be far from the theme of “domestic affairs” that Little Women is centered upon. Yet, upon further reading, you will still find that the book does contain Louisa May Alcott’s hand in it, in good ole’ fashioned Victorian style.

Basically, the story is about a woman from the lower class who schemes and plots against an innocent family in order to squeeze into the upper class. Probably doesn’t sound very exciting coming from me, but trust me, Louisa May Alcott is a brilliant writer. The way she crafts the characters and their actions will surely captivate the reader. Well, at least it did to me. I believe Louisa May Alcott had very meticulous observations of the men and women in the Victorian era, their words, thoughts, mannerisms, etc.

I would recommend this book to anyone who desires to read a classic, written in good old-fashioned romantic style, and yet the material is not too heavy that it becomes too difficult to understand.

Same story, but different cover illustration

Update: I forgot to add that there are two very incredulous points of this story.
One is that a 19 year old girl marries a 55 year old man… Gosh!! That’s like a 36 year gap can?? How can any 19 year old tahan that?? Regardless of how much money the old man has… Ok lor, maybe I’m just an old-fashioned fuddy-duddy lor…