Many people are not aware that along with writing classic children's morality books, such as Little Women, Louisa May Alcott much preferred writing sensation thrillers.

This book, which is Alcott's only completed full novel in this genre, tells the story of a young writer, who makes a sort of devil's compact with a rcih, bored old man. The old gentlman uses a variety of means to corrupt his charge, including the corruption of the writer's young and innocent wife.

For me, I enjoyed this book far more than Little Women, in which the morality seemed to get in the way of the story (though I did love the characters as a girl). A Modern Mephistopheles offered sharper writing with interesting characters, who make mistakes and suffer for them. Only the too pure wife seemed two dimensional to me. She never seemed to grow in the book beyond this girlish purity. ( )