Synopsis
Nineteenth-century publishers rejected Louisa May Alcott's manuscript as too sensationalist. Today's readers can surely handle the stuff of this grown-up romantic thriller from the author of "Little Women." In it, Rosamond, a smart, strong-willed young woman who desires love and adventure falls for a wealthy, dangerously seductive Phillip Tempest, who takes her away to France to mingle with high society. When Rosamond learns that her husband has hidden an amoral past and a frightening nature, she flees. Phillip follows her across Europe in this high-paced drama of deception, bigamy, domination, and murder.

Details
Publication Date:	1997-01-01
Edition Description:	Reissue

Size
Height:	7 in
Width:	4.3 in
Thickness:	1 in
Weight:	6.4 oz

Publisher's Note
"Id gladly sell my soul to Satan for a year of freedom," cries impetuous Rosamond Vivian to her callous grandfather. Then, one stormy night, a brooding stranger appears in her remote island home, ready to take Rosamond to her word. Spellbound by the mysterious Philip Tempest, Rosamond is seduced with promises of love and freedom, then spirited away on Tempests sumptuous yacht. But she soon finds herself trapped in a web of intrigue, cruelty, and deceit. Desperate to escape, she flees to Italy, France, and Germany, from Parisian garret to mental asylum, from convent to chateau, as Tempest stalks every step of the fiery beauty who has become his obsession.A story of dark love and passionate obsession that was considered "too sensational" to be published in the authors lifetime, A Long Fatal Love Chase was written for magazine serialization in 1866, two years before the publication of Little Women. Buried among Louisa May Alcott's papers for more than a century, its publication is a literary landmark--a novel that is bold, timeless, and mesmerizing."

Newly discovered nearly 130 years after it was written, Louisa May Alcott's most exciting and controversial work is finally available to the public in paperback. This is the suspenseful story of obsessive love so modern, it could have been ripped from today's headlines--and so thrilling, readers will be riveted until the last heart-pounding page. Soon to be an NBC-TV miniseries. A LG featured selection.

Industry Reviews
"It contains a scoundrelly hero, a spirited heroine, an inordinate number of adjectives, and plenty of action...perhaps not what readers of Victorian light literature were prepared to approve."
Phoebe-Lou Adams

"When Alcott wrote 'A Long Fatal Love Chase' in 1866 for the magazine The Flag of Our Union, Editor James R. Eliott rejected it as being 'too long and too sensational.' That's about right....There is, however, a truly daring fictional element in 'A Long Fatal Chase': Alcott makes several veiled allusions to Rosamond's sexual fascination with Tempest....Maybe what editor Elliott found 'too sensational' about Alcott's novel was not the well-worn plot about a heroine fleeing sexual overtures of a powerful man, but rather its shadow text about a virtuous woman unable to quell her own sexual desires."
Chicago Tribune Books - Maureen Corrigan (09/03/1995)

"Much as one longs for insight into the young author's developing talent, this written-to-order serial sheds more light on what lengths a writer will go to pay for a room and board."
Erbon