Blood & Thunder: The Dark Tales of Louisa May Alcott

by Louisa May Alcott

Before Little Women catapulted Louisa May Alcott to fame, she supported her family by writing dark, pulpy thrillers. She called these her “blood-and-thunder tales” — shocking stories of passion, deception, and revenge. These stories were lost for nearly a century. This anthology collects the best of Alcott’s forgotten tales of forbidden love, manipulation, and murder.

337 pages, Paperback

Published June 21, 2021

About the author

Louisa May Alcott was an American novelist, short story writer, and poet best known for writing the novel Little Women (1868) and its sequels Good Wives (1869), Little Men (1871) and Jo's Boys (1886). Raised in New England by her transcendentalist parents, Abigail May Alcott and Amos Bronson Alcott, she grew up among many well-known intellectuals of the day, including Margaret Fuller, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Henry David Thoreau, and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.
Alcott's family suffered from financial difficulties, and while she worked to help support the family from an early age, she also sought an outlet in writing. She began to receive critical success for her writing in the 1860s. Early in her career, she sometimes used pen names such as A.M. Barnard, under which she wrote lurid short stories and sensation novels for adults that focused on passion and revenge.
Published in 1868, Little Women is set in the Alcott family home, Orchard House, in Concord, Massachusetts, and is loosely based on Alcott's childhood experiences with her three sisters, Abigail May Alcott Nieriker, Elizabeth Sewall Alcott, and Anna Bronson Alcott Pratt. The novel was well-received at the time and is still popular today among both children and adults. It has been adapted for stage plays, films, and television many times.
Alcott was an abolitionist and a feminist and remained unmarried throughout her life. She also spent her life active in reform movements such as temperance and women's suffrage. She died from a stroke in Boston on March 6, 1888, just two days after her father's death.

Reviews

[Andrea · Rating 4 out of 5]

I beg of you to yield my precautionary tale (or review) of the book, Blood and Thunder by Louisa May Alcott. Upon reading her novellas, I began using flowery language in proper English.

Louisa, best known for Little Women, preferred her earlier writings. Some of her favorite are within Blood and Thunder. She liked the darker characters - the secrets kept, the peril, and the darkness that exists within us.

I enjoyed living through the characters and retiring to the drawing room to listen to the piano. I watched the women wield their powers of manipulation over the men. It was interesting that they were unaware of being played like a masterful violinist.

Please enjoy, as I have, a time that was simpler, yet poverty and class were as important as they are today.

Luckily I have completed this review as my pen has run out of ink. I will send Jeffries for some on the 'morrow.

****I received an advance review copy for free; I am leaving this review voluntarily.*****

[Freya · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was one of those few people that didn't like Little Women. I couldn't identify with the characters and the story seemed too syrupy. However, I found out Alcott didn't really enjoy that book either! Instead, she enjoyed writing short, pulpy horror stories. The difference in the two styles is staggering.

I absolutely LOVED this collection of her dark stories. I couldn't put it down! While I enjoyed some tales more than others, they all had me hooked from the first sentence. When the last story ended, I turned the (electronic) page and was like, "What? No more? Nooooooo!" *lol*

I definitely recommend this to anyone who likes short dark stories and for those who found Little Women to be more unrealistic than what these dark tales have to offer.

[Hannah · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought the editor chose these stories well, a number on different themes. If you like traditional/historical gothic stories with shocking mysteries, ghosts, plotting families and tangled love stories you will probably enjoy this. Many of the stories are quite long, separated into different chapters but I thought this allowed them to more in depth. I enjoyed seeing another side to Louisa May Alcott and would probably read more if they were available.
I received an advanced review copy for free and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

[Annie Oop · Rating 4 out of 5]

A rare and informative peek into the mind of a brilliant Victorian woman who had to use a pseudonym in order to write.

I was eager to read this book because apparently, before Ms. Alcott found fame with classics such as “Little Women” she wrote “Penny Dreadful” books in order to pay the bills. Penny dreadful books could be compared to what we now call “Pulp Fiction”, or Soap Opera type stories. Basically, they are tales of emotional trauma, horror, gripping suspense, and subjects that aren’t mentioned in “polite society “.

This book was a compilation of these sorts of tales. The stories were well written and interesting. I did struggle with some of the period language in the book that is no longer used today. I found it very enlightening that subject matter that was considered spectacularly titillating and horrifying in that era wouldn’t even raise an eyebrow in our time; hmm, very interesting how far we’ve come as a society.

I would definitely recommend this book to people who love a good book that you can pick up and put down because each story is separate. I also found it to be a rare and informative peek into the mind of a brilliant Victorian woman who had to use a pseudonym in order to write.

[Mary Elizabeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a welcome change of pace from my usual reads. It is a great reflection of the better known works of Louisa May Alcott in terms of attention to detail, tone, vocabulary, and dialogue reflecting the settings of the classic books. You will not be disappointed once you get acclimated to this higher level writing, and will also be surprised at some of the outcomes.

[Alice · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've read most of these before. Dramatic and gothic; almost what I'd call gothic soap operas.