SOURCE: An Introduction to Freaks of Genius: Unknown Thrillers of Louisa May Alcott, edited by Daniel Shealy, Madeleine B. Stern, and Joel Myerson, Greenwood Press, 1991, pp. 1-22.

In the following excerpt, Stern discusses recurring themes and structural devices in Alcott's sensation stories.

The association of the author of Little Women with tales of feminist passion and sexual power struggles, narcotics addiction, revenge and murder continues to raise astonished eyebrows. Violence, unleashed emotion, insanity and deviltry are unlikely themes for America's best loved author of juveniles, and the revelation of her connection with them has given her a new public: a general readership avidly turning unaccustomed pages; a scholarly following seeking to understand the unseemly relationship.

As time passes and heretofore unknown Alcott thrillers are discovered, it begins to appear that that relationship was actually a commitment on her part and that Alcott's literary pursuit of darkness was long-lasting...