Helpful Score: 6
I love Gothic tales, so this was a great classic to read.
Helpful Score: 3
What a gripping story!! I read it in one night! A rare story from Louisa May Alcott, the author of Little Women. Originally thought to be too sensational for its time, this book was written as a serial. Every chapter ends with a cliffhanger-- A definate page turner.
Helpful Score: 3
What a great find...this book was only recently found in the mid 1990s. A great story of a love affair between an older man and a younger woman. The man becomes obsessed with her as she tries to leave him, and he follows her around the world trying to bring her home. Definitely suspenseful, though after awhile, I would roll my eyes and wish it would just be over with.
Helpful Score: 2
Very disturbing.
Helpful Score: 2
Not at all what I expected from the author of Little Women. It took my breath away at times as I longed for the main character to escape her life. I couldn't put it down, I was pulled into the story and the nightmare of her life. I needed to know how it ended.
Helpful Score: 1
Spellbinding, and about love and passion and the obsessions involved in these feelings.
Helpful Score: 1
Romantic suspense by the author of Little Women.
Helpful Score: 1
Amazon.com: "Rosamond Vivian, brought up on a remote island by an indifferent grandfather, swears she'd sell her soul to Satan for a year of freedom. When Philip Tempest enters her life, she is ripe for the plucking, but is soon caught up in a web of intrigue, cruelty and deceit stretching back far into the past. Remarkable for its portrayal of a sensual, spirited Victorian heroine, Louisa May Alcott's work, too shocking to be published during her lifetime, tells a compulsive tale of love, desire and deceit. Its publication more than a century after being written marks a new page in literary history."
From Publishers Weekly: "This romantic cliffhanger about a woman pursued by her ex-lover, a relentless stalker, seems sprung from today's headlines. Yet Alcott (1832-1888) wrote it more than a century and a quarter ago, in 1866 (two years before the appearance of Little Women), only to see it rejected it as "too sensational" by the magazine that had requested it. The novel has remained unpublished until now. Its heroine, the lonely, trusting 18-year-old Rosamond Vivian, who lives with her flinty, unloving grandfather on an English island, falls for the cynical, suave Phillip Tempest, who's nearly twice her age. He whisks her off to his Mediterranean villa near Nice, promising to marry her, but when she discovers that he is secretly married (and strongly suspects that he has murdered the son he never acknowledged), Rosamond flees to Paris, assuming a new identity. Phillip obsessively stalks her for two years, from France, where she seeks refuge in a convent and falls in love with a protective priest, to Germany, where Phillip has her committed to a lunatic asylum; eventually she flees to England. Alcott's portrayals of the pathological Phillip and of the conflicted Rosamond?who initially clings to her ex-lover, hoping to reform him until she realizes he is a murderous brute?show strong psychological insights. This absorbing novel revises our image of a complex and, it is now clear, prescient writer." Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --
From Publishers Weekly: "This romantic cliffhanger about a woman pursued by her ex-lover, a relentless stalker, seems sprung from today's headlines. Yet Alcott (1832-1888) wrote it more than a century and a quarter ago, in 1866 (two years before the appearance of Little Women), only to see it rejected it as "too sensational" by the magazine that had requested it. The novel has remained unpublished until now. Its heroine, the lonely, trusting 18-year-old Rosamond Vivian, who lives with her flinty, unloving grandfather on an English island, falls for the cynical, suave Phillip Tempest, who's nearly twice her age. He whisks her off to his Mediterranean villa near Nice, promising to marry her, but when she discovers that he is secretly married (and strongly suspects that he has murdered the son he never acknowledged), Rosamond flees to Paris, assuming a new identity. Phillip obsessively stalks her for two years, from France, where she seeks refuge in a convent and falls in love with a protective priest, to Germany, where Phillip has her committed to a lunatic asylum; eventually she flees to England. Alcott's portrayals of the pathological Phillip and of the conflicted Rosamond?who initially clings to her ex-lover, hoping to reform him until she realizes he is a murderous brute?show strong psychological insights. This absorbing novel revises our image of a complex and, it is now clear, prescient writer." Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --
A suspenseful romantic thriller that will keep you interested. Nothing at all like Little Women but still fantastic.
Definately worth reading--watch out, this one doesn't end as normal for her as others do!
Sooo, this was a book that Alcott wrote to try to help her family with some financial trouble. To bad for her, the book was too bold they didn't publish it in her time!
It was edited to be more boring and printed under the name "Fair Rosamond", but this version is supposed to be the first one in all it's "boldness" glory.
The main woman, Rosamond, is surprisingly bold and independently minded for that time I think. I had no qualms with her, and actually found the story pretty believable. She falls in love with Tempest, gets together with him, finds out some not-so-nice things about him and runs-and he keeps chasing her, over, and over, again. So at times, a little repetitive, but, kept me interested for the most part and was a refreshing read just because of the time it was written in caused it to be something different to read.
I am putting it on paperbackswap, however, instead of keeping it for myself.
It was edited to be more boring and printed under the name "Fair Rosamond", but this version is supposed to be the first one in all it's "boldness" glory.
The main woman, Rosamond, is surprisingly bold and independently minded for that time I think. I had no qualms with her, and actually found the story pretty believable. She falls in love with Tempest, gets together with him, finds out some not-so-nice things about him and runs-and he keeps chasing her, over, and over, again. So at times, a little repetitive, but, kept me interested for the most part and was a refreshing read just because of the time it was written in caused it to be something different to read.
I am putting it on paperbackswap, however, instead of keeping it for myself.
A story of dark love and passionate obsession that was considered "too sensational" to be published in thr author's lifetime. This story was written for magazine serialization in 1866, two years before 'Little Women.' Discovered a century AFTER the author's death, this story is considered a literary landmark.
Very different from the Louisa May Alcott books I read up with. An adult story that held my interest.
A stalking love story.
A good page turner!
Very interesting and different from her other work.
A mysterious love story by a beloved author. Great book, but what can you expect from Ms. Alcott! Great condition.
This book was really good. It kept you guessing at every turn of the page. She did an awesome job of making you feel as if you were there. It was also very interesting to read a completely different kind of writing by Louisa. I would definitely recommend this book.
