Pauline's Passion and Punishment

Written by Louisa May Alcott

Narrated by Emily Rankin and Gabrielle de Cuir

A fiery and passionate tale by the beloved author of Little WomenWriting under the pseudonym A. M. Barnard, Louisa May Alcottwrote a series of what she called “blood and thunder” thrillers for a weeklypulp magazine. In the first, Pauline’sPassion and Punishment, she explores the unfair roles of men and women, aswell as the societal expectations and forbidden desires that play an importantrole in this story of love and vengeance.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Blackstone Audio
• Release date: Jul 1, 2014
• ISBN: 9781483032191

Louisa May Alcott

Louisa May Alcott was a 19th-century American novelist best known for her novel, Little Women, as well as its well-loved sequels, Little Men and Jo's Boys. Little Women is renowned as one of the very first classics of children’s literature, and remains a popular masterpiece today.

Reviews for Pauline's Passion and Punishment

[philsyphe · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is one of Louisa May Alcott's darkest works, again showing how talented she was at writing in different genres; a mark of a great author.This is a tale of a scorned woman's revenge on a man who informed her - via letter - that he'd dropped her to marry someone with more money. Thus the passion in the story is about Pauline's desire to get even, which involves her using a man who's besotted with her, and a former female school friend, without accounting for how her (Pauline's) actions against her betrayer will affect those two who are innocent. The punishment comes at the end of the tale and I can't mention anymore here without giving things away.

[sueincyprus · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

This is a rather depressing tale of unrequited love, leading to bitterness, anger, and betrayal.

Pauline learns that the man she loves is married to someone else She is comforted by Manuel, a man a few years younger than she, who has loved her for a long time. She agrees to marry him.. but he knows that she only cares for him as a friend, and thinks of him as a brother rather than a husband.

Alas, there were no redeeming features to this book in which Pauline shows an increasingly vicious desire for revenge, leading, in a shocking climax, to a lifetime of regret.

I suppose it might be considered a moral tale, pointing out the evils of bitterness and the disasters befalling a lust for revenge. I just found it depressing.