A.M. Barnard was the pen name for Louisa May Alcott, and, sampling the style that was her bread and butter before she wrote better known classics, I fully appreciate her flare for the dramatic.

Summer reading would be incomplete without a few audio books! BJ Harrison, of Classic Tales Podcast, serves up this sensational story with style and delightful vocal characterization. Eligible man in possession of a fortune: check. Charming governess who is more that she appears: check. English countryside: check!

Earbuds in, I walked miles and painted walls in delight, listening to the adventures of the artful Jean Muir. How would this title fare in a feminist book club? That's what I wonder. ( )

So for 9th grade English, my eldest daughter’s assignment was to choose from a selection of public domain books. She chose this because this was the shortest. And I don’t blame her. It’s bad enough that classic literature is limited to what a bunch of stuffy old white males “decided” kids should learn (I’m looking at you Catcher in the Rye and The Great Gatsby). It’s stuff like this that makes kids abhor reading. Good literature can be fun too (I’m looking at you Lord of the Rings).

Anyway, this is categorized as a “thriller”. Or what they’d consider a thriller in 1866. I guess they called it that because it’s about–shock of shocks–a woman with agency. Unlike other Austen-esque novel, she’s the bad guy. A sort of a femme fatale, like “I fooled you all, and now I stand triumphant.” And her victims are the Coventry.

This woman is hired as a governess for a British family, but at the end of the chapter, she reveals to the audience that she’s acting — she’s got a wig and false teeth. But it reveals nothing about her motivation besides getting out of poverty, I guess. Like an inverse version of The Making of a Marchioness. Anyway, nothing happens for the next six out of nine chapters. It’s just a bunch of faffing about. Then she manipulates a few people so that she can marry the old rich uncle of the family just in time to render her revealed secret irrelevant. I find no reason to read this today. I read it so I could help my daughter out with her assignment (which she did not end up asking me for — she’s very independent). ( )

Despite the formulaic "indolent" young rich men, sick old mother, and helpless females, this short novel has a more compelling plot than Old Fashioned Girl.

Personalities change as the power of Jean Muir extends through the family, yet her dark charade simply goes on too long. ( )

Jean Muir arrives at the Coventry family’s stately home to begin her new occupation as governess to sixteen-year-old Bella. She has an aura of mystery about her and proves to be an enchantress during one to one situations with members of the opposite sex. Most of the household take a shine to the newcomer, especially Bella, while two or three others are suspicious of Miss Muir’s true nature.

‘Behind a Mask or A Woman's Power’ blends suspense, deceit, desire, romance, pathos, jealousy, and heartache. Louisa May Alcott’s plotting and characterisation is superb. Apart from my sometimes being confused as to who’s talking when more than two characters are present in a scene, owing to the speaker being revealed at the end of a medium or long sentence, I thought the dialogue was excellent. ( )

I don't see why this book was touted as a book of sex, love, betrayal and murder. There was love and betrayal but still pretty victorian. At most the main character Miss Muir is a sneaky con artist and quite the coquette. She was no murderess. It was a good little novella and it had its twists exactly what is expected from a thriller novella from the 19th century. ( )