Raidergirl from over at An Adventure in Reading suggested this romantic novel, purportedly the first by Louisa May Alcott. The Inheritance was written in 1849 when she was 17. It's great fun, but Alcott clearly has a long way to go before she will become the writer who produced Little Women and the rest of the books we all love.
Take away the words "tears," "pale," and "humble" and the book would be half the size. The heroine is impossibly good. The villainess annoyingily bad. And the plot hangs on an old man ex machina who holds a sinful secret that will change our heroine's life forever. Nevertheless, I had a grand time with this book and look forward to reading more of Alcott's "other" work.
Like a book mentioned by Elaine from Random Jottings of a Book and Opera Lover, A Double Life, a collection of five of LMA's sensational tales written for Frank Leslie's Illustrated tabloid newspaper. It took me no time flat to read these wonderful stories about the struggle between men and women for Power. Guess who wins every time?
I was very interested to find Shakespeare and the theater running through these tales. The first story, "A Pair of Eyes," begins at a performance of "Macbeth" and the painting of a portrait of Lady Macbeth is crucial to the plot. "Ariel" has obvious connections with "The Tempest." "A Double Tragedy" is about actors and ends with the death scene from "Romeo and Juliet."
"The Fate of the Forrests" has a complicated theme that involves predictions of the future that always come true, a fate worse than death (sort of), poisoning (or maybe not), a lingering death in prison, and the Thugs of India. Beat that for sensationalism. The last and best of these stories - and they are all good - is "Taming of a Tartar," much like "Taming of the Shrew" with the tables turned and the woman bringing the eponymous Russian prince to his knees.
I'm grateful to Elaine and Raidergirl for these suggestions. Now I'm on to the Geraldine Brooks novel, March, suggested by Karen at Cornflower.