Behind a Mask Summary
Jean Muir is on a quest for prosperity and security in a male-dominated society rife with class antagonisms.
Jean is alone and past the prime of youth. She is an actress, the daughter of a nonentity, the ex-wife of a reckless actor. She is a social outcast in Victorian elite society by gender, by birth, and by profession. Jean, outraged at the injustice, is willing to take risks and rise by means of subterfuge. As she writes to her co-conspirator Hortense, she intends to humble this "intensely proud family" of Coventrys by "captivating the sons, and when they have committed themselves, cast them off, and marry the old uncle, whose title takes my fancy."
One by one, the Coventry brothers Edward and Gerald, and finally their uncle, the estimable Sir John, do fall under Jean's sway. Initially though, despite her charms, the two older men merely acknowledge Jean's...
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Behind a Mask Short Guide
Louisa May Alcott Biographies (8)
458 words, approx. 2 pages
Louisa May Alcott (1832-1888) is one of America's best-known writers of juvenile fiction. She was also a reformer, working in the causes of temperance and women's suffrage.Louisa May Alcott was born i...
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5,376 words, approx. 18 pages
If longevity is any benchmark for literary greatness, then Louisa May Alcott would qualify. Her novel Little Women, published in 1868, still attracts legions of readers well over a century after publi...
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699 words, approx. 3 pages
Louisa May Alcott (29 November 1832-6 March 1888) still retains her reputation as one of America's best-loved writers of juveniles. That reputation was established with the publication of Little Wom...
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9,998 words, approx. 34 pages
Though she also wrote adult novels, Louisa May Alcott is known primarily for her eight novels for children in the Little Women series. Her children's novels are characterized by their glorification...
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855 words, approx. 3 pages
Louisa May Alcott is an unexpected inhabitant in the world of magazine editing. Her name is better known as the author of Little Women (1868-1869) and other children's stories, and her novels are now ...
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6,772 words, approx. 23 pages
Louisa May Alcott was widely known during her lifetime as the Children's Friend, a reputation based principally upon her domestic sagas for young adults, Little Women or, Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy (1868, ...
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6,187 words, approx. 21 pages
For most of the twentieth century Louisa May Alcott's literary reputation rested largely on her masterpiece, Little Women (1868, 1869). Yet, late in the twentieth century, Alcott--whose first biograph...
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10,539 words, approx. 36 pages
Biography EssayThough she also wrote adult novels, Louisa May Alcott is known primarily for her eight novels for children in the Little Women series. Her children's novels are characterized by their g...
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