*This Book is annotated (it contains a detailed biography of the author). *An active Table of Contents has been added by the publisher for a better customer experience. *This book has been checked and corrected for spelling errors.Originally published under a pseudonym, this is not a typical LMA novel. It is a Gothic novel about a failed poet who makes a Faustian bargain with his tempter.

This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book.

Unlike some other reproductions of classic texts (1) We have not used OCR(Optical Character Recognition), as this leads to bad quality books with introduced typos. (2) In books where there are images such as portraits, maps, sketches etc We have endeavoured to keep the quality of these images, so they represent accurately the original artefact. Although occasionally there may be certain imperfections with these old texts, we feel they deserve to be made available for future generations to enjoy.

First published in 1889, this volume contains Louisa May Alcott's short stories “A Modern Mephistopheles” and “A Whisper in the Dark”. Although best known for her children's classics, Alcott also wrote many “blood and thunder” stories in her early years. Her favourite of these was “A Modern Mephistopheles”, a story of human evil and its appalling consequences that centres around Felix Canaris, a failing writer whose suicide attempt is interrupted by a fateful knock at the door. These chilling tales of lust, deception, and greed are highly recommended for short story lovers and are not to be missed by fans of macabre literature. Louisa May Alcott (1832 – 1888) was an American short story writer, novelist, and poet most famous for writing the novel “Little Women”, as well as its sequels “Little Men” and “Jo's Boys”. She grew up in New England and became associated with numerous notable intellectuals of her time, including Nathaniel Hawthorne, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, and Henry David Thoreau. Other notable works by this author include: "An Old-Fashioned Girl" (1886), "Eight Cousins" (1869), and "A Long Fatal Love Chase" (1875). Many vintage books such as this are becoming increasingly scarce and expensive. It is with this in mind that we are republishing this volume now in an affordable, modern, high-quality edition complete with the original text and artwork.

This Book is annotated (it contains a detailed biography of the author).This is not a typical LMA novel. It is a Gothic novel about a failed poet who makes a Faustian bargain with his tempter.