Louisa May Alcott, A Modern Mephistopheles

Debra Ryals (Pensacola State College)

Ed. by J. Michael Duvall, College of Charleston
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 3.2.2: American (US) Writing and Culture: The Nineteenth Century, 1783-1900.
Vol. editors: Robert Clark (The Literary Encyclopedia), J. Michael Duvall (College of Charleston), Emory Elliott (University of California, Riverside), Stephen E. Meats (Pittsburg State University), Tony Papanikolas (San Jose State University)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1887

Places

United States (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Novel

Resources

A Modern Mephistopheles, written by Louisa May Alcott (1832-1888) and published by the Robert Brothers in 1877 as part of its “No-Name Series” (a collection written by well-known authors, published anonymously, which piqued a lively guessing game as to each volume’s author) was instantly hailed as the best entry into this collection to date. While Alcott was named as a possible author, most could not fathom that the author of Little Women could have produced such a book. Alcott herself wrote “this book was very successful in preserving its incognito; and many persons still insist it could not have been written by the author of Little Women” (Cheney 379).

The story itself incorporated portions of two pieces Alcott had written previously. She “reworked her unpublished 1866 manuscript A Modern Mephistopheles; or, The Fatal Love Chase...

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3589 words

Citation: Ryals, Debra. "A Modern Mephistopheles". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 24 March 2026 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=14965, accessed 09 June 2026.]

Louisa May Alcott, A Modern Mephistopheles

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