Alcott, like Jo March, published "sensationalist" stories and potboilers in various popular magazines, particularly Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper, under pseudonyms, often using A.M. Bernard. Here are collected two novellas, (V.V.: or, Plots and Counterplots and A Marble Woman), two short stories ( The Skeleton in the Closet and A Whisper in the Dark) and a very short story—"Perilous Play". There are also letters from her publisher to Alcott, reproducing a 19th C penmanship that is very difficult to read. I'm assuming these prove her authorship. Drug addiction seems a prevalent theme: the last line of the book reads, "Heaven bless hashish, if its dreams end like this!" ( )