The Chase

The Chase

Summary

'I often feel as if I'd gladly sell my soul to Satan for a year of freedom. '

Rosamond Vivian has been brought up as a recluse on a remote island off the English coast. When Phillip Tempest - charming, devastatingly handsome and almost twice Rosamond's age - mysteriously appears one stormy night he finds a peach ripe for the plucking. 'I am willing to pay for my pleasure if necessary,' Rosamond asserts boldly, but nothing can prepare her for the life that Phillip Tempest will lure her into sharing with him.

Instead of the freedom she craves, Rosamond finds herself caught up in the strange past of her new husband. Terrified of him and all he represents, she flees, adn so the chase begins - from Parisian garret to a mental asylum, from convent to chateau. But Phillip Tempest has never allowed anything to escape him, and Rosamond has become his obsession.

A compusive tale of love, desire and deceit, The Chase was considered too sensational to be published during Louisa may Alcott's lifetime. Its discovery after more than a century marks a new page in literary history.

Reviews

  • wonderful entertainment...a suspenseful and thoroughly charming story
    Stephen King

About the author

Louisa May Alcott

Louisa May Alcott was born on 29 November 1832 in Pennsylvania. Her father was friends with Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry Thoreau. Alcott started selling stories in order to help provide financial support for her family. Her first book was Flower Fables (1854). She worked as a nurse during the American Civil War and in 1863 she published Hospital Sketches, which was based on her experiences. Little Women was published in 1868 and was based on her life growing up with her three sisters. She followed it with three sequels, Good Wives (1869), Little Men (1871) and Jo's Boys (1886) and she also wrote other books for both children and adults. Louisa May Alcott was an abolitionist and a campaigner for women's rights. She died on 6 March 1888.
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