This work is a psychological fiction by Louisa May Alcott. It presents the story of Gladys a
fighter who impressively faces all the challenges life throws before her. Alcott delivers an
excellently written plot with strong characterization throughout the story. This beautifully
written story prompts all sorts of emotions in the reader. Excerpt from A Modern Mephistopheles
and A Whisper in the Dark A haggard youth knelt before a little furnace kindling a fire with
an expression of quiet desperation on his face which made the simple operation strange and
solemn. A pile of manuscript lay beside him and in the hollow eyes that watched the white
leaves burn was a tragic shadow terrible to see -for he was offering the first-born of heart
and brain as sacrifice to a hard fate.
