PODCAST · history

Bureau Breda

by Loyal Books

Louisa May Alcott enthusiasts would be delighted to read this short novel published in 1867, just a year before the grand debut of her most famous Little Women trilogy. This is one of three books she wrote under the pseudonym AM Barnard. She used this name to pen tales that were meant more for adult readers, though younger people will find them quite interesting too.The Abbot's Ghost or Maurice Treherne's Temptation is a romance, mystery, ghost-story and novel of manners all rolled into one. She subtitled it A Christmas Story and it certainly evokes memories of old-fashioned holiday seasons, before the advent of the Internet and TV, where one sat round a cozy fire and told eerie tales to while away the time.In the story, Maurice Treherne is falsely implicated in a case of forgery and fraud. He also loses the use of his legs while trying to save the life of his debonair man-about-town cousin, Jasper. Jasper's wealthy bachelor uncle had initially made Maurice and Jasper equal inherit