Angel in the House: Gladys in "A Modern Mephistopheles" by Louisa May Alcott

<Tab/>In 1877, Louisa May Alcott went to Boston's Bellevue Hotel for a few weeks to write A Modern Mephistopheles, a gothic thriller that was a major change from Little Women and her other youth books that Alcott called "moral pap for the young" (Strickland, 1). A Modern Mephistopheles is the story of nineteen year old Felix Canaris, a poet on the brink of starvation, until Jasper Helwyze helps him. Helwyze promised Felix fame and fortune in return for complete control over his life. When Felix falls in love with Olivia, Helwyze's companion, he is instead forced into a marria…