Abbot's Ghost or Maurice Treherne's Temptation

A forgotten gem from the author of Little Women, this 1869 Christmas romance pulses with the kind of reckless passion Alcott rarely let loose in her beloved family stories. Maurice Treherne, disinherited and stripped of fortune, returns to claim the woman he loves, but the path to Octavia's heart is lined with false accusations, social ruin, and a ghostly family secret that threatens to destroy everything. When honor is questioned and love hangs in the balance, Maurice must choose between the temptation of revenge and the harder path of forgiveness. Alcott, writing under the pseudonym A. M. Barnard, reveals a surprisingly dark streak in this melodrama of class, guilt, and redemption. It's a book that understands how much harder it is to be good when the world has been unjust to you, and how love, to truly mean anything, must be earned rather than claimed.