• American Studies
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• v.44 no.1
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• pp.137-154
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• 2021

Due to her successful novel Little Women (1869), Louisa May Alcott has generally become known as a writer of sentimental fiction. However, her thrillers demonstrate her keen insights into domestic and international issues. Alcott's so-called "left hand" shows her stances on political and historical issues in America as well as in Europe and Asia. Particularly, Alcott's supporting voice for women against social prejudices is metaphorically portrayed in "A Whisper in the Dark" (1861). Interestingly, in the story Alcott displays her knowledge of the drug trades and the cultural effects of white male colonizers exploiting other peoples and countries around the globe, which were issues that she had learned about from neighboring intellectuals and newspapers. In the paper, I examine Alcott's radical views on gender equality, chauvinistic attitudes, and transnational politics in the mid-nineteenth century.