In 1821, he was punished with two years of fortress arrest for a threatening letter written to Prince Augustus of Prussia.
In 1830, he was imprisoned for a short time because of a text "shadow and no light" (Schatten und kein Licht) printed in Halle and directed against the Leipzig police.
Under his pseudonyms Gustav Sellen and Chlodwig he wrote a number of his own novellas and novels, was successful as a translator from English and French and was the editor of various magazines.
His translations included Napoleons Werke (6 volumes, Chemnitz 1840), Eugène Sue's Sämmtliche Werke (Leipzig 1838–46) in 24 volumes and the works of Balzac, Molière, Dumas, Swift (Gulliver's Travels), Defoe (Robinson Crusoe), Casanova (Memoirs in 13 books).
(Meissen and Pesth 1833) – a time-critical satire that was reprinted in 1966 and 1968 (as a paperback) – together with the original Münchhausen from 1768 – and characterized as follows: "Alvensleben was a revolutionary spirit who had the courage to show the breaks he recognized in the state and social order as well as in the way people live and work together.
His other works included: Narratives (Erzählungen),[3] The Chastising Castle Spirit (Der strafende Burggeist, historical novel),[4] Novellas and Narratives (Novellen und Erzählungen, Nuremberg 1831), The Debunked Jesuit (Der entlarvte Jesuit, Meissen 1831 – several editions), Life Portraits, Travel Pictures and Novellas (Lebens- und Reisebilder und Novellen, Leipzig 1841), Encyclopedia of Social Games (Enzyklopädie der Gesellschaftsspiele, Leipzig 1853, nine editions to 1893), Eve-of-Wedding Party Jokes (Polterabend-Scherze, Quedlinburg 1858, nine editions to 1888), Garibaldi (biography, Weimar 1859), Prince Lobkowitz or Revenge to the Death (Fürst Lobkowitz or Die Rache bis über das Grab, historical novel, 3 volumes, Vienna 1862/63), General World History for the People (Allgemeine Weltgeschichte für das Volk, 3 volumes, Vienna 1865–1872).