Belladonna: A Novel of Revenge [Hardcover]

Karen Moline (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1998

Filled with the mesmerizing eroticism of an Anne Rice novel, this new work by the author of "Lunch" presents the tale of a mysterious woman whose tortured past transforms her into the most exquisite instrument of revenge.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

In 1935, His Lordship "purchased" 18-year-old Isabella Ariel Nickerson for one #1 million in an auction for members of an exclusive club of rich Britons eager to satisfy their sexual appetites. Isabella's transformation into Belladonna after more than ten years of degradation is fueled by a desire to find and punish the club members, who had always worn masks and used code names. Her quest for revenge is told by Tomasino, who with his twin brother had helped her and her baby daughter escape from this nightmare. Castrated for participating in the Italian Resistance during World War II, the twins were also prisoners of His Lordship. Tomasino's narrative includes flashbacks and excerpts from Belladonna's diaries. Afraid to love, Belladonna almost allows the desire for revenge to corrode her own soul. The horrors revealed make readers eager for her to outsmart His Lordship, but this novel by the author of Lunch (LJ 7/94) is not for the squeamish.?Kathy Piehl, Mankato State Univ., MN
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews

Second-novelist Moline (Lunch, 1994) returns, this time with an S&M wannabe that hovers somewhere between deliciousness and dreck. The notorious femme fatale Belladonna, whos always masked and who always travels bookended by her bodyguards, owns the hottest nightclub in 1950s New York. Shes set up shop there with an army of security guards, spies, hidden microphones, and enough costumes, wigs, and jewels for a Cecil B. De Mille productionall in order to ensnare and destroy the ``Hellfire Club'' of British aristocrats who, in 1935, auctioned her off for a million pounds to a man known only as His Lordship, a British sadist who kept her drugged, tortured, and sexually enslaved for 12 years, and who supposedly stole her infant son. Helped to escape from His Lordship's prison by Thomasina and Matter Canaan, twins from Brooklyn, who were castrated by the Italian Fascists and rescued by His Lordship to do his bidding, Belladonna spends her life plotting revenge. And while she waits, she uses her vast supply of money and power to help other women whove also been betrayed by men. In this effort shes been aided by a wise and kindly old Italian count, Leandro, who nursed her back to health, married her, died, and left her enough money to ``buy the Bank of England.'' Belladonna's tortured life, as told by her faithful and purportedly witty companion Thomasina, is intercut with sections of Belladonna's memoir of enslavement (printed completely in italics), which any reader who has seen a bad S&M movie can already predict (tight corsets, blindfolds, chains, dungeons, and a lot of unpleasant abuse). Belladonna (formerly Isabella Ariel) eventually confronts His Lordship and, after exacting her revenge, even learns to love again. Trite and unconvincing. Neither grim enough to compel nor gaudy enough to entertain. -- Copyright ©1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 501 pages
• Publisher: Warner Books; 1ST edition (May 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0446523186
• ISBN-13: 978-0446523189
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 5.9 x 1.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (43 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,002,692 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Much More Than Sex and Revenge, September 1, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Belladonna: A Novel of Revenge (Hardcover)

BELLADONNA

I admit, I picked up this novel for the sex. I expected a light but juicy story about glamorous people and their hidden lives. What I found was much more compelling, much more provocative -- just more.

Belladonna has been promoted as "A Novel of Revenge." A beautiful and innocent young American woman is kidnapped by powerful European aristocrats, then held as a helpless sex slave. Later, she gets them back, and then some. All true, but it doesn't begin to cover the depth of Karen Moline's characters, or the bitter truth in their responses to whatever life throws at them. Instead of going for cliches, she goes for gritty reality, every time. Nothing on the dust jacket mentions the rich thematic layers she weaves into a hypnotic cloth: the power dynamic that operates under the surface of all relationships; or how imprisonment of the mind can be much stronger than any physical ties that bind. Heavy stuff, but Moline serves it up skillfully in a perfect literary souffle.

On a more tender note, she also explores how "family" is truly defined by unconditional acceptance and support, not by genetic connection. I love the way she takes a group of walking-wounded individuals and joins them together with more commitment to each other than you'd find in many birth families.

This writer knows the meaning of style. Her narrator, Tomassino, doesn't just tell the story, he confides it to you with gossipy delight, as witty and entertaining as your favorite gay hair stylist. I actually heard the abridged book on audio tape, read by actor Tim Curry, before I read the novel. Unlike so many audio books, where the reader drones on tediously, Curry brings the story to life, acting out every part with amazingly subtle changes in accent and tone. You always know which character is speaking. The only drawback of the tapes is their abridgment...more than half of the book's text is cut out. So of course, I had to read the book, too.

I'm not sure Belladonna is for everyone, but I can tell you this -- since I can't stop talking about it, several of my friends had to run out and buy it. They couldn't put it down either.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Deliciously decadent, an arsenic chocolate of a book, February 17, 2003

By 

Stephen G. Shumate (Greenville, SC USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Belladonna: A Novel of Revenge (Mass Market Paperback)

Like a Jackie Collins novel on acid, this baroque drag queen fantasy run amok will amuse any former reader of romance. Just when you think the plot could not possibly get any more ridiculous, it does, with delightful results. There is a dark theme, but the book is so over-the-top that it is impossible to take seriously. It reads as high camp. The perfect, by-the-pool page turner. As soon as I finished reading it, I bought a dozen copies to give to my friends. I have yet to hear a bad review from them. This book has no redeeming qualities whatsoever, but it's so much fun you won't care. Enjoy!

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Summer suprise of sweet revenge, August 23, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Belladonna: A Novel of Revenge (Hardcover)

I read Belladonna as an accident and the results were a complete surprise. I picked it up as a "light" read for the summer (after a spring of slogging through dense academic text) and came away with an irresistable urge to concoct obsession-laced revenge plots, filled with beauty, deceit, and a checkered past.

As I read, it reminded me of the Count of Monte Cristo(which the plot of Belladonna borrows nicely)and some sinister works of Poe. Add to that exquisite sensuality... A perfect summer read with enough depth to keep you engaged through the final pages.

Once in a while you find a book that surprises you, captures you, and takes you on a trip of the imagination. Belladonna proves an excellent tour guide. Moline is a structured, sassy writer who knows how to tell a story and provides a story well told.