Customer Reviews

The Captive II (Victorian Era)

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I'm an afficionado of bondage porn and I'm not that squeamish, but I really loathed this book. This is the only pornographic novel that I've ever read that seemed genuinely misogynistic. The female characters are simply puppets for very brutal, not at all erotic torture. They have no characters; they're just bodies. Nauseating. And poorly written, to boot!

Consists mainly of what appears to be cut and paste from other works by the same author with little to no effort to blend them together. Eroticism is submerged and totally hidden by fantastic flaggelation scenes. It appears as if the author really didn't care. Not much of a beginning and certainly no end. I actually read it all, hoping it would get better. It didn't.

My Richard Manton collection is approximately 30 different books. I'd be the first to agree with the 1999 Amazon reviewer that THE CAPTIVE II seems 'cut and paste(d) from other works by the same author.'

There is however a hypnotic quality to RM's prose that lulls and seduces; writing chops of that caliber Manton achieves via the repetitive rhythms he unfurls on the page. This repetition manifests itself on solid RM turf. Familiar bottoms: Brigid and Lesley's; familiar villains: Col. Manrique and De Xantra; familiar locale: the Cambina Alta plantation in the rugged terrain of Cheluna; familiar affiliations: Rio 6, modern day white slavers and Barbary pirates; familiar set pieces: some girl's going to get spanked and sexed for dubious reasons, with spectators.

But it's all good, it's a Richard Manton spanker, for gosh sakes! His work is teeming with stupid people doing stupid things to stupider people. It's not supposed to be taken seriously, it's black comedy. The limousine sequence early in the novel is especially erotic.

I quite liked this one.