Customer Reviews

The Demon Lover

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(9)

 

 

The story is certainly very well written but the end is more than disappointing. The story is about Kate, a gifted artist who paints a picture of the powerful and charismatic machiavellian Baron Centreville. The baron soon discovers that not Kate's father, a famous miniaturist, who is about to loose his eyesight paints him, but Kate. Instead of being furious he is inspired by her and patronizes her further career. Kate is erotically attracted by him but repulsed by his machiavellian use of power. She falls in love with the man the Baron wants to marry of to a former mistress. Due to the fact that Kate severly interferes with his plans he intends to punish her and her fianceé for their "insubordination". He kidnapps Kate, drugs her and rapes her several times and makes it very clear that this is meant as a punishment. There is no indication that the baron fiercly desires Kate or that Kate enjoys the whole thing and it would be very unlikely under the given circumstances. The whole thing is about power and the use of power. His original plan to marry of the now besmirched Kate to his rebellious subject is thwarted by Kate who now refuses to marry this man. The plot is interesting so far and I expected some poetic justice because Kate, a very spirited and strong woman could be the ideal person to revenge herself on the baron but this is not the case. Instead of it she gets pregnant and gives birth to a son. Of course she secretly yearns for the baron and let no other man touch her for years. Then after a failed marriage of the baron he finds out about the son and comes to claim him. The rest of the story is ridiculous nonsense. I don't critizise the fact that Kate in the beginning feels attracted to so unsympathetic a character. It is believable for the baron is handsome and powerful and that is in fact attractive. I wouldn't have minded the baron seducing Kate as a means of punishment (like Valmont seduced the virtuous Madame de Tourville). It would be more than believable that after that Kate is not able to forget her demonic lover. But her demonic rapist? He was a cruel barbarian and not a highly seductive and sinister Valmont who was a skilled lover not a neanterthaler who tears his woman in his cave. The story is very well written but the content is [...]. Because of it's very dubious moral I can only give one star.

I find it humorous that so many rate this book so low because of the rape scene. You have to realize when this book was written. In the 1970's and 1980's there was a subgenre of romance novels called boddice rippers. Most romance readers couldn't get enough of them. They usually had a rape scene and after awhile the heroine would come to fall in love with the man who raped her. Some of the authors who wrote these books were Katherine Woodiwiss, Jennifer Wilde, etc. Apparently Victoria Holt figured she may as well try her hand at it, too.

Pop psychology at that time said that many women had rape fantasies. It's true. That doesn't mean they want to be raped in real life. It's just an erotic fantasy. Most people know the difference between reality and fantasy. These bodice rippers are fantasy, and a lot of women got off on them. Nowadays, of course, it's totally politically incorrect to write this kind of book.

This longtime Holt fan was horrified and sickened as well as bitterly disappointed in this novel because (a) it's not a "romance" at all and (b) this is one of the finest authors alive.

The "hero" tricks and rapes the heroine, but she falls in love with him? NO! NO! NO! Rape is a violent act committed by men who despise women. No man who does that can EVER be a hero, and Holt's attempt to have him reason out his actions and redeem himself are an utter failure. Equally disappointing is having his helpless, violated victim decide he's worthy of her affection, and worse, fit to be a father to the child he conceived through force.

This is a sad attempt at entertainment from a wonderful writer, a slap in the face to real victims of rape, a perpetuation of the myth that it's possible for some rape victims to secretly enjoy their brutalization, and that men who rape really aren't so bad.

Read "The Pride of the Peacock" or "Mistress of Mellyn" instead.

I agree with C. Morse's review, people are so quick to be offended and freak out at anything that appears not to be "Politically Correct". Good grief, this is a story written for a time period of when the "Baron's, Count's and Lord's" held rule over the lands and the people associated with them. They held themselves as a "God" and people feared them because of the power they held with their position and money. Yes, the Baron is obsessed with Kate and in his mind "He must have her", he was obsessively in love with her and as you read thru the story "Kate was obsessed with him being continually in her thoughts". Yes, he drugged her wine (the first night only) and held her for 3 days, making love to her, in his mind as the all powerful Baron, how could she not love him?, even thru the 3 days she spent with him, she claimed the bed was a "battlefield" with her emotions because she hated it and at the same time she loved being with him. I cannot believe all of the ridiculous review ratings concerning this story; Victoria Holt does not include any graphic details and very cleverly pulls you into this story from beginning to end.

Kate later gives birth to the Baron's son and as you continue on thru the story for those who actually read it all the way thru, Kate was always in love with the Baron as he was with her. He cared financially for her and his child and saved their lives towards the end during the siege and begged her to marry him. His relationship with his son is a very tender loving relationship and the love and concern he holds for both of them shows very strongly from his actions towards them thru out the book.

Real rapists don't stick around after the act to care and concern themselves with their victims. Their acts are Brutal Acts of Violence in all degrees.

Holt fans that have not read this book ignore the reviews that give it such a bad rap, most of the people writing these reviews have not even finished the book and want only to rage about the lack of political correctness of the story. It's a story for goodness sakes based in a time period in Europe where the Baron's rule was a class of its own.

I have one piece of advice for avid Victoria holt readers and lovers-DO NOT READ THIS BOOK. Im sorry to say this is the poorest representation of women I have ever seen in Victoria Holt's novels. Yes, there are some flattering parts about Kate, but mostly she is weak and unable. She reterns to the man who abused her. To me rape and kidnapping is not an attractive quality. To make Kate's lover so diobolical takes away from the essance of the novel, and also lessens my respect for the remainder of Victoria Holt's works. If you love Victoria Holt, fine, but don't read this book by the fear of disillusionment.

If I could give this zero stars I would! If anyone regards the last part of this review as containing spoilers, sorry but really you should thank me if it stops you from reading this semi-porn.

I have been a fan of Victoria Holt novels since I was in high school. Usually Ms Holt writes romances that are PG-13 at most, ones that are appropriate for teens or their grandmothers and well written enough to keep everyone in between interested. Usually the resourceful heroines find themselves in exotic, romantic locales where they meet an intriguing man with a mysterious deep dark problem. After overcoming numerous obstacles true love triumphs, in a touchingly beautiful scene. This formula has worked quite well for a couple of dozen novels but this time Holt has really hit a sour note.

The novel starts well, according to Holt's usual plan, Kate Collison is the devoted daughter to a talented artist, a painter of miniature portraits, the last in a long line of painters. He is the last because, in late Victorian times a woman simply cannot be a professional artist. Kate has inherited the family talent and her adoring father had trained her of the years so when his sight began to fail the two hit on a scheme to pass of Kate's work as his own. They first tried this on a commission in Normandy for an arrogant and wealthy nobleman, and then things begin to go horribly wrong.

Kate is confronted with two young men, the wealthy one and his poor relation. Both men figure in her life as she becomes a pawn in a power play between the two. Ultimately one rapes her, the other deserts her. Years later one comes to her rescue, taking Kate and the son she bore as a result of the rape out of war torn Paris.

Rape is not romance, no matter how tortured and mistreated he was as a child, kidnapping and raping a woman takes a character out of the 'romantic hero' category and puts him permanently into the 'villain' one, and the fiance who cannot bear that his innocent love has been sullied is right there with him.

Read anything else by Victoria Holt but SKIP THIS ONE.

I love Victoria Holt! I have read most of her books. This book was great right up to the rape scene. I feel that I am not giving anything away since the other reviewers mentioned this aspect to the plot already. I thought that the character would grow and develop from this experience but in the end she is still a victim! The ending of the book was terrible as well. It was as if the author had five minutes to write an ending and just wrote whatever came to mind. My eighth graders would have come up with a better ending. Borrow this from the library and buy The Silk Vendetta or The Night of the Seventh Moon. They are both excellent books.

I like most of Victoria Holt novels,but for this one I have done exceptional things that I have read it more than twice...

At the beginning, I guess Kate should be someone with her own brain and idea. I don't know why VH would make Kate into a paradoxical creature. She was so strong to help her blind dad to continue the business, which to me is an courageous act. However, after she bore a child, she changed a lot. Weaker, not of herself any more. This weakness comes to climax when war time came. She lost herself totally at once when the Rollo entered afterwards.

Besides, did western women (I am Asian) of the 18th and 19th century tended to be controlled by their men (boyfriends, suitor or husbands)? Well, the language is beautfully written, lyrical at times BUT I just cannot stomach the idea that women should marry those rich and famous guys who have RAPED them. Not for modern women, right?

I just re-read this book for the first time since I was 11 and I still find it entertaining. Other reviewers complained that Kate falls in love with her rapist. Well ... Rollo's not a very nice man, but Holt makes it clear that Kate is enjoying herself at least some of the time. It's one of those love-hate relationships. Kate's attracted to a strong, domineering man who finds her irresistable, even though she knows he's a barbarian. And that IS one of the archetypal fantasies that women have deep, deep down even though no normal person actually wants a Rollo to kidnap her, drug her and force himself on her. It's a fantasy, so it's safe. This book was written in 1982, about the time the "Luke and Laura" phenomenon was going on. They were popular and so was this book. People liked the idea.