Customer Reviews

The Devil's Mistress: The Diary of Eva Braun, the Woman Who Lived and Died With Hitler

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

As a historian I feel I have something to say about this. It's not as poor a depiction of Eva as some have said. Granted, this is a boring book and I certainly would not recommend it, unless like me, you are fascinated with all details of the horrors of the Nazis and their associates. Gold is not wrong to assume Hitler's abnormality sexually-there is plenty of real evidence to support this, so I would not make the conclusion that she is "sensationalizing". Very rarely, as any psychologist will tell you, does an individual so twisted as Hitler have a normal sexual life, because sexuality reflects a normal, loving relationship and everyone who saw Hitler and Eva together commented that he insulted her in his presence and treated her as one would a loyal dog. That means there would be a problem. Also, this is a work of fiction, so this woman needn't justify herself, although I thought she was in line with Eva's own entries. Why is everyone so quick to defend Eva? Why is it more palatable for some to assume she was not shallow? Presumably she was far less bizarre than her lover/husband, but no innocent woman could have had a relationship with such a man. By the way, who was that guy who claimed Eva and Hitler escaped in a sub?! That was hilarious! Doesn't anyone screen these reviews?

This is one of the worst books I have ever read: juvenile, pathetically poorly written, historically devoid of *any* semblance of truth and shallow beyond belief. Eva Braun did write 20 pages of a real diary in 1935 and these torn-out extracts survive and are authentic. They reveal several things: Hitler was completely normal sexually (though he did ignore her for long bouts) and he did care for her, though he wasn't passionately enamored with her. She was with him, however. They had a normal, prosaic relationship, devoid of sado-mashochism or other ridiculous perversions detailed here.

It obviously bothers people that a mass murderer could still function normally between the sheets with his mistress and for this reason, trashy books like this are written and find a market. Anyone who lays credence in the idiotic nonsense between the covers of this tome need to seriously consult a non-fiction source on Eva Braun. This is the nadir of published material on her.

This book came to me because I picked it up and was curious of this woman. I was greatly disappointed. Gold portrays Eva Braun as one of the most selfish, arrogant, stupid people of her time. Thus suiting her position with Hitler. It is bias. An author deeply analyses what a woman wants with Hitler and uses Braun's diary as a tool to use against Braun and Hitler. Eva's character is utterly unbelievable. She is the worst character I have read. Braun and Hitler are portrayed as deeply perverse at times. If the book was fact, the writing style is understandable but it is not the case. The writing style is too tedious and I only kept reading to review this. She dragged everything slowly. It seemed the 40s would never end. During this long drag of days and months, Gold depicts a horrible/loathsome-worthy Protag. Her true intention in the end. Greatly biased.

This fiction is a horrible read, if you want fact on Eva Braun, use something else.

This book, written in the style of a diary, trivializes Eva Braun into the mindless sexual lapdog of Adolf Hitler, and a deviant one to boot. While historical facts are sprinkled throughout the diary's entries, these only serve to sharpen the shallowness of the author's perception into the psyche of the woman who not only stayed loyal to Hitler for so many years, but also flew to Berlin against the Führer's express instructions to marry him and commit suicide. The placid, dependent Eva sketched in this supposed diary lacks the passion and determination that the real Eva must certainly have possessed.

A complete waste of time, considering the abundance of well written historical novels on the market. The characters were shallow, the writing was poor, and the work was overall concerned with trivialities. It earns one star because, to my utter disbelief, I did read the entire book.

I picked this up because it was in the autobiography/biography section in my library, causing me to believe that it was actual nonfiction, based entirely on factual evidence. A cursory reading quickly led me to believe this could ONLY be fiction. the Eva Braun depicted is such a horrible, slightly deranged, immature, racist, (add more bad things) person, that it gets to the point where it's just not believable anymore.
If you want to read a completely biased fictional biography, read this, but otherwise, if you're the slightly bit objective, i suggest you pick up something else.

Eva Braun met Hitler the first time when she was working as the assistant of Hitler's personal photographer Hoffmann. Soon Hitler met her once in Hoffmann's office in München and few weeks after this meeting she followed him (Hitler) to his mountain retreat in the alps. Hitler had to hide his companion because of his relationsship with the people, especially the women - who with out a doubt would have been jealous to the woman who was dating the most wanted bachelor in Germany.And because of this Eva could rarely be with Hitler, depressed Eva tried suicide two times. In berchtesgarden she could relax with the closest people surrounding Hitler, Like Albert Speer and the other guests. After years of hiding Hitler married Eva Braun in the "Führer Bunker" in berlin just a few hours before their double suicide. -In the book Eva Braun is portrayed as a selfish down right stupid naive childish sexmachine etc... So was she the incarnation of some monster? The people who really met her said the opposite. Albert Speer also known as the nazi who appologized said that she was: "Very kind, and the sort of person who takes consideration of other people" Otto Günsche Hitler's adjutant and member of a ring of people who followed Hitler on his travels . Was on the bunker of Hitler on may -45 and there he met Eva tha last time: " I saw her ( Eva Braun) walking on the corridor of the bunker, in the ruined and hopeless surrounding of Berlin she was a source of somekind of comfort and cheer" The so-called diaries of Eva Braun are 99% produce of imagination as the" Hitler Diaries" in 1983.So what would be better money maker then a book about the wife of the most hated man of our century??? This book is an exellent sterotype of the fiction and second rate history books which unfortunatley appears now and then.

I feel that Alison Leslie Gold, whose book on Anne Frank I thought very fine, was unwise to choose this topic. In approaching the relationship between Eva Braun and Adolf Hitler, her imagination seems to have recoiled. A kind of paralysis sets in immediately after the brilliantly-written description of the horribly real people who sell the author the "Diary." Alas, these are the last horribly real characters to appear in the novel. The unrelenting banality of the "Diary" entries seems to owe much to a reading of Hannah Arendt, without Arendt's originality. Alas, it not only makes dull prose -- it offers nothing new. This was an opportunity for Gold to say something about a much-neglected topic, offer some insight into a notorious but little-understood relationship, but she has largely passed up the opportunity. Seen beside any real effort, in fiction or non-fiction, to look at the nature of Hitler, I'm afraid that this book pales into insignificance.

I was really dissappointed in this book, I thought it was a true story, "based" on Braun`s diaries, but no, it was all a story imagined by miss Gold. I must say this is one of the worst books I've ever read.

As one reads this book ,it is imperative that you keep in mind it is a total work of fiction in its details. There is no doubt that Hitler was one of the worst examples of human garbage of the 20th.Century. There were several others just as bad in the Century,a continual stream of similar despots throughout history;and we are seeing that there are still new ones in the 21st Century. This book attempts to look into the mind of Hitler,albeit through the eyes of Eva. The more one reads about the leaders and followers of the National Socialist Nazi regime,the more one sees how evil it was. The fact that good people can ever come to terms with themselves for ever allowing such evil to exist,shows that there is the hope that Good will always succeed over Evil,given time and perservance; but oh, at what a price. One has to remember, no matter how hard one tries,there is never going to be any case made for good coming out of the evil that was generated by Hitler. It has always been the nature of Evil to be able to find its believers ,apologists and even appeasers.
Be it Stalin and his communists, Tojo and his Japanese Empire,Mao and his followers,a small group like Charles Manson and his followers or bin Laden and his followers,supporters and apologists ;they can only succeed as long as men of good will let them.
Try as you may to find some redeeming value in these people;the only good that can come from them is their total destruction.History has shown that the sooner it is nipped in the bud,the better.
As one reads this book ,it is not even possible to harbour hate for them; they are not worthy of that;hate is their coin of the realm.
Is this book worth reading? I think so;if only to remind us of the nature of Evil.