Whitney, My Love (Paperback)

~ (Author) "As their elegant travelling chaise rocked and swayed along the rutted country road, Lady Anne Gilbert leaned her cheek against her husband's shoulder and heaved..." (more)
Key Phrases: smile dawned, betrothal ring, dressing robe, Miss Stone, Aunt Anne, Lady Gilbert (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Setting: Regency England
Sensuality: 7

Whitney Stone's teenage crush on a neighbor has her cold, unfeeling father banishing her to Paris into the care of her aunt and uncle. Under their loving guidance, the young woman blossoms into a ravishing beauty and becomes the darling of glittering Parisian society--a fact not lost on the handsome and equally powerful Duke of Claymore, who determines to make her his wife. Despite the duke's fervent interest, Whitney remains fixed on her childhood love. That is, until she finds herself tempted by the Duke--an attraction that both delights and baffles Whitney, causing her to be increasingly wary of what her heart may lead her to do. The Duke suffers no such confusion. He wants Whitney. And he plans to have her, despite a number of obstacles, including the infatuation Whitney seems to have for another; her aunt's growing concerns; and her greedy father's bungling efforts to control his beautiful daughter. But before the Duke and Whitney's plans can reach fruition, they'll have to work their way through a morass of misunderstandings that threaten any hope of a happy ending.

Meticulously researched and set against the background of Regency England's country charms and London society, this classic historical romance boasts a hero and heroine who possess deep passion and strong, independent character, as well as a heartfelt story line that will keep readers turning the pages. Author Judith McNaught has endeared herself to readers with the quality of her writing and Whitney My Love--McNaught's first bestseller--is a not-to-be-missed example of just why her stories are so eagerly awaited by fans everywhere. --Lois Faye Dyer

Review

Jude Deveraux New York Times bestselling author of The Blessing A wonderful love story...fast-paced and exciting...great dialogue! -- Review --This text refers to the Mass Market Paperback edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 400 pages
• Publisher: Pocket (January 1, 1991)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0671737643
• ISBN-13: 978-0671737641
• Product Dimensions: 6.6 x 4.3 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (432 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #317,621 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

90 of 110 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars An almost brilliant study of an abusive relationship, October 16, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Whitney, My Love (Mass Market Paperback)

Judith McNaught has created a story of an abusive relationship that could have been taken from a psychology textbook (minus the sometimes romanticism).
Whitney , an attractive teenager feels like an ugly duckling although she simply is not fully developed, and her aunt who has come to England to take Whitney to Paris sees her possibilities at once. Brought up by a cold and unfeeling father who had wanted a son, Whitney was never able to fulfil his expectations. She therefore developed a deep minority complex. Consequently she falls in love with Paul who has never showed any interest in her and only sees her deficits -
exactly like her father. That sets up the pattern of her future relationships. Whitney unconsciously thinks herself unworthy to be loved, yet like every human being yearns to be loved. When she comes to Paris, blossoming in to a sophisticated and witty young lady, she meets Nicolas DuVille who would be the love of her life in a real romance. He has all the attributes of a regency hero. He is handsome, aristocratic, rich, urbane and sophisticated. Furthermore he is warm-hearted and caring. When Whitney has her debut, he sees that she gets a good start, and provides her with dancers by asking his friends for a favour. He deeply falls in love with Whitney, but never presses his love on her. He patiently waits for years, and offers her friendship instead of the love he would like to give her. But Whitney is unable to respond to true love which comes without abuse. Finally she finds her true match (although not her true love) in Clayton, Duke of Westmoreland. Just like her he thinks himself unworthy of love (although the book never gives a reason for that). Unable to approach Whitney openly for fear of being rejected by her ( a fear that never bothered the far more self-confident and mature Nicolas)he makes his first move at a masquerade (!) where he doesn't have to show his face or reveal his identity to her. The first encounter is a fiasco. The insecure duke therefore prefers to gain Whitney in an underhanded scheme buying her like a horse from her father. He approaches Whitney again, still hiding behind an emotional mask, not giving away his identity, and not revealing the business-like way he acquired her. The way he makes advances to her is typical. Emotionally to insecure to show his feelings for her, he prefers to sexually harass her. But this is exactly the sort of treatment Whitney is able to respond to. She fights her feelings in the beginning, but she fights an already lost battle. In one of her early encounters with the duke, he beats her up after a quarrel (in an earlier and far more consequent version of the book) and makes amorous advances to her after that.. Her destiny is now sealed. This is the ongoing tune of their relationship: The carrot or the stick. The abusive and dominating behaviour of the duke slowly destroys the spunk and feistiness of Whitney which signified her in the beginning. The hurting culminates when the duke who is mad with jealousy hauls away Whitney from a party to brutally rape her, then stops at last, but only to emotionally blackmail her to submitting to violent and painful sex which he uses as a means to punish her (which is even worse then ordinary rape). He shows all the traces of a borderline personality. Othello must have been one of his ancestors. But it doesn't need a cunning Iago to put Clayton into a cruel fit of rage. The grossest lie delivered by an archenemy of Whitney (something Clayton was fully aware of) will do nicely. After that he eases his bad conscience by sending a cheque and breaking of the engagement, unable to really face his behaviour. That's the coward's way out, but nobody seems to notice that, least of all the duke himself. After an arranged meeting Whitney doesn't believe the duke's declaration of love, and he doesn't show any patience with her plight (not accepting it as a part of his richly deserved comeuppance), but treats her with cold indifference instead. He doesn't need much time to come to terms with himself and detracts himself by pursuing another woman, only a few weeks after that fateful night. When Whitney learns about that, she practically throws herself at his feet. This is one of the saddest scenes in the book because it shows the full impact of the damage that his been done to Whitney in her childhood. Again having refused the faithful and loving Nicolas (he hasn't devoted himself to another woman in the meantime!), she loves the duke even more dearly for what he has done to her. But his is not the end of Whitney's self-inflicted torment. After they have married, they don't live happily ever after. The whole hurting and abuse starts all over again after Whitney has got pregnant. Due to a relatively harmless incident the duke concludes at once that Whitney has betrayed him shortly after he had brutally deprived her of her virginity (!). He makes plans to cruelly revenge himself on her by letting her love her child for one year and then take away the child from her. This sadism left me speechless. After a while he sees the errors of his ways, but is unable to reflect his real problem which remains still unsolved. He comes back to Whitney who awaits him with open arms. This is the end of this depressingly real sadomasochistic story which holds all the fascination of a bloody train accident. And this book is considered to be a romantic classic. A lot of women seem to be stuck in similar abusive patterns which I find quite alarming. As a dark tale of subjugation and emotional and physical abuse I would give it a five-stars review. As a romantic love story I can only give but one star.

49 of 59 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Judith McNaught utterly shines!, December 1, 2002

By	Tara A. Green (Colorado, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Whitney, My Love (Mass Market Paperback)

Judith McNaught utterly shines in this spectacular debut novel that launched her career. WHITNEY, MY LOVE was a delight from start to finish. Never having read the original version of this book, I read the glorious 708 page extended version without ever taking a break. Emerging my self from a blurry-eyed dream that is this novel, I'm pleased to say this classic lives up to it's reputation.

Whitney Stone, a young and impetuous girl believes herself in love with Paul, the recipient of all her youthful feelings and dreams. Her disapproving father deems her behavior inappropriate and she finds herself sent to France with her beloved Aunt and Uncle. These she is allowed to bloom into the beautiful, unique women she is. She finds herself groomed into a lady and becomes the toast of Paris. As she perfects her arts as a lady she deems it time to return home to win the heart of Paul, her childhood sweetheart. Unbeknownst to her, her father has betrothed her to Clayton Westmoreland, the Duke of Claymore. Her father's uncontrollable debts have wiped out her inheritance and her dowry and the Duke is the answer to his financial difficult.

Whitney, however, wants nothing to do with the Clayton and pursues Paul and finally wins his heart. From there, you'll have to read the story yourself!

There is a disturbing scene in this book that is often times discussed. I'll leave the reader to draw his or her own conclusions and opinions on it. I, however, found this to be a powerful story and enjoyed it immensely. I'm certain I will not forget the names Whitney or Clayton Westmoreland and they will continue to burn in my mind as one of the more stormy and passionate couples I have ever read about it.

One might draw parallels to GONE WITH THE WIND and this novel, However where Scarlet O'Hara does not realize her love for Rhett Butler until it is much too late, Whitney is not so foolish.

Enjoy reading this classic romance! ...

18 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Well-written, but not McNaught's best work., July 3, 2000

By	E. Chen (New York, NY USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Judith McNaught is a talented storyteller, there's no denying that. Perhaps that is the reason that I was so disappointed by this book, for which I had such high hopes. There were many aspects of the book that I liked very much, but there were others that left me feeling very disturbed and unsatisfied.

The unusual breadth and depth of this book surprised me. The characters are very amiable, and I was gratified by the unique rendering of Whitney's character. Like many other heroines of romance novels, she is strong-willed and a little bit of an outcast. But she is not perfect in every way (at least not in the beginning) and those who she sets her heart upon do not always requite her emotions. The story-line was full of suspense, and I kept wondering how Whitney could possibly end up with Clayton, even though the synopsis makes the outcome very obvious. I admired the twisting plot McNaught used to deal with Whitney's conflicting feelings over her childhood crush on Paul versus her betrothal to Clayton, a situation that I found most unusual.

Although I found most of the story to be a refreshing change in a genre often typified by predictability, I had some rather significant qualms about the development (or lack thereof) of certain characters. One Example is Whitney's father: a central character both to the story and to Whitney's character, he virtually disappears after his purpose as a plot device to bring Clayton and Whitney together is served. He appears when it is convenient, but Whitney never really seems to dwell on him in her thoughts, even though many of her earlier actions in the book were highly influenced by her relationship with him. Likewise, the character of Nicki appears and then disappears with equal rapidity, an injustice to such well-drawn figure. These instances, however, are not nearly so grave as the flawed character of Clayton.

McNaught did a fabulous job of making the reader dislike Clayton. Unfortunately, her failure to win the reader over to his side in the latter part of the book is a major obstacle to the story's success. My bias most certainly comes from my views of his abuse of Whitney - not once in the book did he ever really confront what he had done. I realize the historical context in which the story is placed has some influence, but at the same time I couldn't help but doubt Whitney's character after the way she responded - she was far too easily won by his physical overtures, without promise of real reform. However, putting aside that rather distasteful incident, my real problem lies in the development of his character thereafter. Assuming that everyone makes mistakes and he was truly sorry, perhaps one could believe in Whitney's love for him to the extent that the reader could forgive him as she did. But Clayton never really undergoes any real penance for his crime, or any true reform in the end - rather, I was astonished to find that he was often depicted as the victim when the only real victim was Whitney, time after time. There lacks a balance of power between the two characters which would proclaim the partnership which Whitney declared early on would be the only kind of marriage in which she would participate, leaving only a relationship in which the male dominates the female. A far superior example of the convincing repentance of a man for a similar crime based upon lack of faith is depicted in Teresa Medeiros's Fairest of Them All. I was hugely disappointed at the end to see no real change in Clayton's conduct after his second incident of mistreating Whitney without evidence or explanation. How can a romance be all that good if I don't think Whitney should have ended up with Clayton? There are a few instances of Clayton's love for Whitney, but they seemed very few and far between. There was far too much violence displayed, and his tenderness always seemed to be calculated and manipulative. He treated her like a child, and I don't believe the he ever really stopped thinking of her as a possession to be flaunted rather than a person to respect.

Nicki was a very touching, lovable character. Even if the story-line between Whitney and Clayton proved to be far more interesting and tumultuous, I never stopped hoping for Nicki to be the victorious suitor. I commend McNaught on her ability to draw such emotional support for a minor character, and perhaps even on her wisdom for creating a character so likeable as to create a rival for Clayton in the reader's mind. But by the end, the reader should want Whitney to be with Clayton at least as much, if not more, than with Nicki - which was not the case. Whitney was a gem of a character and I never really felt that Clayton understood her worth or appreciated her as a person, which the only way that he could really love her.

There are extremes of conflicting opinions over this book. Overall, it is very well-written but is not something that I would probably read again. Its appeal is more for those with a traditional view of romance, which is often associated with violence. As a reader with more modern sensibilities, I believe that McNaught's greatest mistake was in placing an incident of rape in the story-line as if it were a crime of passion and excusable in the name of love. I found it horrifying and demeaning, and I believe that Whitney should never have forgiven him, no matter how much she loved him - especially if she loved him, in fact. If you have a similar opinion, then I would definitely recommend skipping this book.