#bodice rippers

[mordredsheart]

Misapprehend me not. I fear not thy roughness, Lathaniel. Throw me on the bed. Tumble me in the hayloft and rifle through my skirts as if thou hast misplaced The Grail between the folds. But must thou rip my girdle in twain like a man strained upon the rack? (And what of my rack, Lathaniel? For that was the last of my bodices.)

[problematic-faves-appreciation]

TW: Abuse

People who think messed up dark romances these days — with their toxic men, and *clutches pearls dramatically* age gaps between adults; oh, the horror! — have "gone way too far", clearly haven't heard of bodice-rippers like The Flame and the Flower (by Kathleen E. Woodiwiss), Sweet Savage Love (by Rosemary Rogers), This Other Eden (by Marilyn Harris), The Silver Devil (by Teresa Denys), An Iron Woman (by Marilyn Harris), Stormfire (by Christine Monson), Prisoner of My Desire (by Johanna Lindsey), To Have and To Hold (by Patricia Gaffney), and so on.

To Have and To Hold, one of my favorite dark romances. The main male lead, Sebastian Verlaine, is what Rochester-haters accuse Edward Rochester of being.

And Harlequin Presents romances from the 70s/80s, where 17-year-old heroines got together with asshole heroes twice their age who would call them "little bitches", and follow that with a slap to the face.

Yeah, sure. Modern dark romance is waaaaay more problematique than stuff written in the 1980s. Sure, Jan.

[joannerenaud]

Flesh and the Devil by Teresa Denys-- a rant

To paraphrase Roger Ebert, I hated, hated, hated this book.

It's too bad, because I've heard raves about Teresa Denys's work for years. I tried to read The Silver Devil back in 2011, but I was put off by the MMC's cruelty and violence. Last year, I started reading up on 16th century Spain, and Denys's book Flesh and the Devil was one of the few HRs set in Spain at all. So I decided to give it a try. I'd read a lot of old school romances since then, so I figured I could handle it.

So, it turned out I could handle it. However, it took me three months to read it. Three months! The only reason I finished it is so I could write this review. A lot of people do love Denys's work, and as she died tragically in a car crash in 1987, I will hold off on full snark: instead, I will make a compliment sandwich. So here goes.

First of all, the concept of this book is very cool. It's 17th century Spain, and a naive young noblewoman, Juana, who after unsuccessfully attempting to elope with the boy next door, is shipped off to marry an inbred titled monster, a duke, who lives in a terrifying palace. The palace in question drips with menace. It is peak Gothic in all the best ways-- Virginia Coffman or Victoria Holt would be proud. I wanted to luxuriate in this awful place. We do get to see quite a bit of it too, as Juana attempts to navigate it, in the first half of the book.

There's also a lot of fun historical tidbits, and I enjoyed the politics-- especially the key role the Hapsburgs played in the book-- and the depiction of an unusual time period. 17th century Spain is an unusual setting, to say the least, and I was getting excited for something dark and unusual.

But then hero starts playing a major part in this book, and that's when my interest cratered. The MMC is the inbred duke's servant/valet/man-of-all-work, and he is a redhaired English mercenary with green eyes so bright they might as well be radioactive. Literally (and I mean this) in every scene he shows up in, he's described as some synonym of cold. He's cold, he's icy, he's austere, he's clinical, he's scientific, he's sardonic, he's detached, remote, satiric, etc. etc. etc. If I drank a shot every time this happened, I would have alcohol poisoning. This happens over and over and over again, for the book's entire stretch of 170k words, so I was so done by the end. This guy was so boring. If I'm going to read about a monstrous anti-hero in my bodice-ripper, I'd want him to have an emotion or two, you know? However, even though he's cold, icy, etc., the author is eager to assure us that every woman finds him the sexiest man in the world, and he's the greatest duellist in the world too, even though his idea of fighting is lifting men over his head and chucking them at other people, like Conan the Barbarian.

Anyway, he's a monster too, like his boss. He hates Spain and Spanish people, especially noble Spanish women; he has a massive chip on his shoulder, and he is also massively entitled. Since the heroine insults him, he decides that he's going to teach her a lesson by raping her. Then he kills his inbred boss, and after they leave the Gothic castle, he kidnaps her and blackmails her into marrying him, which is somehow OK for Plot Reasons. He keeps telling her she owes him a debt, and she better be grateful. The story then devolves into a very long and very protracted mess with aimless wandering about the wilderness and last minute baddies traipsing onto the stage and then dying by accident. Anything remotely political or historical is tossed aside for the world's most boring road trip. Also, the Inquisition is, of course, brought up a whole bunch of times, but for all the blather about it, it never plays a role. After a great deal of wandering, the hero is revealed to be an aristocrat by a deus-ex-machina lawyer who is practically brought down by wires, and our Catholic main characters travel to an England which is either run by Cromwell or Charles II. Good times!

So yeah. The romantic arc just did. not. work. The hero remains a robot until 80% of the way through, and he barely thaws at the end after the heroine is all "I LOVE YOU!!!!" I didn't understand why. I will quote you the paragraph where she realizes how this guy raping her repeatedly, kidnapping her, and forcing her to marry him was really was the best thing to happen in her life:

He had taught her to fight him when she was a sheltered child who knew nothing but pampering and indulgence, and now she would use the spirit that he had roused to fight on his side against death.

And later:

But she could no longer live out her life to a pattern. She had long ago broken with her father's plans for her destiny, as perfect and regular and destructive as a spider's web. Bartolome's [the duke's] death had snapped the chief thread of it, setting her free without the sticky threads of tradition and expectation to impede her. Thanks to the man who hated her, she was free to make her own pattern, choose her own destiny. She could go anywhere in the world. . . .

In other words: "I was so pampered and sheltered, his abuse taught me how to fight and become a real woman!" This reminds me of Sansa's "arc" in the later seasons of Game of Thrones. Abuse and suffering can make you a better, stronger person! It can make you free! But even Sansa in GoT-- while somehow empowered by her abuse-- didn't fall for her abuser, Ramsay. Somehow this book is worse than GoT in its depiction of abuse. That's really something.

The characterization is not great in this book. Not only is the MMC a dull emotionless entitled robot, the FMC is all the worst tropes of early romance fiction, packaged into one character. She's feisty, but also dumb as a rock. She continually opens her mouth and says the first thing that crosses her mind, without even thinking for one second if it's a good idea. Her maid kills herself, and the FMC barely reacts, only to express how annoyed she is that people didn't tell her sooner. (This suicide is later retconned in the book to the inbred duke killing the maid instead. I told you, this book is a mess.)

The other big issue I had with this book is the way Spain and the Spanish is depicted. Our English hero is the only rational character in the entire book: whereas the Spanish are a "predominantly dark race" where everyone is impetuous, irrational and governed by scheming priests. Also, there is not one attractive locale in this entire book. The palace is place of horrors, whereas the wilderness is one brown, sand-blasted wasteland, with brackish streams and barren plains. Basically, it's all a shithole. This is a pretty typical 1950s English depiction of southern Europe, and it reminds me of midcentury authors like Henry Treece or Mary Stewart. But it's disappointing to see these tropes repeated in a book from the 1980s.

There's a lot of things I frankly hated about Flesh and the Devil. But Denys's prose is truly beautiful. Here's a quote from one of my favorite passages:

She was flying, she thought as she felt the hard thrust of his possession within her: her body moved in an instinctive response that she was not aware of, opening itself to delight, and she thought inconsequently that it was like being mounted on some great winged horse and soaring out over the whole world. Blind rapture surged inside her as passion gripped them both, and she could hear herself moaning with a new poignant, agonizing sweetness that she could neither bear, nor bear it to cease. Above her, as she opened her eyes, she could see the azure sky darkening to a fierce blend of copper and velvet blue, and the water - the water in the pool was liquid gold, the last reflection of the dying sun. No wonder, she was thinking, that Icarus flew too near the sun and melted his waxen wings.

Denys's prose is so gorgeous-- I truly wish she had lived longer to write more. After reading it, I thought of what I wanted to see here-- I would have liked the action to stay at the creepy palace, rather than leaving it. The MMC did not work as a character, but the duke's villainous uncle has an Italian henchman named Martinetti who reminded me of Allegretto from Laura Kinsale's For My Lady's Heart. In his brief scenes, he steals the show with his elegance, wit and ruthlessness. I wanted to see more of him, rather Coldy McClinical.

So there you go. I have heard The Silver Devil is a better plotted and paced book. Maybe I'll try reading that again eventually. But for now, I think I should reread some Laura Kinsale.

[fanaticsnail]

All this picturing Benn Beckman on the cover of a bodice-ripper has reminded me that my very sweet grandma wrote some bodice-rippers of her own....

Just imagie a young gingerbread girly visting her grandma's house and looking up on the wall and seeing these wonderful posters hung up:

It was great and may have awoken all this simping over men who very much belong on these wounderful covers in me 😂

I thought I would share a few of the covers for everyone's viewing pleasure!!

Have a great day/night!!

GRANDMOTHER GINGERNUT, YOU BEAUTIFUL BEAUTIFUL WOMAN.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Just picturing a small Gingernut girly skipping up the steps of her grandmother's cottage to bring baked pastries and sweets - only to find her Grandmother hunched over a writing desk and crafting smutty literature.

I am screaming Gingernut. I am actually screaming.

How special that your talent has been founded by generations of powerful women. This is spectacular lore, and I am so grateful you shared it with me.

(Beckman as the third cover, though)

@feral-artistry @i-am-vita LOOK! LOOK AT WHAT WE'VE GOT HERE. LOOOOOOOOK.

[sweetsavageflame]

Warrior’s Woman, Johanna Lindsey, Avon, June 1990 

I read this 33 years ago!

[hellokatieyoursocrazy]

Although I mostly read graphic novels, I find these book covers really beautiful. I especially love the pure ecstasy on the women's faces. Considering how women are constantly shamed for embracing there sexuality, I think these covers are great at portraying why women are drawn to bodice rippers in the first place. They prioritize women's pleasure. I think it kinda sucks with how popular booktok is, "smut readers" are shamed and mocked across the internet for enjoying books like these.

Ever since starting to publish romance novels I’ve been checking out the romance books at the thrift store specifically for the clinch covers, as a reference for what I might want to do with my own books.

As a culture we mocked these to extinction but I think we were just afraid of their power. The modern clinch revival still hasn't reached the heady heights of what they were doing in the 80s! The vintage covers can be really quite explicit. These ones in particular were steamy enough they had to be hidden on an inner flap.

[alintalzin]

Title: Court of Lust and Deception.

Alais Robineau comes to the court of Jaquinot an impoverished noblewoman. At a request from the queen, she becomes the king's mistress, which doesn't bother her until she is betrothed to the king's spy master, who despises her for what she is.

[rhaenyra-the-gracious]

*SPOILERS AHEAD* if you want to read books by Nina Pennacchi and/or Ann Owen (her pen name), skip this post

I've read spoilers and still didn't notice at first, and I forget all the time, that Stephen Weymouth (Slave for Revenge) is homosexual and in love with Guy Spencer.

Realization before the end only came the second time, when I read the paperback. I was reading about the physical appearance of Guy, when I shook up: Waaait a minute, whose POV is that?! (Like I said I always forget about Steve's sexuality.) But then I was like Why is a guy giving a DETAILED description of another guy's half-naked body? Oh, yeah, because he's gay.

One of the first things Guy says to him is (ignore the harsh language, but I think that's also intentional - because, yeah, she didn't want to be too direct) - while they are, or were boxing:

Which is the case exactly. Steve wants him, because he's gay, and Guy won't reciprocate, this, at least, because he's heterosexual.

Also, I'll like to write about Nina's preference for Dull Boys(™). I mean Adam (Captain Swing) and Jacopo (The Prisoner in the Tower) are sharp as a knife. Still, Guy's and Christopher Davenport's (Lemonade) intelligence (especially their self-understanding) leaves much to be desired.

They both can't recognize love or think altogether to be other feelings. Christopher, in the end, realizes this, while Guy never does:

I lol'd so hard at this. Guy, sweety, that's not hate.

And Guy still doesn't realize this.

In Lemonade (as Nina Pennacchi), even Anna starts to suspect Christopher is in love with her, while he horribly mistreats her, and she basically still thinks he's an ogre.

Christopher is madly in love with her wife, from the get-go, but he doesn't know how to show his feelings, he just knows the language of revenge, manipulation and cruelness:

I'm not saying he didn't know how to be gentle, it is clear, that he is capable of it, but in the beginning, he doesn't recognize LOVE, just like Guy, only in the end (unlike Guy):

God... and I love Nina Pennacchi (or Ann Owen).

[discocandles]

one thing about steve harrington is that he sucks at doing nothing. like he has to be doing something with himself lest the guy waste away. this has led to him being very good at fucking around with things especially when its something relatively quiet. the loudest steve will let himself keep his hands busy while stuck idle is tossing whatever's in his hand to himself and catching it, which usually bodes well for sports practice after coach learned that just because he was moving didnt mean he wasnt paying attention(usually the opposite).

he learned how to flip a pencil around his thumb in middle school and seeing someone in one of the meetings he sat in on doing it. he'll twirl anything he can around in his hand, especially while he was working in the mall. the scoopers were perfect for it. and any way youve seen a drummer/percussionist fiddle with a drumstick, steve knew he had to replicate it.

but even with all this movement and the fact the guy was barely ever not moving, it seemed like no one noticed it ever. a fact that nearly drove eddie insane when they were in high school together. because he did have the reputation of being restless, and in a constant state of movement. and he probably fucked around with random shit less, so how did steve "the hair" harrington not end up with the same reputation? the answer was just that he was way more quiet("and sneaky" -eddie) about it. and if the teacher hated when their students fiddled and futzed he'd be sure to try and keep the movement below his desk.

but it not that he only has to keep his hands busy. no no no, if bored or stuck waiting, and that won't suffice, steve harrington will pick up anything with words just to read it. anything. outdated newspapers, ingredients lists, magazines of any topic. he just mindlessly grabs for whatever and starts fucking reading. Robin could swear under oath to a court that her best friend has read the back of every vhs in family video. hell, she's seen him reading drugstore novels, like the fucking grandma smut and books with cover art of nicely dressed ladies running from a castle. and its her jock best friend reading it, instead of some repressed suburban woman who hates her husband. yes, this information is the bane of robin buckley's exsistance because its not like anyone would believe her.

idk just give me steve being restless but doing it quietly enough that no one really picks up on it.

[redstonedust]

if sentient robots were real i think there would be robot authors writing trashy 50 shades of gray style romance novels where the love interest is like "i am your administrator... you are only a machine..... i will reprogram your code because you are MINE.'' and its incredibly polarizing and widely criticized but damn if it doesnt sell numbers.

[hoahoahoahoahoa]

If Twilight wasn’t written by a Mormon, Bella would be all about trashy romance novels. She’d be a bodice ripper connoisseur. Stop booing me I’m right

[awesomenightfall]

Lucanis: (finally opening up and being vulnerable, naked in bed) Would you talk to me? Your voice is a comfort.

My Rook, a troll: (pulls out a Second Edition copy of Swords & Shields) So glad you asked.

[rochenn]

Forever cursed to remember this official (?) art of Dooku and Asajj

Why r they posed like they stumbled into a May-December couple photoshoot. It's the worst thing I've ever seen yet at the same time Dooku looks so fucking uncomfortable I simply have to laugh

[swordmaid]

looking like an 80s bodice ripper love interest

[awxcoffeexno]

just got done writing the last part of the patient. going to start working on an 1800s bridgerton-esque fic with a more charming, less bogged-down by the century and a half of pain logan.

it's angsty bodice ripper, victorian!logan (james) time 🎀🫶🏽

[sky-blue-siha]

A joke in the Solas discord server might be getting out of hand LOL