The Demon Lover

This study guide will help you analyze the short story “The Demon Lover” by Elizabeth Bowen. You can also find a summary of the text, as well as inspiration for interpreting it and putting it into perspective.

Presentation of the text

Title: “The Demon Lover” (1945)
Author: Elizabeth Bowen
Genre: Short story

Elizabeth Bowen (1899-1973) was an Irish-British writer. In her novels and short stories, Bowen often explored themes such as ordinary life, innocence, and betrayal, and many of her fiction is set in wartime London. Bowen is also known for her ghost stories, including “The Demon Lover”, which was published in the collection The Demon Lover and Other Stories in 1945.

Excerpt from the study guide:

The narrator also has insight into Mrs. Drover’s thoughts and feelings, helping readers to know her better. For example, the narrator knows that Mrs. Drover sees herself as “a woman whose utter dependability was the keystone of her family life”. Then, through Mrs. Drover’s stream of consciousness, the narrator hints that she is might be a nervous and sensitive woman at times, but that she also tries to find a reasonable explanation for the letter:

All the same, who, seeing the house shuttered, would have dropped a letter in at the box? It was not a circular, it was not a bill. And the post office redirected, to the address in the country, everything for her that came through the post. The caretaker (even if he were back) did not know she was due in London today (…) Annoyed, she picked up the letter, which bore no stamp. But it cannot be important, or they would know…

The narrator’s insight into Mrs. Drover’s thoughts explain her increasing ...