In the following essay, Calder explores "The Demon Lover" as allegory.

In the following essay, Calder suggests that "The Demon Lover" is an allegory of war, drawing parallels between the story's imagery and the cultural context of its composition.

In the essay below, Fraustino develops arguments against Douglas A. Hughes's assessment of "The Demon Lover" as a "psychological delusion," maintaining that this story is intended to be read as a "mystery of high suspense."

In the following essay, Fraustino counters Douglas A. Hughes's assessment of “The Demon Lover” as a “psychological delusion,” maintaining that the story is intended to be read as a “mystery of high suspense.”

"An Awful Illumination: The Demon Lover (1945) and The Heat of the Day (1949)," in Elizabeth Bowen: An Estimation, Vision and Barnes & Noble Books, 1981, pp. 156-88. In the excerpt below, Lee examines Bowen's depiction of the English middle-class and war-time London, concluding that "The Demon Lover" is "the most horrific of the war-time stories."

"Cracks in the Psyche: Elizabeth Bowen's The Demon Lover'," in Studies in Short Fiction, Vol. X, No. 4, Fall, 1973, pp. 411-13. In this essay, Hughes provides a psychological interpretation of "The Demon Lover."

"The Shorter Fiction," in Elizabeth Bowen, Twayne Publishers, 1989, pp. 70-86. Here, Austin explores Bowen's writing process and the author's use of place and mood in her work, especially "The Demon Lover. "

"The Demon Lover," in The Mulberry Tree: Writings of Elizabeth Bowen, edited by Hermione Lee, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1987, pp. 94-9. The following excerpt is from Bowen's postscript to the first U.S. edition of The Demon Lover, published in 1946. The author here suggests that the stories of The Demon Lover have much in common, which provides a "cumulative and collective meaning that no one of them, taken singly, has by itself." She also describes how the atmosphere in ...

"Comedies of Sex and Terror," in Elizabeth Bowen: A Study of the Short Fiction, Twayne Publishers, 1991, pp. 54-74. In the excerpt below, Lassner examines the letter from the dead soldier in "The Demon Lover" and concludes that "the letter is a ghostly artifact, a sign that as a survivor of two wars she has internalized their terrors and guilt."

In a recent study of Elizabeth Bowen, Allan E. Austin has written, "'The Demon Lover' is a ghost story that builds up and then culminates like an Alfred Hitchcock movie." This misreading of Miss Bowen's unforgettable story is, to judge from my experience with student interpretations, fairly common. Far from being a supernatural story, "The Demon Lover" is a masterful dramatization of acute psychological delusion, of the culmination of paranoia in a time of wa...

In the excerpt below, Morris asserts that the supernatural aspect of "The Demon Lover" helps to convey social and historical meaning. The critic also examines the tension as it builds in the story.

In the following excerpt, Saul faults Bowen's short stories, including those contained within The Demon Lover, and Other Stories for their "brittle" and "self-consciously sophisticated" characters and thematic weaknesses, although he regards "The Demon Lover" as one of her better works.

A review of "The Demon Lover," in Life and Letters, Vol. 47, No. 100, 1945, pp. 216-18. In the following review, Bradenham comments on the themes of war and the supernatural in the stories of The Demon Lover.