Dear Tyrant

by Margaret Malcolm

"I shall wear demure grey dresses, with neat white collars. No make-up, of course. And good sensible shoes. I shall smile all the time—the sort of earnest, unmeaning smile that makes other people simply furious- and I shall say, 'Yes Mr. Imray' and 'No, Mr. Imray', and be an old maid for ever.That was Vicky Pallant's forecast of her life in the household of the grave-faced solicitor who had taken responsibility for her on her father's death. But time was to show she had been too ready to be pessimistic!

Genres: Harlequin Romance

Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1953

About the author

Margaret Malcolm, née Margaret Lilian Graham was a British writer over 100 romance novels at Mills & Boon from 1940 to 1981.

Not to be confused with Margaret Malcolm (Edith Lyman Kuether), author only of Headless Beings.

Reviews

[Giulia Torre · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thirty-five Ithaca College undergraduates are taking my first-year seminar Reading Popular Romance. In the footsteps of Carol Thurston and Janet Radway, we leaf through hundreds of roughed-up, red-edged books and mine the texts for what they are: artifacts of popular culture. One collective expression of an unarguably female imagination. The very act of reading is everyday citizen science. We ask ourselves, whatever will these women say next?

Don’t think it matters? Ithaca College’s ivy league neighbor, Cornell University, enrolled hundreds (~) of its undergraduates in a seminar to watch pornography. Students called it “the porn course.” My “trash class” is therefore in good company.

So what have we learned from Dear Tyrant? For one thing, something about a woman’s professional life in the 1950s. Goodreads reports that Margaret Malcolm wrote over 100 romance novels at Mills & Boon from 1940 to 1981. By the time Beloved Tyrant was published in 1953, she’d already written ten.

You’d think after reading hundreds of romance novels that by now the pleasure would be, you know, expected. But it was an unexpected pleasure to see in the pages of Margaret Malcolm‘s Dear Tyrant (1975) reference to Jane Eyre. It’s not unusual for authors of these old category romances to follow Brontë’s lead. Thousands of paperback romances were written before women could be issued credit cards in their own names, while marital rape was legal (legal until 1993 in all 50 states, my friends), when access to the Pill was decades away. One of the few jobs available to Harlequin’s heroines – or for women in general for that matter – was as a caretaker for homebound invalids or children. It shouldn’t have moved me overmuch when the character sees her own reflection in governess Jane Eyre. Still, I was tickled.

Because even in her eleventh book, Margaret Malcolm was having fun. Not only does her heroine laugh at the image of herself as Jane Eyre, but she also attends a masquerade ball, has to leave by the stroke of midnight, and loses a shoe in the throes of her speedy departure. A nod to Jane Eyre, and a wink at Cinderella.

Eleven books in, with eighty-nine to go? That’s about time a career romance writer taps her nose and says I got this, too.

[Margo · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this one a lot. The H reluctantly takes on the spoiled, not-too-smart h when she is left penniless after her spendthrift, unreliable father dies, leaving her an orphan at 18 The H figures he'll teach the spoiled h about what it means to live in the real world and work for a living, so he offers the h a position as companion to his mother, who lives with him and suffers from debilitating, extremely painful arthritis. The h, who might be spoiled, nevertheless rises to the occasion and wins the admiration of the mother as well as the longtime retainer who has worked for the H's family for decades. She also gets some maternal guidance for the first time in her life.

The h originally sees the H as being mean-spirited, punitive, and indifferent, which he is, to some degree, but he keeps softening and becoming fonder and fonder of the h the longer they work together. He is also absolutely devoted to his sweet, brave, mother, and he can tell the h shares these feelings.

There's a wannabe OW and distant relative whose relationship with the H seems to consist of having dinners where he evades anything more than that; despite this, the mom and retainer both think she'll eventually wear him down.

Eventually, the H's lovely mom dies and soon after, he proposes to the h, which he pitches as a union of two lonely people who get along well. The h is much more in touch with her feelings and is so in love with him she accepts this tepid offer.

The OW makes a last-ditch effort that scares off the h, but it backfires when the absence helps the H realize that he is madly in love with the h. His realization is very sweet (and crushing to the OW, who is there for it).

[Myrna · Rating 3 out of 5]

“And you are convinced that you have discovered my reason for wanting to marry Vicky?” he went on quietly.
“Of course!” she said confidently. “What other reason could it be? You have always said that she was a burden and responsibility”
“Yes,” he said heavily. “At first, I admit, that was what she seemed to me. And then, slowly, I began to realise that she was all the sunshine in life to me, my hope for the future. My little, little love!”

StMargarets has written a very good review, so I won’t go into details.

I found the book dull at the beginning - a staid, boring solicitor and a flighty, capricious socialite.
I thought that OW was an ideal spouse for the solicitor. She’s manipulative and calculating, but these are assets for him, aren’t they? He’s a sobersides, and she’s a cold-hearted businesswoman.
But then I discovered the book’s charm.
The h has grown into a sweet woman, ruled by her heart who genially cares about the people around her. And the H showed that he’s very warm-hearted and caring.
It’s not much of a romance, but it has a certain charm.

[More Books Than Time]

Gentle story about a girl who grows up fast the hard way. Left destitute when her dad suicides she must discard the bright lights and get a job. She's basically kind-hearted and those points come forward as she learns to be independent and live in reality.

[Márcia L · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dear Tyrant is a charming book, it has the feeling of watching an old classic movie. I saw in Goodreads that the book was first published in 1953, that is why it has a feeling of an old classic.
Vicky the heroine was a spoilt brat but it is not entirely her fault, it is the way that her reckless father raised her. He was a reckless character that just wanted to have the maximun fun in life without thinking in the future and his daughter. When he couldn’t cope with the hardship and being broken in debts he took the easiest and coward way out without giving a thought to his daughter. She was a girl that has not know how life can be hard outside her bubble.
I think she deserved a spanking the way she reacted when Fergus offered a job to her to care for his mother as companion. She haughtly refused saying that her watch was worth more than a year’s salary. But she needed to retract her refusal about the job after she knew she wasn’t getting any help from her so called friends. With these kind of friends that won’t stick in hard times who need enemies? She didn’t have a choice of not accepting his offer that was why she swallowed her pride, it was the only way she could support herself and put a roof over her head and he was the only one offering help.
She changed fast her view of life after that, and she really liked Fergus’s mother and Maggie the housekeeper, she was a compassionate girl with a good heart it’s a pity that she didn’t extented the fondness to the H, she still dislikes Fergus just because he was a cool practical person and her father always said he was a bore. I think her dislike of him was mainly because of her pride. She had a lot of pride. The first time that Fergus paid her salary she was behaving like a prideful brat again and Fergus had every reason to want to give her a spanking, she deserved. When he paid more, she throw back the money to him saying that she didn’t want charity. But I applauded her when she didn’t want anything that was expensive that she got from her father and she won’t keep them, instead she wanted that Fergus sell them to pay the creditors, it was a right thing to do. It shows that she wasn’t a selfish person.
The OW was a subtle person with her innuendos, she manipulated Vicky easily to break off and run away from Fergus. Even that Vicky matured all this time, she still was a naïve girl.
Fergus is one of the few H that is worth and one of the few that I truly believed that he never thought Sybil as a love interest and I bet he never even was attracted to her or kissed her in the mouth. It came a complete shock when he discovered that the OW wanted him. To him she just was a good friend and a relative. I know he was an intelligent and smart but sometimes man can be dumb, how he didn’t know Sybil’s real character and that she had designs on him. He wasn't the only one that was wrong in this case. His mother and Maggie were very wrong too, they knew that Sybil has designs on him but they thought that Fergus reciprocated. I believe even if there is no Vicky, he wouldn’t marry Sybil. I don’t know how after 3 years Sybil didn’t realize that Fergus was not interested in her as a woman, he lacks the signs that a man has when they want a woman. Vicky is the only girl/woman that he loved and he wasn’t even looking when he met her. Without her he would die a bachelor alone and he is one of few guys that hasn’t interest in women without love. He is of the few that will remain faithful to the heroine until the very end. It did seem that he hadn’t women even in his youth. I was glady for Fergus when Vicky discovered that she loved him at the night of the ball and happy that they got their HEA.
I wish there are more books from Margaret Malcolm in OpenLibrary. I just found few books and she wrote a lot.

[StMargarets · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sweet romance from the 1950's. Heroine is a spoiled rich girl of nineteen. Hero is her father's lawyer in his 30's. He has the difficult task of traveling to Switzerland and telling the holidaying heroine her father commited suicide and she is completely broke.

He offeres her a stiff upper lip and a cushy job as a companion to his mother in his country manor. Heroine soon proves to fit into his household seamlessly, much to the chagrin of the OW, a long-in-the-tooth 27 year old fashion designer and boutique owner.

There's a kind neighbor who serves as the OM, although the heroine never thinks of him as anything but a brother.

After his mother dies and OW points out that people will gossip if heroine stays in his house, hero proposes. All is well until OW drops some poison into the herone's ear. OM and hero team up to uncover the mystery of heroine's change of heart. Hero finally tracks her down and tells her he loves her.

I liked both the H and heroine. The reader is privvy to the OW's twist thoughts. We get to see lots of interaction between the H/h. It's all good, clean vintage romance fun.

[RomLibrary]

"I shall wear demure grey dresses, with neat white collars. No make-up, of course. And good sensible shoes. I shall smile all the time—the sort of earnest, unmeaning smile that makes other people simply furious- and I shall say, 'Yes Mr. Imray' and 'No, Mr. Imray', and be an old maid for ever.

That was Vicky Pallant's forecast of her life in the household of the grave-faced solicitor who had taken responsibility for her on her father's death. But time was to show she had been too ready to be pessimistic!

[Rongbu]

Published in 1970s. Old school. Slow at the beginning. Could had H&h spent more time together. But I like the book. Sweet characters except the OW.

[Ellyn (Mrs. Darcy in my Dreams) · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a sweet vintage but the h was too immature. I felt like I was reading an old Betty Cavanna book!

[Ksenia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gentle, lovely story. The atmosphere in the book, the details of the everyday life had an almost 19th century feel about it.