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The Lady Serena
PASSION'S SPELL
Rome under Claudius Caesar. A city of intrigue and depravity where in the shadow of the throne a raging human inferno seethed. A city where Serena's vows as a Vestal Virgin set her apart as a symbol of inviolable purity.
But all too soon Serena discovered she was no holy vessel but flesh and blood - and she lost her innocence in the arms of the most forbidden of lovers.
Betrayed by the burning desires of her own body, Serena also lost her way on a terror-haunted journey that led her from the protective sanctuary to a nightmare brothel...from naked exposure in the slave market to the inmost circles of corruption in the Emperor's palace...and from the bliss of ecstasy to an agonizing realization that nothing was sacred in this world of splendor, seduction and savagery that was Ancient Rome...
Rome under Claudius Caesar. A city of intrigue and depravity where in the shadow of the throne a raging human inferno seethed. A city where Serena's vows as a Vestal Virgin set her apart as a symbol of inviolable purity.
But all too soon Serena discovered she was no holy vessel but flesh and blood - and she lost her innocence in the arms of the most forbidden of lovers.
Betrayed by the burning desires of her own body, Serena also lost her way on a terror-haunted journey that led her from the protective sanctuary to a nightmare brothel...from naked exposure in the slave market to the inmost circles of corruption in the Emperor's palace...and from the bliss of ecstasy to an agonizing realization that nothing was sacred in this world of splendor, seduction and savagery that was Ancient Rome...
362 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published July 5, 1978
47 people want to read
About the author
Jeanne Duval
11 books1 followerVirginia Edith Coffman aka Virginia Coffman, Diana Saunders, Victor Cross, Ann Stanfield, Virginia C. Du Vaul, Kay Cameron.
A native of San Francisco, Coffman contributed movie reviews to the Oakland Tribune from 1933-40. She graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1938 and was a movie and television script writer for Columbia, RKO, and other Hollywood studios in her early writing career (1944-56). She had her first success with writing novels in 1959, when Crown Publishing decided to take a chance on Moura, and the novel was showcased by Library Journal. By the 1980s, Coffman was recognized as "the author largely responsible for setting off the Gothics craze of the 1960s, "earning her the reputation of "Queen of the Gothics."1
She quit her day job in Reno and became a full-time writer in 1965. While historical romance novels seldom find their way into the literary canon, Coffman, who was both prolific and dedicated, took her writing seriously. Her research for historical fiction was meticulous. She also drew upon personal experience as a world traveler when setting some of her novels in Hawaii, Paris, and other romantic locales. Several of her historical romances and gothic mystery novels were translated into other languages, and many have been published in large print and audio editions.
She was recognized by Who's Who of American Women and Who's Who in the West. She was a member of the Authors League of America and the Mystery Writers Guild of America. The Reno Gazette-Journal featured Virginia Coffman and her sister in a biographical story on April 4, 2002. In 2003, she donated a collection of her gothic mystery and historical romance novels to the University of Nevada, Reno Libraries.
A native of San Francisco, Coffman contributed movie reviews to the Oakland Tribune from 1933-40. She graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1938 and was a movie and television script writer for Columbia, RKO, and other Hollywood studios in her early writing career (1944-56). She had her first success with writing novels in 1959, when Crown Publishing decided to take a chance on Moura, and the novel was showcased by Library Journal. By the 1980s, Coffman was recognized as "the author largely responsible for setting off the Gothics craze of the 1960s, "earning her the reputation of "Queen of the Gothics."1
She quit her day job in Reno and became a full-time writer in 1965. While historical romance novels seldom find their way into the literary canon, Coffman, who was both prolific and dedicated, took her writing seriously. Her research for historical fiction was meticulous. She also drew upon personal experience as a world traveler when setting some of her novels in Hawaii, Paris, and other romantic locales. Several of her historical romances and gothic mystery novels were translated into other languages, and many have been published in large print and audio editions.
She was recognized by Who's Who of American Women and Who's Who in the West. She was a member of the Authors League of America and the Mystery Writers Guild of America. The Reno Gazette-Journal featured Virginia Coffman and her sister in a biographical story on April 4, 2002. In 2003, she donated a collection of her gothic mystery and historical romance novels to the University of Nevada, Reno Libraries.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
July 7, 2018
I love the random fruit on this cover. :D
That said, the story was meh. Lots of to'ing & fro'ing with rehashing convos & repetitive infodumps. (Seriously, there must've been 10 explanations of 'posca.' I GOT IT THE FIRST 4 TIMES.) The final closure was decent, but it took too long to arrive; the pages kept going & going & going with endless, bloated filler until I was ready to scream.
This also includes very long separations of Serena & Philip. I don't care about that. What *does* bother me is that Philip is barely around, period. There's nothing first-hand about his adventures & tribulations, not even when there's plenty of opportunity -- i.e., when Serena's story drags. Consequently, I cared absolutely nothing about him. He was an utter non-entity. Even when he does manage to make an appearance, there was no interest; he was just THERE, a minor personage in his own story, with no role except to make Serena's heart flutter & her hooha moist. Yawn.
...Lycon, on the other hand, would've made a fab hero. A burly, scruffily appealing convicted murder whose life Serena saves because he survived tasting the emperor's poisoned food & is hereafter devoted to her from afar?? And he's actually around to help when she needs it! Awesome! Too bad that wasn't the chosen plot. :P Serena, for her part, had a case of the Selective Stupidz -- she was either super-perceptive or super-dense, depending what the circumstances dictated. I'd rather she was a scrambling, lovable idiot like Fanina than a flip-flopping tool of plot devices.
Overall, not that great. Some of the minor characters were interesting (Lycon, Damaris, Maxima, Claudia Acté, Nero) but the leads & their story just didn't jive for yours truly.
That said, the story was meh. Lots of to'ing & fro'ing with rehashing convos & repetitive infodumps. (Seriously, there must've been 10 explanations of 'posca.' I GOT IT THE FIRST 4 TIMES.) The final closure was decent, but it took too long to arrive; the pages kept going & going & going with endless, bloated filler until I was ready to scream.
This also includes very long separations of Serena & Philip. I don't care about that. What *does* bother me is that Philip is barely around, period. There's nothing first-hand about his adventures & tribulations, not even when there's plenty of opportunity -- i.e., when Serena's story drags. Consequently, I cared absolutely nothing about him. He was an utter non-entity. Even when he does manage to make an appearance, there was no interest; he was just THERE, a minor personage in his own story, with no role except to make Serena's heart flutter & her hooha moist. Yawn.
...Lycon, on the other hand, would've made a fab hero. A burly, scruffily appealing convicted murder whose life Serena saves because he survived tasting the emperor's poisoned food & is hereafter devoted to her from afar?? And he's actually around to help when she needs it! Awesome! Too bad that wasn't the chosen plot. :P Serena, for her part, had a case of the Selective Stupidz -- she was either super-perceptive or super-dense, depending what the circumstances dictated. I'd rather she was a scrambling, lovable idiot like Fanina than a flip-flopping tool of plot devices.
Overall, not that great. Some of the minor characters were interesting (Lycon, Damaris, Maxima, Claudia Acté, Nero) but the leads & their story just didn't jive for yours truly.
October 6, 2022
This one. Totally did not work for me.
In all aspects, story/characters/detail/romance. :(
In all aspects, story/characters/detail/romance. :(
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July 23, 2014Simply not my cup of tea. I think I would have enjoyed the story going on beyond the story a lot better: politics and intrigue, poison and danger in Imperial Rome! But the viewpoint character, a Vestal virgin inexplicably pining for a dark and manly Imperial official, is necessarily sidelined from the exciting goings-on, and is so drippy and silly that I failed to have any sympathy for her. Side characters, like a young Nero, were much more interesting--but unfortunately hardly ever showed up in the actual narrative. I think this story would have worked better as a multi-viewpoint political epic and not a straight-up romance. (Also, full disclosure: I tend to be annoyed rather than sympathetic with characters who have vowed celibacy and then break their vow FOR LURRRRRRVE.)
June 11, 2024
I think, quite possibly, this was the first ever historical romance I’d ever read. Little did I know that it was written by Virginia Coffman— yes, THE Virginia Coffman, Gothic novelist extraordinaire, who was to become one of my favorite authors. In the late 1970s, under the pseudonym of Jeanne Duval, she wrote two historical novels set in ancient Rome, specifically against the reign of the Emperor Nero. I was so obsessed with this book, I read it over and over and over again. Years passed, and I lent it to a friend, who was much less enthused about it than I was. Then I read other negative reviews, and I began to think this book wasn’t so hot, and I was viewing it through rose-colored Nostalgia Goggles. Had the suck fairy come for Lady Serena?
Anyway, at last I decided to sit down and reread it. The back copy sells it as a lurid bodice-ripper about a Vestal Virgin, Serena, who has a forbidden romance with Tigellinus, Nero’s dark and sinister prefect of police. It definitely has bodice-ripper elements, but compared to many romances of the time, like The Flame and the Flower or The Wolf and the Dove, it is a masterpiece of subtlety and nuance.
Serena, a proud, practical aristocrat who’s taken vows as one of Vesta’s sacred priestesses, is increasingly tempted by Tigellinus’s masculine charms as she finds herself pulled into palace intrigue— specifically, she is called to tend to a sickly Emperor Claudius, who dies shortly after, from a surfeit of poisoned mushrooms or… possibly something else? Soon, she’s caught up in a shadowy conspiracy and a power struggle between the impulsive, lovable but erratic young emperor Nero, and his competent and frightening mother Agrippina. The depiction of these historical characters is so good, so assured and so accurate, and so free of the usual nonsense from Suetonius, it’s as if Coffman had actually met them. It’s impressive work.
The first half of the book has this languid, beautifully written atmospheric slow burn going on, which is very typical of Coffman— but the ending is exciting and cinematic, complete with battles at sea, riots, chariot chases and a gripping palace showdown. As for Tigellinus, the hero— he’s fine. He felt a bit undercharacterized— I felt that he and Serena needed a few more scenes together, but given how abysmally low the standards of romance heroes from the 1970s were, I didn’t mind him. The sex scenes are pretty short and not especially detailed, but that also seems pretty typical for the time. I did not especially buy the romance at first, but I felt much more convinced by the end, after the couple had been on the run together (which is always one of my favorite tropes).
As for Serena, at first I found her underwhelming, but I grew to like her a lot. She’s pretty naive at first, but over the course of the book she proves herself to be tough, clever, observant and in some respects, ruthless— she fends off two attempted rapists, and towards the end she coolly rescues herself from a particularly sticky situation in a way that had me pumping my fist into the air. I found her arc satisfying. She does have a lot of internal conflict, about betraying her religious vows for a relationship with a man; but she still loves and reveres Vesta. How can she reconcile these two parts of herself? The senior vestal priestess, Lady Maxima, plays a key part too: it’s great to see an older woman play a major part in a historical romance, and I loved seeing how her and Serena’s relationship developed. I thought it ended in a rewarding place— and I don’t want to spoil too much more! But yes, this aspect is definitely something I could not have appreciated as much as when I was a teenager.
The Lady Serena is also interesting in that it walks a fine line between historical-novel-with-romantic-elements and historical romance proper, which I liked. There’s a lot of Gothic elements too— misty temples, flickering torches, ominous villas and cabals of sinister senators abound— which I found to be a treat. This approach is so unusual for this setting. Also, the fact that the author is really affectionate towards Rome as a place and a culture really stands out, and the research is mostly well done.
As for the downsides, the writing is lovely, but there are some repetitive bits that could have been trimmed. Some of the plotting also can feel a bit redundant. For example, there’s two attacks (one on Serena, and another on Tigellinus) by two separate guys who lost all their money betting on some sports event and who became deranged as a result. Once is fine, I guess… but twice? Really? There’s also a few typical Roman tropes that came from old movies that have since been debunked, like galley slaves (not a thing until the early modern era), or people using chariots to travel from one place to another (they were only for races and ceremonial use, not for ordinary use). There’s also all the borked nomenclature, but that’s so typical of 90% of ancient Roman romance out there, that my eyes skim over it at this point.
Anyway, even with all that said, I do recommend this book. It’s an engrossing Gothic epic set in the ancient world with a cool and competent FMC, a respectable hero, a vibrant supporting cast of characters, and some incredible action. Sadly, there’s no ebook of this available, but paper copies abound, and the curious can find it on archive.org.
Anyway, at last I decided to sit down and reread it. The back copy sells it as a lurid bodice-ripper about a Vestal Virgin, Serena, who has a forbidden romance with Tigellinus, Nero’s dark and sinister prefect of police. It definitely has bodice-ripper elements, but compared to many romances of the time, like The Flame and the Flower or The Wolf and the Dove, it is a masterpiece of subtlety and nuance.
Serena, a proud, practical aristocrat who’s taken vows as one of Vesta’s sacred priestesses, is increasingly tempted by Tigellinus’s masculine charms as she finds herself pulled into palace intrigue— specifically, she is called to tend to a sickly Emperor Claudius, who dies shortly after, from a surfeit of poisoned mushrooms or… possibly something else? Soon, she’s caught up in a shadowy conspiracy and a power struggle between the impulsive, lovable but erratic young emperor Nero, and his competent and frightening mother Agrippina. The depiction of these historical characters is so good, so assured and so accurate, and so free of the usual nonsense from Suetonius, it’s as if Coffman had actually met them. It’s impressive work.
The first half of the book has this languid, beautifully written atmospheric slow burn going on, which is very typical of Coffman— but the ending is exciting and cinematic, complete with battles at sea, riots, chariot chases and a gripping palace showdown. As for Tigellinus, the hero— he’s fine. He felt a bit undercharacterized— I felt that he and Serena needed a few more scenes together, but given how abysmally low the standards of romance heroes from the 1970s were, I didn’t mind him. The sex scenes are pretty short and not especially detailed, but that also seems pretty typical for the time. I did not especially buy the romance at first, but I felt much more convinced by the end, after the couple had been on the run together (which is always one of my favorite tropes).
As for Serena, at first I found her underwhelming, but I grew to like her a lot. She’s pretty naive at first, but over the course of the book she proves herself to be tough, clever, observant and in some respects, ruthless— she fends off two attempted rapists, and towards the end she coolly rescues herself from a particularly sticky situation in a way that had me pumping my fist into the air. I found her arc satisfying. She does have a lot of internal conflict, about betraying her religious vows for a relationship with a man; but she still loves and reveres Vesta. How can she reconcile these two parts of herself? The senior vestal priestess, Lady Maxima, plays a key part too: it’s great to see an older woman play a major part in a historical romance, and I loved seeing how her and Serena’s relationship developed. I thought it ended in a rewarding place— and I don’t want to spoil too much more! But yes, this aspect is definitely something I could not have appreciated as much as when I was a teenager.
The Lady Serena is also interesting in that it walks a fine line between historical-novel-with-romantic-elements and historical romance proper, which I liked. There’s a lot of Gothic elements too— misty temples, flickering torches, ominous villas and cabals of sinister senators abound— which I found to be a treat. This approach is so unusual for this setting. Also, the fact that the author is really affectionate towards Rome as a place and a culture really stands out, and the research is mostly well done.
As for the downsides, the writing is lovely, but there are some repetitive bits that could have been trimmed. Some of the plotting also can feel a bit redundant. For example, there’s two attacks (one on Serena, and another on Tigellinus) by two separate guys who lost all their money betting on some sports event and who became deranged as a result. Once is fine, I guess… but twice? Really? There’s also a few typical Roman tropes that came from old movies that have since been debunked, like galley slaves (not a thing until the early modern era), or people using chariots to travel from one place to another (they were only for races and ceremonial use, not for ordinary use). There’s also all the borked nomenclature, but that’s so typical of 90% of ancient Roman romance out there, that my eyes skim over it at this point.
Anyway, even with all that said, I do recommend this book. It’s an engrossing Gothic epic set in the ancient world with a cool and competent FMC, a respectable hero, a vibrant supporting cast of characters, and some incredible action. Sadly, there’s no ebook of this available, but paper copies abound, and the curious can find it on archive.org.
August 25, 2018
Well! That was better than expected.
I picked up this book from a dusty shelf in an old four story glove factory in Detroit that was converted into a claustrophobia-inducing bookstore. One look at the flamboyant cover summary of The Lady Serena, and I knew I had to have this garbage. Only to find out that it really wasn’t that bad!
It’s obvious Duval did her research on Ancient Rome, and the attention to detail without forcing it to fit into the story is appreciated. What results is a fairly interesting novel about a vestal virgin who gets caught up in a bit of political intrigue and corruption.
If you’re here for the sex, you’re going to be disappointed, but the story itself is worth a read.
I picked up this book from a dusty shelf in an old four story glove factory in Detroit that was converted into a claustrophobia-inducing bookstore. One look at the flamboyant cover summary of The Lady Serena, and I knew I had to have this garbage. Only to find out that it really wasn’t that bad!
It’s obvious Duval did her research on Ancient Rome, and the attention to detail without forcing it to fit into the story is appreciated. What results is a fairly interesting novel about a vestal virgin who gets caught up in a bit of political intrigue and corruption.
If you’re here for the sex, you’re going to be disappointed, but the story itself is worth a read.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews