Purity's Passion

Purity #1

by Janette Seymour

Spine creasing and edge wear. Front cover has a few bottom corner crease. Back cover has a small "nick" tear out of side edge. Age browning, name on inside front page. No other marks and tight. Ships very quickly and packaged carefully!

Genres: Historical Romance, Romance, Historical, French Revolution, Regency

455 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 1977

About the author

Pseudonym for John Michael Butterworth

Reviews

[Wendy, Lady Evelyn Quince · Rating 4 out of 5]

The tale of Purity Jarsy (part I) begins with the the horrors of the French Revolution and ends in France after Napoleon's final defeat. In between we witness the epic tale of Purity, a woman so beautiful many men desire her, they would ravish her, control her and kill for her...in other words, your basic, page-turning bodice ripper. And it's a good one.

Janette Seymour was a deft storyteller, quickly pulling me in with Purity witnessing a beautiful encounter of a couple making love and later she sees the macabre slaughters of the Revolution. Purity is left orphaned and shaken in the aftermath.

Mark "You may kiss me--here" Landless is the object of Purity's devotion. Much older than she, he is her appointed guardian, but he also shares a hidden bond with his ward. Mark is a placeholder, we never see through his perspective. He is a scar-faced blue-eyed soldier who duels for Purity's honor, hurts her cruelly and the finally marries her. Her relationship with Mark is one of the weaker parts of the book, but since there are two sequels their romance will undoubtedly develop further.

Purity has many men before being with her true love, and each experience shapes her uniquely: There is a touching one night romance Purity shares with a soldier doomed to die at sea, and a sweet love affair with wounded Gypsy boxer. And many more. If the hero was more interesting, this might have detracted from the story, but since he wasn't, I just enjoyed the ride and didn't worry about the romance. As Purity says to herself (I'm paraphrasing) "She would come to Mark a complete woman." Other high points include a tawdry girl-school game with a dumb stud, a dominatrix-villainess who wears transparent gowns, and an aging duchess who makes constant fart references.

The story's pacing is a bit un-even, because most of the juicy parts are packed into the first third. But the author is skilled enough to make most of it enjoyable, even if the ending is a bit flat.

Purity's Passion is a romance only because at the end of the book the female protaganist is united with the man she loves. Otherwise, it's a soapy, door-stopper historical epic, typical of 70's and 80's. Readers-mostly women-from all walks of life used to openly enjoy these pulpy paperbacks with kaleidoskopic covers. They were taken to fantastical worlds where the heroines' beauty got men so carried away with mad lust that they'd have her...at any cost! (dun, dun, dun!) Now, not unlike tobacco cigarettes (which I never smoked), bodice rippers are banished to the darkest corners, reviled in public for the unwholesome filth they contain. Like a smoker relegated to puffing away in a cold alley, bodice ripper readers are banished to Romancelandia Siberia. And that's really a shame, because these books are a lot of fun!

4 Stars/B-

[Circa Girl · Rating 5 out of 5]

Janette Seymour took every great old school bodice ripper trope, threw it into a whirlpool of rape with a dash of relentless damsel-in-distress torment and Purity's Passion is what sprang from the purple prose mess. It is epic and it was everything I wanted it to be. I mean the heroine's name is Purity for crying out loud!

If you are more of a by the number Harlequin kind of romance fan, get ready to be offended and possibly throw the book against the wall. There are no politically correct notions or civility to be found here. Purity exists in a world with the moral plane of the Game of Thrones series. Every man and woman Purity comes across is ruthless and out to manipulate her in some manner with the exception of her main love interest (kind of) and the few handful she can call friends (before they become street whores and die of horrible disease or suicide! Whoops spoiler...). Virtually no one can be trusted and Purity goes through traumatic event after event, actually resulting in signs of PTSD and repetitive nightmares. Also, rape, attempted rape or sexual assault is literally around every corner for Purity so do NOT read this if you are triggered by this sort of context.

In other words, not a very happy, chicken soup for the soul kind of book. Is it entertaining though? Hell yes!!! If loving Purity's Passion is wrong, I don't want to be riiiiiiiiiiiiight!

[William · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first of a trilogy, "Purity's Passion" found British author Mike Butterworth getting in on the historical romance game, after a turn with gothics as Carola Salisbury, where he played with breaking the rules of the game. "Purity's Passion" is less of a traditional historical romance and more of a saga à la the Angelique novels of the 50s and 60s. Purity Jarsy, the daughter of the bailiff on a French estate during the French Revolution, is swept up in the events of that conflagration. The novel follows her to England and through the Napoleonic wars, where, despite everything that happens to her--and a LOT happens to her—she loves Mark Landless, an officer in Wellington's company. Purity is taken from high to low, but despite all the danger and degradation along the way, her heart and spirit remain as pure as her name because of her love for Mark and also, well, because she can't, um, enjoy the fullness of her experiences. So both her heart—and her endorphins—remain untouched. That makes the novel sound icky. It actually is well-written. Purity is not a shrinking violet. She is capable and strong, if naive at times. The historical detail is thorough and secondary characters are properly villainous or admirable, depending on their function. Those looking for a traditional love story between a hero and heroine, complicated by history, will likely not enjoy this book. But for readers who like big, pulpy, well-written historical sagas with strong central females characters, then this period piece is right up their alley.

[Elle · Rating 1 out of 5]

This has got to be the most rape-riddled novel I've ever read, and yet perversely, one of the least graphic. The heroine has sex with at least ten different men before the end of the book, only three willingly. When the clothes start falling off or being torn off, the author goes all poetic, so that Purity is either ascending the peaks, looking out over the Promised Land (but only entering with her beloved Mark), or descending into the abyss and flinging herself into the flames of helll with the villain. Pretty tame, for all the lovemaking and raping going on. Which is just as well, I guess, since if it WERE more graphic, the readers would be dealing with PTSD by the end. As it is, I don't think we ever become sufficiently engaged with either of the protagonists to empathize particularly, which is another reason the book fails, in my view. You root for Purity, but only because you'd feel sorry for anyone who suffered as she did, not because you form any particular attachment to the character. She's pretty much an atomaton, suffering time and again and going on like a robot to the next person who'll abuse her without much emotion or trauma, never even gaining the street smarts to be suspicious of strangers offering too good a deal. As for the hero, I actually disliked him all through, so why would I root for them to get together?

The heroine pretty much starts the book with PTSD after seeing her childhood friends and family raped, abused, and murdered during the French Revolution. Maybe the PTSD is why she is so emotionless, but it doesn't make it easy to empathize with her. And you'd think after she is raped for like the twentieth time (some of her rapists abuse her repeatedly) she'd be beyond sanity. At least, you'd think, she'd reach a point where she finally starts making some attempt to defend herself, instead of going all helpless victim. She only fights back once, and seems to regret it after the fact. Moreover, after witnessing and experiencing the worst kinds of cruelty, there are occasions when she sees others falling victim to the same evil, the same mob mentality, and she doesn't act. Some of her school chums start a "club" that humiliates and more or less rapes a mentally challenged young man, threatening the lives and livelihoods of his family if he doesn't go along. Purity utters a token objection, but does nothing further to stop it. Later one of her friends is forcibly deflowered, and she still does nothing. Her reasons are explained and oh so sensible, but there's really no excuse for not trying to stop something she knows is wrong. So I didn't particularly like this character. She was just weak, morally, physically, and intellectually.

And then, one of her rapists is her Twue Wuv, her guardian, who pretty much treated her like dirt her whole life, sent her to that school where her "chums" were so abusive even though she tries (weakly) to tell him she hates the place, abandoned her to an abusive husband, but she wuuvs him anyway. He goes all mad dog after learning about all the other rapes, assuming without asking for her explanation that she must've been willing, so he rapes her. She runs away, but a year later, she goes back to him and, without any hint of remorse from him, pledges her undying love and begs him to hire her on as a servant, if nothing else. I tasted bile at this point.

From there on it's "Oh, my darling" this and "My sweet love" that, all billing and cooing and being insanely happy, even though I doubt any reader has any reason to think that Mark is the least bit likable, let alone lovable. Oh, he feels bad that he raped his true love and all that. You see he did it because she reminds him of another man who had the first woman he ever loved, so he was getting back at that guy. Yeah, that explains it and makes it all better.

And then, after he promises that he understands and accepts that she had sex, both willingly and unwillingly, with other men, he goes and does it again, when he learns that she slept with the villain, even tho he knows the man forced her to do things against her will before. He walks away from her. When he finally deigns to come back, she rushes into his arms, again without ever seeking even a hint of remorse or apology for his abandonment. He's a creep and she's a doormat. What's to love?

Add to it all, the author's writing style is hard to read. It wasn't that out of line at the time of publication, to be fair; back then readers tolerated a lot more telling (she felt sad that her husband was leaving her but she was too proud to let him know) rather than showing (She used a rough hand to scrub away a tear as she watched him go. She'd never let him see her cry.). It may not be fair to hold this against the writer, but the style does help to distance the reader from the emotional content of the story. Then again, as I said, if it had been less distancing, it might be too much, given all the heroine is made to suffer.

And guess what? There are two more books in the series, and I bought the whole series, so I guess I'll end up reading them all, just because I'm too compulsive to leave a story half told. Argh.

[Riccarla Roman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Purity's Passion is a bodice ripper from the late 70's and boy, does it have a lot of bodice ripping going on! Our heroine, Purity, lives on the estate of a debauched marquis during the French Revolution. After witnessing the horrors of revolutionary citizens, she is raised by her old nurse until she is rescued by Mark Landless, the cousin of the former marquis's wife. He takes the blossoming teenager to England and enrolls her in a girl's school, not realizing that there are some kinky girls there. Purity barely escapeds with her virginity intact, but after seeing Mark (the Love of Her Life) in a compromising position with a maid, she runs out and marries the only other man she knows who turns out to be a real rotter.

And so it goes. She runs in and out of bad situations, frequently naked (at one point she runs naked into the streets and is picked up by a mysterious man who just happens to be passing by, looking for naked young women, I guess.) She and Mark keep meeting and leaving each other. When it finally looks like they will be happy, there is a HUGE misunderstanding. Why is it that when one of the partners must choose to believe the person they love and adore more than anyone on the earth or the person who has lied and schemed against them through the whole book, that one will choose to believe the bad person?!

There are two more books after this one. It is a true bodice ripper and I do enjoy this genre. However, I'm not sure I can follow this deathless love across continents, from England to Algiers, to the Potomac to a royal coronation, and all the misunderstandings, and the "I slept with someone else because I thought: A) you were dead; B) he threatened to kill you if I didn't submit; or C) I was so lonely and needed comfort." Someday, I may finish the other two, but right now, I need to read something completely different.

[Caroline · Rating 4 out of 5]

Purity is pretty stupid and sometimes annoying with her incongruous reactions. Imagine a person who wades through a river of spiders without complaint, but cries out if someone mentions a housefly. That's Purity.

I liked the book, but the romance with the hero is questionable. The man ignores her completely, the author does nothing to establish his character and he's absent for almost the entire book. She's in love with him and the reader has no idea why. Is it because he's funny and kind to dogs? Self sacrificing? Truly, we have no clue what she sees in the dude beyond good hair and cologne.

I wish she'd fallen in love with the bad guy. That would have been interesting and believable. She spent more time with him, the reader knew more about him and he was apparently awesome in the sack. As it is, we have a hero who screws housemaids and ignores the heroine, but she loves him completely. Yeah, whatever.

Despite these huge flaws, I had to find out who would rape her next. Oh, yeah, there's all kinds of sex, but none of it is explicit which is another downer. So, quantity over quality here. Still, I had to know what would happen next.

It's not your average boring romance and should be enjoyed for the insanity that commences in the first fifty pages and continues to reign throughout.

[Reader · Rating 2 out of 5]

It is a dark time in Paris.

Having escaped the destruction of the French Revolution as a child, Purity finds herself struggling for dominion in a boarding school for girls. After the alpha bitch of the dormitory tries to have her raped, Purity runs to the arms of the one she really loves - only to find him banging his loyal maid.

So, she marries someone else.

That's just the first of many mistakes and missed opportunities for lasting happiness Purity faces. And while she does end up with the good guy in the end, it takes over three quarters of the book before she really even has satisfying sex!

No...I hate this story. The true love doesn't get to show the heroine ecstasy's touch, much less be the one to take her virginity. And when things get bad, they get positively ugly!

I do not, and cannot recommend Purity's Passion. It really isn't romantic at all.

[Cindy Taylor · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book many moons ago.

I fell in love with the story, the writing and the way it drew you into the story with each turn of the page.

This book made my imagination take flight!

Can not wait to revisit it again

[Cheryl · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a tough one. The horrific things that keep happening to her are very difficult to read. Purity is the most unlucky women I have ever read about. She keeps getting into situations that are heart breaking and I wanted to stop reading many times. If this had not been a monthly GR book I think I would not have finished reading it. I did care about the main characters and that is what kept pushing me to find out what happens. If it had been a little shorter it might have faired better for me.

[Dendera · Rating 5 out of 5]

5 Stars

I really did enjoy this book and thought it was a fantastic read. There was tons of drama, action, and suspense which, to me, are what truly make a story 5 stars. This novel just kept getting interesting and I was never bored. It kept me reading very late into the night, and this is always a good sign. The only thing I didn't like was some of the choices our heroine, Purity, kept making during the story. And I really liked the beginning scenes of this story where Janette Seymour introduces us to the horrors of the French Revolution.

[Tee · Rating 3 out of 5]

She escaped more ravishing than she endured. What she met with lacked in-the-moment feel.