Customer Reviews
Often Overlooked - By: M. Dowden, 28 Feb 2009 
When talking of late eighteenth gothic novels Radcliffe & Lewis instantly spring to mind & the differences between their style & content. However, what is usually overlooked is Charlotte Dacre's wonderful novel thatin some ways bridges the gap between the other two.
The story opensin Venicein the late fifteenth century at a birthday party for the fifteen year old Victoria. That night Count Ardolpho comes to visit, & indeed stays as a guest. Victoria's parents are deeplyin love & they have accomodated & spoilt their children to excess. Ardolpho gets his kicks out of destroying families & thus sets about seducing Victoria's mother. He succeeds & after Victoria's brother has left & her father has been killed the story enters its main path.
The story mainly takes place around Victoria & her adventures of captivity, escape, infatuation & lust. Zofloya the title character himself does not appear until halfway through the tale, & is the servant of Victoria's brother-in-law. With Zofloya, Victoria is drawn deeper down the path of criminality & vice; indeed if you have ever read The Monk (Oxford World's Classics) you will easily work out who Zofloya is.
This bookin some ways reads more like a Jacobean play than others of the genre. On its first publication it caused a minor scandal, as women surely weren't supposed to write about some things. Indeed, Charlotte Dacre was ahead of her time writing about strong women with sexual urgings, this had always been the domain of male authorsin mainly erotic fiction. This book is really good & frenetically paced, but the main question has to be, has she out-camped Matthew Lewis?
A new perspective on women in literature - By: , 20 Mar 2006 
For those used to the gentle, passive heroines of such gothic writers as Ann Radcliffe, Victoria di Loredani, the heroine of Charlotte Dacre's "Zofloya or the Moor", makes a refreshing change. She is a strong & violent woman, very passionate & she will go to any lengths to get what she wants.
I won't go into any further details of the plot but I would recommend this novel highly if you like unconventional styles of women's writing & aren't too easily shocked.
Erotically charged tale of passion and murder. - By: , 14 Dec 2001 
This tale of lust & murder, setin fifteenth century Italy, is a far cry from the novels of Jane Austen. Publishedin 1806, Charlotte Dacre's novel is firmlyin the romantic tradition, with its theme of unbridled passion & its fatal consequences. It also has good Gothic credentials - violence, sex & magic are the key ingredients.
The basic premise is that Victoria di Loredani, an aristocrat born with a passionate nature, could have led a virtuous life had she been properly guided. Unfortunately her mother's adultery becomes the primary influence on Victoria's decelopment & we follow her descent from nobility into a life of crime, dissolution & degradation. Unfortunately the story dissipates into allegory towards the end, but despite this it is well worth reading. The plot is fairly well constructed & Dacre is an impressive stylist.
The notes to the Oxford World's Classics edition are generall helpful & unobtrusive. The introduction usefully places the novelin its literary & historical context.
Since 'Zofloya or The Moor' doesn't quite live up to its early promise I award it three stars.
Surprising, snappy and one to be read on a stomy night. - By: , 02 Sep 2001 Initally very exciting this book unfortunatly trails off to a somewhat insipid ending, however there is still plenty interesting gore to be found throughout. It is a surprising novelin several ways; the protagonist is one of the most brutally unnerving females I have ever encountered & the eponymous Zofloya holds an aura of sexual suspension perfectly. A black slave who comands authority, awe & submission, no wonder this amazing novel was shunned from the traditional English cannon. Charlotte Dacre has created a female which would make even Lady Macbeth tremble. As well as an absorbing storyline there is also archaic spellings, snappy chapters & enough blood to make it a worthy advisary to the scottish play.
