Content Warning: This section mentions wartime violence, relationship abuse, sexuality, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and demon possession.

“The Demon Lover” is a story that gives Kathleen Drover’s anxiety regarding the World War II metaphorical embodiment. Bowen sets the scene in a desolate 1941 London, abandoned because of Germany’s bombing campaign targeting the city, which was the epicenter of the British Empire. Like many Londoners, Kathleen and her family have relocated to the countryside to avoid the air raids. During her brief return to gather some personal items, the rhythms and routines of her former life seem alien to Kathleen, and she starts to feel a great deal of apprehension.

An off-kilter atmosphere manifests from the start. Mrs. Drover’s house key barely fits the lock on the warped door, and the interior is stuffy and covered in a kind of “film.” While the location is quiet and should seem familiar because the Drovers have resided there for many years, there is an underlying feeling of foreboding. Mrs. Drover doesn’t trust the caretaker, and the arrival of a mysterious letter, not forwarded to the country house, immediately strikes her as disconcerting. She feels the sender of the letter has “intruded upon” her routine and bears no goodwill toward her (662), endowing the intentions of the letter writer with a sense of hidden menace.