Because of her keen awareness of detail, atmosphere, mood, and particularly her focus on the perspectives of female characters, Bowen was frequently compared by critics to such authors as Jane Austen, Henry James, Virginia Woolf, and Katherine Mansfield. Since World War II, however, critical focus on Bowen's writings has steadily declined.

The hardships Mrs. Drover endures upon returning to her deserted house has led to much critical debate. Issues concerning Mrs. Drover's fragile mental state and repressed memories, the association of demon lover with war itself, and the fact that Bowen's work shares its title with a Gothic ballad have been sources of continual critical discussion.

According to the postscript of the 1946 American edition of The Demon Lover and Other Stories, Elizabeth Bowen wrote the title story of her collection between 1941 and 1944. In 1945 Henry Reed, a reviewer for The New Statesman and Nation, praised Bowen for...