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3.28 AVERAGE
3.28 AVERAGE
I wanted to read this because it's spoofed in Northanger Abbey, but it was really disappointing. There are elements that work--Radcliffe's dialogue is often lively, and she does create some suspense--but the book is boring overall, mostly because it's stretched out to far beyond the length it needs to be. There is no reason for this story to occupy over 600 pages, but Radcliffe stretches it out with endless, endless, endless descriptions of nature (to be fair, I don't particularly like descriptions of nature in any amount, but I found this especially excessive), poems written by the characters, digressions from the main plot. Her characters are also pretty flat--Emily, our heroine, is a curiously passive sort, whose main activity is fainting--which makes it hard to care deeply about the mysteries surrounding them.
Spoiler
And when the solutions to those mysteries do come, they are not especially interesting either, with the answer to one of the main questions--what did Emily see behind the veil?--being BEYOND STUPID. A wax figure of a corpse that she thought was real but had nothing to do with anything. Come on.
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
adventurous
challenging
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
reflective
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
I have much respect for Radcliffe for launching the gothic into popular literature. Considering she has never been to France or Italy, her writing was beautiful in how she described the scenery and portrayed the characters. This was quintessential gothic with the stormy romance, mysterious gothic castle, and family secrets. There was a quite lengthy buildup in the first volume. There isn’t anything spooky, so this isn’t gothic horror in genre. As the story progressed, I could tell how much influence Udolpho had on other authors. That was fun for my experience as a gothic fan. While reading I found it funny how many times I saw fortitude used and how many times she fainted. Fortitude and fainting seem contradictory yet, I suppose, that’s my takeaway from this esteemed gothic classic.
Tied for my favorite book of all time, The Mysteries of Udolpho is a book whose reading transcends the ordinary experience and, in my case at least, transforms the reader. It isn't always well-written, but that is sometimes beside the point.
We start out in an anachronistic version of 16th century France at the picturesque country cottage of the goodly St. Aubert whose teenage daughter Emily is extremely sensitive to her surroundings, the emotions of others, the overall mood and tenor of the room she is in, and just about anything else you can think of. When circumstance leaves her an orphan she is vulnerable to the predations of scheming relatives, diabolical criminal plots, and a host of emotionally unstable suitors: plot is not wanting here, as long as you don't squint too hard at the details. (Her faithful dog, Manchon, vanishes for a hundred pages at a time before reappearing at the opportune moment.)
Incredibly, this, too, is almost beside the point. The true magic in The Mysteries of Udolpho is that between its episodes of magic it drifts, ambient, seemingly without speed or focus, across steel gray ocean waves, farmland plains purple with fecundity, the terrifying vistas of soaring mountains, the poignant calm of isolated monasteries, the lonely turrets of tragic castles and neglected estates, and back to the lovely but painful memories of St. Aubert's cottage.
There is something timeless, audacious, and, dare I say, supernatural, in the way Udolpho invites its readers to detach their imaginations from mundane everyday worries and from such trivial concerns as pacing, plot, and characterization, and simply absorb the beauty and sublimity of a world that is achingly temporary.
This is one of those stories that can be utterly banal in its details but endlessly profound in its implication and execution. I love it and have read it many times, yet I will never be able to learn everything it has to teach me.
We start out in an anachronistic version of 16th century France at the picturesque country cottage of the goodly St. Aubert whose teenage daughter Emily is extremely sensitive to her surroundings, the emotions of others, the overall mood and tenor of the room she is in, and just about anything else you can think of. When circumstance leaves her an orphan she is vulnerable to the predations of scheming relatives, diabolical criminal plots, and a host of emotionally unstable suitors: plot is not wanting here, as long as you don't squint too hard at the details. (Her faithful dog, Manchon, vanishes for a hundred pages at a time before reappearing at the opportune moment.)
Incredibly, this, too, is almost beside the point. The true magic in The Mysteries of Udolpho is that between its episodes of magic it drifts, ambient, seemingly without speed or focus, across steel gray ocean waves, farmland plains purple with fecundity, the terrifying vistas of soaring mountains, the poignant calm of isolated monasteries, the lonely turrets of tragic castles and neglected estates, and back to the lovely but painful memories of St. Aubert's cottage.
There is something timeless, audacious, and, dare I say, supernatural, in the way Udolpho invites its readers to detach their imaginations from mundane everyday worries and from such trivial concerns as pacing, plot, and characterization, and simply absorb the beauty and sublimity of a world that is achingly temporary.
This is one of those stories that can be utterly banal in its details but endlessly profound in its implication and execution. I love it and have read it many times, yet I will never be able to learn everything it has to teach me.
adventurous
dark
emotional
informative
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Interestingly, Ann Radcliffe wrote this book in 1794, but the story plays in 1594. So it is historic fiction written more than two hundred years ago. Quite a voluminous book and I read it partly as a book and partly as audiobook to get on more quickly. The first book interesting for people who are into descriptions of magnificent prospects, but not really my favourite sort of literature and the sorrows as the heroine looses her parents are too lengthy and tearful for my patience. However, from the second book onwards, the pace steps up, and I could appreciate how the author creates tense and mysterious atmospheres. I just don't understand though, how emotions can run so high that a woman has to faint - not quite my style. But the heroine meets dreadful and scary events for sure. Ann Radcliffe is a master in cliffhangers and suspending solutions. Everything that seems spooky is rationally explained in the end - she just always finds some other event to insert and it is difficult to put down the book with that suspense. The characters are good or bad, and even if they seem to develop, they end up as good or bad as they were. For people into history, it is interesting to see events described by someone in her own time period - though I am not sure how well informed she would be of the way of life in the period she describes.
The audiobook has many different readers, which requires some adjusting, but it felt heart-warming to know that people in so many different countries found it worth their while to spend time reading the book - I heard readers from the UK, different parts of the US, Sout-Africa, India, New-Zealand - quite exciting!
The audiobook has many different readers, which requires some adjusting, but it felt heart-warming to know that people in so many different countries found it worth their while to spend time reading the book - I heard readers from the UK, different parts of the US, Sout-Africa, India, New-Zealand - quite exciting!
I enjoyed The Mysteries of Udolpho a lot more than I thought I would, part of my pleasure coming from handling the slim red-covered and yellow-paged volumes printed in 1949. Though I generally didn’t like the romance in the story (Valancourt is super insecure about their relationship), I found Emily quite likeable, for her reason, fortitude, and self-reliance. She makes her own decisions and isn’t afraid to push for what she needs.
See my full review here: https://hannahreadingwidely.wordpress.com/2021/06/19/to-every-old-castle-its-secret-passages-and-other-morals-of-the-story-the-mysteries-of-udolpho/
See my full review here: https://hannahreadingwidely.wordpress.com/2021/06/19/to-every-old-castle-its-secret-passages-and-other-morals-of-the-story-the-mysteries-of-udolpho/
I found it so hard to want to pick this up and even listening to the audio while reading was not helpful.
I thoroughly enjoyed this meandering tale. And I do mean it does meander :) The description on Goodreads is actually a bit deceptive because it only covers a portion of the book. Instead we get something more like a year or two in the life of the heroine, who, by the way, is one of the strongest heroines I've seen in any book. She stands on her own two feet and with a great deal of fortitude she manages to withstand things that are incredibly difficult. All with a minimum of fainting.
While the story takes a while to get going and often takes some strange side paths, it also has a great deal of suspense. And deaths. A lot of people die in this book. Seeing the origins of gothic literature in this book that was published in 1794 made it all the more fun. You could see the things that would become essential to any gothic tale. It was also surprisingly accessible given that it was published more than 200 years ago.
Another thing I really enjoyed was how much the story seemed like a series of things that could really happen rather than aiming for making the heroine center stage in every situation. And
In short, I would really like to reread this book several times over the years. It was just so enjoyable. Sometimes I would relax and enjoy the meandering paths and sometimes I was tense and utterly focused on the suspense. I'm extremely glad I read this.
The audio was narrated by Alison Larkin and I honestly could not recommend it more. She made everything more dramatic, Montoni truly sinister, and was obviously having a great deal of fun reading the book. It's going into my brilliant narration shelf.
While the story takes a while to get going and often takes some strange side paths, it also has a great deal of suspense. And deaths. A lot of people die in this book. Seeing the origins of gothic literature in this book that was published in 1794 made it all the more fun. You could see the things that would become essential to any gothic tale. It was also surprisingly accessible given that it was published more than 200 years ago.
Another thing I really enjoyed was how much the story seemed like a series of things that could really happen rather than aiming for making the heroine center stage in every situation. And
Spoiler
every single "supernatural" experience was explained. I loved that there were no real ghostsIn short, I would really like to reread this book several times over the years. It was just so enjoyable. Sometimes I would relax and enjoy the meandering paths and sometimes I was tense and utterly focused on the suspense. I'm extremely glad I read this.
The audio was narrated by Alison Larkin and I honestly could not recommend it more. She made everything more dramatic, Montoni truly sinister, and was obviously having a great deal of fun reading the book. It's going into my brilliant narration shelf.