Reviews tagging 'Toxic relationship'

Udolpho by Ann Radcliffe

1 review

alba_marie's review against another edition

Go to review page

mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Loveable characters? No

3.25

You sound like a heroine. Now, let's see of you can suffer like one.

I want it written on my tombstone "She hast read The Mysteries of Udolpho and hast not fainted despite O! the terror contained in its pages. "

Ha. 15 year old me would have been SUPER into Ann Radcliffe, I'm just reading in almost two decades too late

This was one BIG book. Nearly 700 pages (full of tiny tiny words) written in 18th century style, it’s no surprise it took me almost 3 months!

Did I enjoy it? I’m not sure. I’m proud of myself, certainly. Ann Radcliffe is the mother of Gothic fiction and I’ve been meaning to read her since high school. Only took closing in on 2 decades, but I got there. I’m glad I read it in in the end but I would not recommend it, if I’m honest. Not unless you:
 A) Have a death wish or,
 B) Absolutely love gothic books

The book is long and rambling. The titular Udolpho takes over 100 pages to show up. Radcliffe spends a looong time sending us around France and Italy, giving us detailed description of travelling in that era through the Pyrenees and other remote places - full of many anachcronisms but without Wikipedia, you can’t expect her to et it all right.

Radcliffe is not the kind of writer that gets to the point. She tells her story from many POVs, creates a number of extraneous characters and side stories and red herrings and she writes pages and pages of atmosphere.

The story is hard to summarise, but essentially Emily, the heroine, who faints A LOT (like ALL THE Time. She also trembles a lot and is assailed by feeling and emotion constantly), meets a knight while travelling with her dad, and after her dad dies, she falls in love with the knight, she is sent to live with her narcissistic aunt who is tricked into marriage by the book’s villain, Montoni, and they both are sent to live in the rambling castle in Italy where Emily pines A LOT, faints a good bit, and spends plenty of time wandering around stumbling across mysteries, bodies, ghosts, stories about dead or missing wives, and more. Aunt dies, villain tries to take Emily’s now-inherited lands, she escapes (like, SUPER easily), and then there’s so more running around in forests and wnatnot, sneaking back in and out and in, and eventually to a random convent where some more stuff happens, she learns some bad news about her lover but eventually all is well. The end.

WHEW. That’s a lot. And so much of it unnecessary! 200-300 pages could have been cut out and STILL had a plenty twisty gothic romance. I guess that’s what the Isabella Thorpe-type readers wanted at the time, and what Jane Austen famously mocked, but STILL. What!!

Emily is a miss goody two shoes. She faints a lot, she is too demeure, and she is easily persuaded by others even when it comes to her own heart.

Montoni is a two-dimensial villain that could have been WAY more interesting if he were more well-rounded like a well-written more modern baddie. (Pet peeve is to have 2D villains and all you do is hate them. Morally grey is THE way to go to keep it interesting!)

Vallencourt, the lover, has a bit more fullness to him as he’s got his darker past which contrasts with his fancy, nice-dude facade.

There are many, many other side characters but too many to list and they come and go too much.

The setting was great - the travelogue part was WAY too long but really did transport you there! It was very atmospheric and felt very mediaval romance and all - and I was happy to see at least a LITTLE bit of depth in the romance, and a little bit of will-they-won’t-they, and she even had me doubting the lover a few times going, wait IS he a good guy?

Anyway this was a crazy book but I’m glad I read it in the end…

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
More...