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3.28 AVERAGE
3.28 AVERAGE
3.5 stars
Having reached Northanger Abbey in my Austen reread, I decided that I should probably actually read one of the books she was talking about first. Turns out this book was rambling, ridiculous, melodramatic, interspersed with entirely pointless poetry, and a hoot!
The many, many, many descriptions of the landscape are often beautiful if also rather too frequent and long, and the many twist and turns and mysteries, though probably a bit much, are for the most part entertaining. The characters were often very silly, Valancourt really loves to dramatically thrown himself into chairs, but also at turns really endearing or hateable, I would personally die for the very dramatic Annette and would quite like to give Montoni a good kick in the shins. This wasn’t really a great book, I now totally get why Austen was satirising it, but I still really, really wanted to know what was going to happen next, or what mysterious things had happened before.
And the reveal of what was behind the black veil, a question that I had been waiting many hundreds of pages to be answered, actually made me laugh out loud. Well played, Ann Radcliffe. Well played.
Having reached Northanger Abbey in my Austen reread, I decided that I should probably actually read one of the books she was talking about first. Turns out this book was rambling, ridiculous, melodramatic, interspersed with entirely pointless poetry, and a hoot!
The many, many, many descriptions of the landscape are often beautiful if also rather too frequent and long, and the many twist and turns and mysteries, though probably a bit much, are for the most part entertaining. The characters were often very silly, Valancourt really loves to dramatically thrown himself into chairs, but also at turns really endearing or hateable, I would personally die for the very dramatic Annette and would quite like to give Montoni a good kick in the shins. This wasn’t really a great book, I now totally get why Austen was satirising it, but I still really, really wanted to know what was going to happen next, or what mysterious things had happened before.
And the reveal of what was behind the black veil, a question that I had been waiting many hundreds of pages to be answered, actually made me laugh out loud. Well played, Ann Radcliffe. Well played.
I did really enjoy this book. I can see how the gothic genre got it's inspiration and I think it's fantastic it all came from such a powerful author. And a woman.
It does pick up but I feel like it's just too much of a mammoth task and it's not overly gripping for me to keep going. Maybe another time.
It does pick up but I feel like it's just too much of a mammoth task and it's not overly gripping for me to keep going. Maybe another time.
adventurous
challenging
dark
hopeful
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
was originally reading this for class but ughhh i just can't do big novels from the romantic era. udolpho was just too slow and dense for me to ever really get into it
dark
funny
mysterious
medium-paced
Give me a book about a troubled orphan, whose fate and fortunes are left in questionable hands and whose love life is in a shambles, and I'm a happy reader.
Ann Radcliffe's "The Mysteries of Udolpho" has all that in spades. The unfortunate heroine Emily St. Aubert struggles to keep her emotions in check as she is essentially imprisoned in the Gothic castle of Udolpho by the dastardly Montoni. Cue plenty of weeping and fainting as events unfold at the creepy castle.
Going in, you should know that Radcliffe's book is a Gothic romance -- so there are plenty of overwrought scenes and vivid (often delicious) descriptions of the landscape that serve as a precursor to the emotions evoked in the following chapters. Yet, the story itself (especially volumes two and three) is not only compelling, but at times is sublime.
I'm told (by a friend who is an English professor) that Udolpho was the Harlequin romance of its day -- all of the famous literati were secretly reading it but unwilling to admit it. I can completely understand why, as the book, written in 1794, is still readable and enjoyable even today.
Ann Radcliffe's "The Mysteries of Udolpho" has all that in spades. The unfortunate heroine Emily St. Aubert struggles to keep her emotions in check as she is essentially imprisoned in the Gothic castle of Udolpho by the dastardly Montoni. Cue plenty of weeping and fainting as events unfold at the creepy castle.
Going in, you should know that Radcliffe's book is a Gothic romance -- so there are plenty of overwrought scenes and vivid (often delicious) descriptions of the landscape that serve as a precursor to the emotions evoked in the following chapters. Yet, the story itself (especially volumes two and three) is not only compelling, but at times is sublime.
I'm told (by a friend who is an English professor) that Udolpho was the Harlequin romance of its day -- all of the famous literati were secretly reading it but unwilling to admit it. I can completely understand why, as the book, written in 1794, is still readable and enjoyable even today.
Read for ENGL 390: Women's Writings pre-1900. Very good but took a loooong time. I would read it for fun in the future though.
Definitely gothic- quite long and very much of its time with the honour of the characters so constantly at stake and little actual terror, quite a lot of weeping... nonetheless I did enjoy it and was shocked at times by some people's conduct.
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
I really like the poetry and imagery within this novel. Emily is a really good person.
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No