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3.28 AVERAGE
3.28 AVERAGE
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
This book felt a hundred years long. I admit to skimming large sections of it, since Radcliffe seemed not to spare us endless repetitious dialogue and interleaving of odes to this or that. You can safely read this entire novel without looking at any of the poetry and not lose a single plot point. I think she stuffed it in there to get her word count up.
The plot, while interesting, is operatic in its misunderstandings and procedures. I wanted to punch Emily, the protagonist, throughout. She is far more concerned with appearing to be a decent girl than finding out the truth or seeing justice done. Also she faints way too much. She might want to loosen her corset a touch.
I echo another complaint seen here on Goodreads reviews - it is stated in the beginning that the story is set in medieval times, yet there is no other reference to the period, and several anachronisms float to the surface. So just read on and assume you are reading a story contemporaneous to the author's lifetime.
Although I liked this book, and finished it, I wonder why it is a classic.
The plot, while interesting, is operatic in its misunderstandings and procedures. I wanted to punch Emily, the protagonist, throughout. She is far more concerned with appearing to be a decent girl than finding out the truth or seeing justice done. Also she faints way too much. She might want to loosen her corset a touch.
I echo another complaint seen here on Goodreads reviews - it is stated in the beginning that the story is set in medieval times, yet there is no other reference to the period, and several anachronisms float to the surface. So just read on and assume you are reading a story contemporaneous to the author's lifetime.
Although I liked this book, and finished it, I wonder why it is a classic.
The premier Gothic novel. It took me forever to read and I felt the heroine was a bit stupid. Some parts just plodded along for me while others had a rapid pace. It's easy to see where horror came from in this novel and I'm quite sure it gave many a priveledged class lady a thrill.
dark
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
This book was on the “back burner” for me for a very long time—I kept setting it aside in order to finish various book club(s) reading. Now I really want to go back and reread Northanger Abbey!
Full of landscape descriptions, female lead faintings, pirates/banditti, haunted castles, sinister plots, and a Dickensian style wrap up (only this was written first, yes I know).
Full of landscape descriptions, female lead faintings, pirates/banditti, haunted castles, sinister plots, and a Dickensian style wrap up (only this was written first, yes I know).
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
N/A
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Omg, this book was SO LONG. Ann Radcliffe really knows how to drag things out - every single thing that happens to these characters is told in great detail. I could not believe how many pages it took for so few things to happen. I'm gonna chalk that up to the time period in which it was written and give her a pass - same goes for how many times she used the word "romantic" and how often characters faint, or are about to faint, and how every conversation had the same sentiment repeated over and over again.
But overall, there were many really great things about this book, and I genuinely wanted to know what was causing all these mysterious happenings.
But overall, there were many really great things about this book, and I genuinely wanted to know what was causing all these mysterious happenings.
I can't believe I'm finally done with this book more than two years after initially picking it up. It's long, slow, and sometimes boring, but offers a resonating experience with impressive landscape descriptions. Recommended to fans of gothic and romantic stories.
"If the weak hand, that has recorded this tale, has, by its scenes, beguiled the mourner of one hour of sorrow, or, by its moral, taught him to sustain it—the effort, however humble, has not been vain, nor is the writer unrewarded."
"If the weak hand, that has recorded this tale, has, by its scenes, beguiled the mourner of one hour of sorrow, or, by its moral, taught him to sustain it—the effort, however humble, has not been vain, nor is the writer unrewarded."
In 1580s France, young Emily St. Aubert is orphaned and later imprisoned in a remote castle in this dreamlike, rambling gothic classic. Approach Udolpho burdened by expectation, and the book may be a disappointment. It's an influential, classic piece of gothic literature, yet two thirds of it takes place not in the dark halls of Udolpho but in the French countryside. It's both exemplified and criticized for its gothic clichés of haunted castles and fainting women, yet for every ghostly mystery is a dry, factual explanation, and this insistance upon the "explained supernatural" can be both disappointing and anticlimactic. Slow pacing, clunky narrative arcs, and unrealistic explication may frustrate modern readers, but what makes the book a disappointment is that it doesn't not seem as gothic as it could be—or as popular knowledge represents it.
But approach the book with indulgence and patience, and it has moments to reward both. Fans of gothic literature will still find Udolpho an interesting view into the genre's development, particularly in the role of the sublime and the function of human imagination (in place of literal supernatural events) to create horror. And, in defiance of its other limitations, Udolpho has some exceptional moments—sympathetic and honest human interactions, perceptions into human thought, evocative atmospheric and natural descriptions. These moments vary from indulgently gothic to thoughtful or romantic, but each is a quiet delight. Udolpho may not have stood the test of time ("a lot of the book's emotional force has dissipated (xxi)," states Castle in the incisive, apt introduction to the Oxford World Classic edition), and the book is not for all readers, but it is an important and interesting historical selection of the gothic genre—and to the reader who has patience for the book's failings and interest in its strengths, there is something of value here: a number of surprisingly atmospheric, perceptive moments sprinkled within a dreamlike, rambling story of shifting tone and setting. I give it a mediocre recommendation—to the right sort of reader.
But approach the book with indulgence and patience, and it has moments to reward both. Fans of gothic literature will still find Udolpho an interesting view into the genre's development, particularly in the role of the sublime and the function of human imagination (in place of literal supernatural events) to create horror. And, in defiance of its other limitations, Udolpho has some exceptional moments—sympathetic and honest human interactions, perceptions into human thought, evocative atmospheric and natural descriptions. These moments vary from indulgently gothic to thoughtful or romantic, but each is a quiet delight. Udolpho may not have stood the test of time ("a lot of the book's emotional force has dissipated (xxi)," states Castle in the incisive, apt introduction to the Oxford World Classic edition), and the book is not for all readers, but it is an important and interesting historical selection of the gothic genre—and to the reader who has patience for the book's failings and interest in its strengths, there is something of value here: a number of surprisingly atmospheric, perceptive moments sprinkled within a dreamlike, rambling story of shifting tone and setting. I give it a mediocre recommendation—to the right sort of reader.