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3.28 AVERAGE
3.28 AVERAGE
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:
Complicated
adventurous
challenging
dark
informative
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
This story reminds us that love is esteemed and those who give and receive it should be deserving of it; that one or the other may fail in their morals becoming undeserving of each other and that one must have the strength and resolve to break away in order to guarantee a better future; that love is capable of enduring all torment and distance if one puts a mind to it (so when we say long distance isn't for me, it's just a mental weakness we refuse to conquer). It is a story of multiple brave adventures, the importance of courage, the benefits of prudence and protocol. It reminds us that good triumphs evil if we only keep our faith and endeavour to stay on the path of goodness. It is a wonderful tale of old fashioned romance, hauntings, murders, trickery, debauchery, picturesque surroundings, and beautiful old castles. Pioneer of the gothic genre, Ann Radcliffe, is a master storyteller and poetess capable of spinning such a macabre tale consisting of so many intricate situations, interwoven with history, the supernatural, and complex character developments. This story set in 1584 was published in 1794, 53 years before the beloved gothic Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë.
........
It was slow for the first 50 pages before it started getting interesting.
Ponder: If you had given a solemn promise to your dying father that you will not read the papers he instructs you to burn upon his death without reading, but while you retrieve them you accidentally notice something shocking, would you break your promise and go through the papers or dispose of them without investigating the contents further?
"The world ridicules a passion which it seldom feels; its scenes, and its interests, distract the mind, deprave the taste, corrupt the heart, and love cannot exist in a heart that has lost the meek dignity of innocence. Virtue and taste are nearly the same, for virtue is little more than active taste, and the most delicate affections of each combine in real love. How then are we to look for love in great cities, where selfishness, dissipation, and insincerity supply the place of tenderness, simplicity, and truth?" St. Aubert pondering, Pg 50
"Above all, Emily, do not indulge in the pride of fine feeling, the romantic error of amiable minds. Those, who really possess sensibility, ought early to be taught, that it is a dangerous quality, which is co tinually extracting the excess of misery, or delight, from every surrounding circumstance. And, since, in our passage through this world, painful circumstances occur more frequently than pleasing ones, and since our sense of evil is, I fear, more acute than our sense of good, we become the victim of our feelings, unless we can in some degree command them... Always remember how much more valuable is the strength of fortitude, than the grace of sensibility." St. Aubert's advice to his daughter, Emily, on his death bed, pg 80.
"The conflict she had suffered, between love and the duty she at present owed to her father's sister; her repugnance to a clandestine marriage, her fear of emerging on the world with embarrassments, such as might ultimately involve the object of her affection in misery and repentance; - all this various interest was too powerful for a mind, already enervated by sorrow, and her reason had suffered a transient suspension. But duty, and good sense, however hard the conflict, at length, triumphed over affection and mournful presentiment;" pg 155 - people in the new world do not endeavour to make good decisions like this anymore.
Valancourt pressing Emily to marry him clandestinely reminds me of Sharif doing the same to me - do it for me, he said, but he never thought of the guilt I'd live with if I were to lie to everyone around me, but within my distress I understood that he worshipped the ground I walk on, just as Emily understood Valancourt. He was my Bollywood love story.
The luxury of conscious worth - where you are conscious of how worthy you are of praise that when someone is putting you down, it doesn't affect you and you stand proud.
Sensibility can reduce your feeling of duty and affection (towards another). Prudence is necessary especially when dealing with someone who deserves reproach to avoid his violence.
"It is for your sake that you should consult prudence. Your reproaches, however just, cannot punish him, but they may provoke him to further violence against you." Emily advices her aunt, Madame Montoni, pg 282.
"...Emily, in her remote chamber, heard their loud shouts and strains of exultation, like the orgies of furies over some horrid sacrifice." Pg 357 - one would never read such descriptions today.
It is so amusing that in a time where girls are hidden from the general public and almost imprisoned in their chateaus, Emily in all her seclusion has got three men professing their unconditional love and wishing to marry her. It is a chore to even find an esteemable significant other in the modern era and it is incredibly challenging to keep a marriage.
Countess Villeroi refers to her husband's daughter as daughter-in-law instead of stepdaughter. Pg 466 - how different but makes much sense!
Find the peace of conscience before death for "...imperfect are the good deeds of our later years if those of our early life have been evil." Abbess advice to Emily, pg 642
........
It was slow for the first 50 pages before it started getting interesting.
Ponder: If you had given a solemn promise to your dying father that you will not read the papers he instructs you to burn upon his death without reading, but while you retrieve them you accidentally notice something shocking, would you break your promise and go through the papers or dispose of them without investigating the contents further?
"The world ridicules a passion which it seldom feels; its scenes, and its interests, distract the mind, deprave the taste, corrupt the heart, and love cannot exist in a heart that has lost the meek dignity of innocence. Virtue and taste are nearly the same, for virtue is little more than active taste, and the most delicate affections of each combine in real love. How then are we to look for love in great cities, where selfishness, dissipation, and insincerity supply the place of tenderness, simplicity, and truth?" St. Aubert pondering, Pg 50
"Above all, Emily, do not indulge in the pride of fine feeling, the romantic error of amiable minds. Those, who really possess sensibility, ought early to be taught, that it is a dangerous quality, which is co tinually extracting the excess of misery, or delight, from every surrounding circumstance. And, since, in our passage through this world, painful circumstances occur more frequently than pleasing ones, and since our sense of evil is, I fear, more acute than our sense of good, we become the victim of our feelings, unless we can in some degree command them... Always remember how much more valuable is the strength of fortitude, than the grace of sensibility." St. Aubert's advice to his daughter, Emily, on his death bed, pg 80.
"The conflict she had suffered, between love and the duty she at present owed to her father's sister; her repugnance to a clandestine marriage, her fear of emerging on the world with embarrassments, such as might ultimately involve the object of her affection in misery and repentance; - all this various interest was too powerful for a mind, already enervated by sorrow, and her reason had suffered a transient suspension. But duty, and good sense, however hard the conflict, at length, triumphed over affection and mournful presentiment;" pg 155 - people in the new world do not endeavour to make good decisions like this anymore.
Valancourt pressing Emily to marry him clandestinely reminds me of Sharif doing the same to me - do it for me, he said, but he never thought of the guilt I'd live with if I were to lie to everyone around me, but within my distress I understood that he worshipped the ground I walk on, just as Emily understood Valancourt. He was my Bollywood love story.
The luxury of conscious worth - where you are conscious of how worthy you are of praise that when someone is putting you down, it doesn't affect you and you stand proud.
Sensibility can reduce your feeling of duty and affection (towards another). Prudence is necessary especially when dealing with someone who deserves reproach to avoid his violence.
"It is for your sake that you should consult prudence. Your reproaches, however just, cannot punish him, but they may provoke him to further violence against you." Emily advices her aunt, Madame Montoni, pg 282.
"...Emily, in her remote chamber, heard their loud shouts and strains of exultation, like the orgies of furies over some horrid sacrifice." Pg 357 - one would never read such descriptions today.
It is so amusing that in a time where girls are hidden from the general public and almost imprisoned in their chateaus, Emily in all her seclusion has got three men professing their unconditional love and wishing to marry her. It is a chore to even find an esteemable significant other in the modern era and it is incredibly challenging to keep a marriage.
Countess Villeroi refers to her husband's daughter as daughter-in-law instead of stepdaughter. Pg 466 - how different but makes much sense!
Find the peace of conscience before death for "...imperfect are the good deeds of our later years if those of our early life have been evil." Abbess advice to Emily, pg 642
Wow, it has taken me ages to actually finish this book. And this is certainly a book of extremes, not only in the time it took me to read it. This book is both excruciatingly boring for long stretches of time and packed with action and excitement, more than enough to fill three books with adventures. There are bandits and corpses, kidnappings and cases of mistaken identity, and the heroine faints aproximately every three pages. At the same time, there are long, looong stretches of constantly repeated descriptions of the beauty of the landscape, to the point that I got heartily sick of that scenery altogether.
I'm glad to have read this book because of its importance to the development of the novel and of women's writing, but I wouldn't call it a good book.
I'm glad to have read this book because of its importance to the development of the novel and of women's writing, but I wouldn't call it a good book.
No puedo puntuarlo porque lo abandoné en la página 500 más o menos (de 800)
La verdad que me estaba pareciendo un libro interesante, me encantan esas descripciones a lo Romanticismo alemán, y la segunda parte en el castillo me gustó mucho (la primera se me hizo bastante más pesada) pero llegado a cierto punto perdí el interés, y esta lectura requiere una constancia y unas ganas de las que carezco ahora mismo.
Entiendo que sea la cumbre la literatura gótica, ha sido too much gótica para mi xD
NO RECOMENDADO PARA QUIEN NO ESTÉ ACOSTUMBRADO A LOS CLÁSICOS
La verdad que me estaba pareciendo un libro interesante, me encantan esas descripciones a lo Romanticismo alemán, y la segunda parte en el castillo me gustó mucho (la primera se me hizo bastante más pesada) pero llegado a cierto punto perdí el interés, y esta lectura requiere una constancia y unas ganas de las que carezco ahora mismo.
Entiendo que sea la cumbre la literatura gótica, ha sido too much gótica para mi xD
NO RECOMENDADO PARA QUIEN NO ESTÉ ACOSTUMBRADO A LOS CLÁSICOS
dark
emotional
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
chupito cada vez que Emily se desmaya
adventurous
mysterious
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
Winding, mysterious, flowery.
so silly, but I've always wanted to read this since reading Jane Austen's books.
well, I think I'd expected a classic boogie man type read and was sorely disappointed by the extensive back ground information and fully working up each person's history. By the time we got to the goodstuff, I think I was already too distracted and disappointed to enjoy it.
oh well, I'm glad I read it.
well, I think I'd expected a classic boogie man type read and was sorely disappointed by the extensive back ground information and fully working up each person's history. By the time we got to the goodstuff, I think I was already too distracted and disappointed to enjoy it.
oh well, I'm glad I read it.
The Mysteries of Udolpho is an excellent and some say genera defining example of 19th century gothic literature. It has it all: dark forests full of bandits, foreign locals, ruined castles, convents, unexplained mysteries hinting at the supernatural, and a heroine who is the paragon of innocence and fortitude.
The writing style of Radcliffe is also very 19th century, and not necessarily in a good way. She is verbose in a way approaching James Fennemore Cooper. The story takes a very long time to develop and many of the descriptions are superfluous and repetitious. I actually had to look up whether it was published as a serialized novel which could explain these trates (it wasn't). Despite this, Radcliffe had a wonderful way of using the English language to great affect. There were several passages which I found to be quite beautiful.
The main sin of the book, and one of the main reasons I only gave the novel three stars was the fact that Radcliffe withholds information from the reader. The entire novel is told in the third person but from the point of view of Emily, the heroine. However, the narrator neglects to reveal certain things that even Emily knows or saw merely to intensify the mystery. However, several hundred pages later when it is explained what it was she saw, there was no reason to keep this from the reader. Rather than enhance the mystery, it served to annoy.
The other reason I graded the book harshly is because of the number of mysteries which piled upon each other like a game of Jenga. Just as the tower was about to collapse Radcliffe resolves everything by introducing a deus ex machina.
I do recommend this book to any who enjoy Gothic literature or wordy 19th century literature. If you want something a little less verbose, check out The Castle of Ontoronto or Northanger Abbey, both of which I enjoyed more.
The writing style of Radcliffe is also very 19th century, and not necessarily in a good way. She is verbose in a way approaching James Fennemore Cooper. The story takes a very long time to develop and many of the descriptions are superfluous and repetitious. I actually had to look up whether it was published as a serialized novel which could explain these trates (it wasn't). Despite this, Radcliffe had a wonderful way of using the English language to great affect. There were several passages which I found to be quite beautiful.
The main sin of the book, and one of the main reasons I only gave the novel three stars was the fact that Radcliffe withholds information from the reader. The entire novel is told in the third person but from the point of view of Emily, the heroine. However, the narrator neglects to reveal certain things that even Emily knows or saw merely to intensify the mystery. However, several hundred pages later when it is explained what it was she saw, there was no reason to keep this from the reader. Rather than enhance the mystery, it served to annoy.
The other reason I graded the book harshly is because of the number of mysteries which piled upon each other like a game of Jenga. Just as the tower was about to collapse Radcliffe resolves everything by introducing a deus ex machina.
I do recommend this book to any who enjoy Gothic literature or wordy 19th century literature. If you want something a little less verbose, check out The Castle of Ontoronto or Northanger Abbey, both of which I enjoyed more.