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3.28 AVERAGE
3.28 AVERAGE
adventurous
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
‘twas a romp! but i definitely get why people might not have liked it
Un 3'5 para esta aventura. Pensaba que lo iba a abandonar y ha acabado gustándome. Es cierto que hay fragmentos que no han aportado mucho y se me hacían cuesta arriba, pero el resto me ha tenido intrigada todo el tiempo. Hay que leerlo con mente de época para no pensar que Emily, la protagonista, es un poco cansina con sus llantos y sus desmayos. Y la autora deja todo muy bien atado. Está dividido en cuatro volúmenes, mis preferidos han sido el 2 y el final del 4. Sin duda, ha sido mejor lectura de lo que esperaba.
challenging
mysterious
slow-paced
adventurous
challenging
dark
slow-paced
I didn't love it, but I can appreciate how it created a genre/its influence on books I really love ie Shelley. Obviously an editor would have helped and I skipped the poetry.
DNF - Maybe for another time, when all I have is time. To get lost in its sublime and romance.
Ms. Austen may or may not deign to roll around in her grave for the rating on this one, but props to Ms. Radcliffe not only as a predecessor to the fine Ms. Austen but also to her solid Gothic effort.
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
3.5 stars. Did I skip all the poetry? Yes. Did I zone out at the sublime scenery? Also yes. Does it need an editor? Very yes. But it’s still worth the read and introduces an impressive amount of Gothic tropes still in play today! I’m fond of it still.
Read for university. Way too long, however I really like Annette.
challenging
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
There are so many reasons why this book was super annoying and difficult to get through. Surprisingly, the main character was not necessarily all of them. As heroines from this era (late 1700s) go, she was intelligent, strong willed, and kept cool under pressure. She did suffer from the old fashioned version of the 'manic pixie dream girl' - aka a sweet-tempered young woman who's heart was so good and pure that it mattered not what others did to her, she would always be sweet and even tempered and look out for their comfort and needs. So many times I wanted her to slap a bitch (looking at you, Annette), but Emily would never.
A pity.
Emily's constant crying and fainting throughout this book was super annoying, however. I kid you not, Emily should have been a raisin at the end of this book. I will grant her tho, she had a rough couple years that did warrant her emotional state: losing her two younger brothers, her mother, her father, her home, her lover, her homeland, and then her freedom can really take it out of a girl. I just got sick of it cause that's all Emily really could do, since she had no power to take control over her own life (fuck you too, patriarchy).
The plot was also all over the place. If I had been the author's editor, I probably would have quit. There was so much exposition that was unnecessary for the story - so many side tangents that we didn't need nor cared about that lasted chapters. I realize that that was the style of writing back then, but I really didn't need an exposé on Emily's life and the lives of everyone around her. And things that should be at most a chapter but also probably a paragraph, ended up being almost an entire volume (the book itself was split into 4 volumes). For example, her father's death: it probably took about a half an hour to an hour (I listened to this book on audio, each chapter was about 45 minutes) for her father to die aka when he was on his death bed. The author had laid the foreshadowing of her father's death right from the beginning, but when we finally got to the death scene it took forever to get through it (Also I'm not putting the spoilers tag on this review because 1. this book is over 200 years old and 2. it's night noon and I'm lazy), which was extremely exasperating to listen to. Every time she would say that he lied back and was too weak to speak more, I was like "aight finally this bitch gonna die" and then she hits you with the "BUT THEN HE GATHERED HIS SPIRITS LIKE A WHITE GIRL DOING A PUKE AND RALLY*"
and I cried a little inside.
The plot was also all over the place. First we have to traverse around France (why? I honestly don't remember, probably some shit about her father), then meet her lover Valencour, then her father dies, she goes to live with her aunt, she and Valencour date, are about to get married, then she, her aunt, and her aunt's new husband move to Italy, then Emily is almost sold off to a Count there, then they finally go to Udolpho (at like halfway through the book), shady shit goes down, her aunt dies, Uldopho is attacked by the Itailian army (or banditi? don't even know at this point), Emily is almost kidnapped at least twice, she is taken from Udolpho, then she is brought back to Udolpho, all the while there's this werid singing and music that has been following her this whole book that is back at Udolpho, we meet the mystery man who has been lowkey following Emily this whole book (not to Udolpho tho, he was a prisoner there before Emily got there) who is behind the mysterious music (only at Udolpho, the other music was from a different person), they make their escape, they get to France, Emily makes friends with the new owner of a Chateau that Emily and her father stayed near (that had the mysterious music) when her father died, she finds out Valencour is a fallen man (gambles) and renounces him, they find that the Chateau is haunted and try to find out what is going on, then a nun conviently spills the beans on why Emily looks so familiar to the late lady of the Chateau (gasp she's her daughter, who would have known, definitely not me calling it the minute I started reading this book) and then dies, then we find that Valencour isn't actually a scoundral and they get married and live happily ever after the end omg.
If this book had been split up into novellas in a series, that would have been much better. There was just so much of this plot that at the same time nothing happened, but then everything was happening. It was giving whiplash constantly.
Overall, I'm actually glad that I read it. It had some creepy vibes at times, perfect for fall vibes, and the author had some very entertaining dialouges sometimes. But it was too long winded, some of the characters I could not stand (once again, looking at you Annette), and there was way too much plot shoved into it.
*not a direct quote
A pity.
Emily's constant crying and fainting throughout this book was super annoying, however. I kid you not, Emily should have been a raisin at the end of this book. I will grant her tho, she had a rough couple years that did warrant her emotional state: losing her two younger brothers, her mother, her father, her home, her lover, her homeland, and then her freedom can really take it out of a girl. I just got sick of it cause that's all Emily really could do, since she had no power to take control over her own life (fuck you too, patriarchy).
The plot was also all over the place. If I had been the author's editor, I probably would have quit. There was so much exposition that was unnecessary for the story - so many side tangents that we didn't need nor cared about that lasted chapters. I realize that that was the style of writing back then, but I really didn't need an exposé on Emily's life and the lives of everyone around her. And things that should be at most a chapter but also probably a paragraph, ended up being almost an entire volume (the book itself was split into 4 volumes). For example, her father's death: it probably took about a half an hour to an hour (I listened to this book on audio, each chapter was about 45 minutes) for her father to die aka when he was on his death bed. The author had laid the foreshadowing of her father's death right from the beginning, but when we finally got to the death scene it took forever to get through it (Also I'm not putting the spoilers tag on this review because 1. this book is over 200 years old and 2. it's night noon and I'm lazy), which was extremely exasperating to listen to. Every time she would say that he lied back and was too weak to speak more, I was like "aight finally this bitch gonna die" and then she hits you with the "BUT THEN HE GATHERED HIS SPIRITS LIKE A WHITE GIRL DOING A PUKE AND RALLY*"
and I cried a little inside.
The plot was also all over the place. First we have to traverse around France (why? I honestly don't remember, probably some shit about her father), then meet her lover Valencour, then her father dies, she goes to live with her aunt, she and Valencour date, are about to get married, then she, her aunt, and her aunt's new husband move to Italy, then Emily is almost sold off to a Count there, then they finally go to Udolpho (at like halfway through the book), shady shit goes down, her aunt dies, Uldopho is attacked by the Itailian army (or banditi? don't even know at this point), Emily is almost kidnapped at least twice, she is taken from Udolpho, then she is brought back to Udolpho, all the while there's this werid singing and music that has been following her this whole book that is back at Udolpho, we meet the mystery man who has been lowkey following Emily this whole book (not to Udolpho tho, he was a prisoner there before Emily got there) who is behind the mysterious music (only at Udolpho, the other music was from a different person), they make their escape, they get to France, Emily makes friends with the new owner of a Chateau that Emily and her father stayed near (that had the mysterious music) when her father died, she finds out Valencour is a fallen man (gambles) and renounces him, they find that the Chateau is haunted and try to find out what is going on, then a nun conviently spills the beans on why Emily looks so familiar to the late lady of the Chateau (gasp she's her daughter, who would have known, definitely not me calling it the minute I started reading this book) and then dies, then we find that Valencour isn't actually a scoundral and they get married and live happily ever after the end omg.
If this book had been split up into novellas in a series, that would have been much better. There was just so much of this plot that at the same time nothing happened, but then everything was happening. It was giving whiplash constantly.
Overall, I'm actually glad that I read it. It had some creepy vibes at times, perfect for fall vibes, and the author had some very entertaining dialouges sometimes. But it was too long winded, some of the characters I could not stand (once again, looking at you Annette), and there was way too much plot shoved into it.
*not a direct quote