Reviews - The Mysteries of Udolpho Ann Radcliffe: (Annotated)

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534 reviews for:

The Mysteries of Udolpho Ann Radcliffe: (Annotated)

Ann Radcliffe

3.28 AVERAGE

meatballhead02's review against another edition

3.5

adventurous dark mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

yarnofariadne's review against another edition

4.25

slow-paced

kingsteph's review against another edition

1.5

slow-paced

monj's review against another edition

4.0

This was utterly ridiculous, there was no reason at all for it to be this long, every bit of poetry could have been cut out of it, but it did keep me coming back just to see what ridiculous thing would happen next.

alekei's review against another edition

2.0

slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

darkancy's review against another edition

3.0

Gosh, I can't believe I finally finished this.
You would think I’d have a lot to discuss after reading +1K pages, but no. This was boring, and I don’t know how I managed to finish it.

At first, I was completely taken by Radcliffe's prose and the way she described the scenery. It felt so real, so beautiful. But after 200 pages, it just started to become repetitive. The plot was all over the place, and the characters were so freaking dramatic (if I could get a penny for every time Emily fainted, I’d be a billionaire right now). I understand now why Austen made a whole parody of this in her work Northanger Abbey, because this was laughable.

But despite it all, I can’t say I wasn’t a bit in...awe? If you’ve read other classic Gothic works, such as Jane Eyre, you’ll undeniably notice how much The Mysteries of Udolpho influenced them. It set the tone for the Gothic novels that followed, and that’s just so freaking cool. So, I’m glad I read it, but yeah, never again.