This work was definitely written in a different time! Parts were a bit slow, which was not what I was expecting. And I wasn't expecting it to be 600+ pages either. The quintessential Gothic novel - it turns out to be true, but if you read it - I recommend just skipping the first volume entirely! And I almost never condone not reading a work in its entirety. It's an interesting work, griping in parts, and I can't wait to re-read Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey, I know this will give me new perspective! ( )

This edition makes up volumes 45-47of The British Novelists with an essay; and prefaces, biographical and critical, by Mrs Barbauld

SPOILER ALERT!

In the 18th century an old-new genre was (re)born in England, the Victorian Gothic. One of the best known predecessors of it was Ann Radcliffe. Although she was the one who (re)introduced this genre to the Western Canon, nowadays she is best known from another English novelist, Jane Austen: Catherine in Northanger Abbey is a big fan of hers.

After the childish monster-stories of the time, full of giants, witches and other supernatural elements, Radcliffe's novels had refreshingly new voice. Her intention was to take the readers to some (seemingly) more realistic fear, horror, even terror and create a somewhat intellectual, spiritual atmosphere instead of delivering a simple, boring fable.

Her books mostly depict the relationship between members of the aristocrats and representatives of the middle- and lower class - in the novels the latter people are usually trapped for some reasons and want to get out of their dire situation. Generally there are several story lines and they become more and more mysterious, ambiguous. Supernatural signs, unexplainable events, seemingly scattered, scarry occurences add to the excitement. Her totally unique, quite bizarre and suggestive points of view, her sometimes intentionally ambiguous, vague prose surely keep her readers thrilled to the very end, while she doesn't forget about being romantic either. But, just when the readers get totally confused about what is real what is not, who is a ghost and who is not, Radcliffe switches her tactics and reveals her cards, explaining everything and everybody - not unlike Hercule Poirot in an Agatha Christie-mystery.

Ann Radcliffe's most famous work is The Mysteries of Udolpho, first published in 1794. It is probably one of best pre-Victorian gothic novels and has had constant followers and fans not just among readers but authors as well. Here is the plot, according to Wikipedia:

Emily St. Aubert is the only child of a landed rural family whose fortunes are now in decline. Emily and her father share an especially close bond, due to their shared appreciation for nature. After her mother's death from a serious illness, Emily and her father grow even closer. She accompanies him on a journey from their native Gascony, through the Pyrenees to the Mediterranean coast of Rousillon, over many mountainous landscapes. During the journey, they encounter Valancourt, a handsome man who also feels an almost mystical kinship with the natural world. Emily and Valancourt quickly fall in love.

Emily's father succumbs to a long illness. Emily, now orphaned, is forced by his wishes to live with her aunt, Madame Cheron, who shares none of Emily's interests and shows little affection. Madame Cheron marries Montoni, who brings them to Udolpho, separating Emily from her suitor Valancourt. Montoni threatens Madame with violence to force her to sign over her properties in Toulouse, which upon her death would otherwise go to Emily. Many frightening but coincidental events happen within the castle, and in the end Emily takes control of her property and is reunited with Valancourt.

The Mysteries of Udolpho with its characters bearing psychological depth in modern sense, its frequent descriptions of nature, travelogues, poems is definitely the forerunner of today's horror stories both in literature and in the movies. In other words: a great, fun novel. ( )

`Her present life appeared like the dream of a distempered imagination, or like one of those frightful fictions, in which the wild genius of the poets sometimes delighted. Rreflections brought only regret, and anticipation terror.' Such is the state of mind in which Emily St. Aubuert - the orphaned heroine of Ann Radcliffe's 1794 gothic Classic, The Mysteries of Udolpho - finds herself after Count Montoni, her evil guardian, imprisions her in his gloomy medieval fortress in the Appenines. Terror is the order of the day inside the walls of Udolpho, as Emily struggles against Montoni's rapacious schemes and the threat of her own psychological disintegration. A best-seller in its day and a potent influence on Walpole, Poe, and other writers of eighteenth and nineteenth-century Gothic horror, The Mysteries of Udolpho remains one of the most important works in the history of European fiction. As the same time, with its dream-like plot and hallucinatory rendering of its characters' psychological states, it often seems strangely modern: `permanently avant-garde' in Terry Castle's words, and a profound and fascinating challenge to contemporary readers.

1004 The Mysteries of Udolpho Volume One, by Ann Radcliffe (read 16 Apr 1969)
1005 The Mysteries of Udolpho Volume Two, by Ann Radcliffe (read 21 Apr 1969) I finished the second volume of this two-volume work on 21 April 1969. Written in the 1790's, it is quite a story. Slow-moving, inartful, it yet caught me up. Emily St. Aubert, a fainty girl of 20, is taken by her mean aunt to an Italian castle, Udolpho, where she had various scary adventures. She finally escapes fairly easily, and the rest of the book traces the difficulty of Valancourt--abandoned, rejected, but then triumphant. Sir Walter Scott does all this much, much better. Is it worthwhile to read more of these early Gothic novels? [I must have concluded it was not, since I don't recall reading any others.] ( )