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.] ( )

Being my first read of the First Lady of Gothic fiction, I can say that I'm a bit underwhelmed. The story has some occasionally excellent descriptions, lots of emotion, and generally moody atmosphere. However, often the descriptions are generic (must every single sea view have sails?) and the characters so overwrought that either they're fainting or they're failing to communicate, and because of this lack of communication, many trials and sorrows result. There's also a lot of deus-ex-machina going on which leaches away the gothic atmosphere. Must everything be of human origin that at first seems supernatural? Radcliffe seems to think so. However, with all that said, I learned a few new words and the story had enough complexity and emotion to propel me towards its close. Strangely, there's also quite a bit of profane oaths which generally reflect the syncrenistic view of Christianity the author possesses -- that is, having a form of godliness but denying its true power, and that is most disappointing of all. ( )

Not only is it on the 1,001 Books list but also referenced in The Jane Austen Book Club and I wanted to understand more fully what the references meant and how they applied.
Udolpho is this mysterious castle hidden away from the world and everyone is scared of it, including Emily, who is also intrigued by the nature of this forbidden place. At first I wasn’t sure if I would actually enjoy the story, not one for ghosts in castles, but the more I read the more I wondered what was going on and the stories, plus all the little hints to the past and Emily’s father. By the time the story ended I felt fulfilled by the revelations and not at all let down by the workings of Udolpho and other mysteries within the story.

Not only is it on the 1,001 Books list but also referenced in The Jane Austen Book Club and I wanted to understand more fully what the references meant and how they applied.
Udolpho is this mysterious castle hidden away from the world and everyone is scared of it, including Emily, who is also intrigued by the nature of this forbidden place. At first I wasn’t sure if I would actually enjoy the story, not one for ghosts in castles, but the more I read the more I wondered what was going on and the stories, plus all the little hints to the past and Emily’s father. By the time the story ended I felt fulfilled by the revelations and not at all let down by the workings of Udolpho and other mysteries within the story. ( )

The Mysteries of Udolpho is a fantastic book for lovers of a great gothic romance. Austen's reference to The Mysteries of Udolpho in Northanger Abbey was intriguing and led me to Radcliffe's work. Her writing is full of beautiful landscape descriptions and her character development in the first half of the novel captivates you. It is a long novel, but it keeps you in suspense until the very end and takes you on a rollercoaster ride throughout the last 100 -150 pages! The romance, gothic castles, horror, intrigue and mystery are everything you could wish for in a novel of this genre. It is a really great read and I recommend it to all. ( )

This is a very long and sometimes very boring book, but I think it's well worth reading - especially in a group setting! (because it's fun to complain about the long and boring bits with other people, or to laugh at how silly Emily is.) I think the Gothic novel genre is fascinating, and of course Radcliffe's The Mysteries of Udolpho is one of the earlier and more well-known examples.

Fans of Austen, especially Northanger Abbey, will find that familiarity with Udolpho provides a greater richness to Austen's novels. But more than that, Udolpho gives insight to 18th century thought regarding Deism, Sensibility, Benevolence, patriarchy, feminism &c &c and it comments upon philosophy that came out of the Enlightenment, such as Rousseau's idea that man is naturally good (as compared to Locke's statement that man is naturally wicked).

Beyond the academic worth, I still think the Mysteries of Udolpho is fantastic and it is something that I'm glad to have read and will likely find myself reading again in the future. ( )

The worst thing I ever did was read the introduction to the Oxford edition of this book first. Castle rips Radcliff to shreds on accuracy, acuity and does not mention the Romantic movement once. Reading Radcliff without a Romantic lens is as ludicrous as reading Interview with a Vampire, without ever acknowledging the definition of a vampire and instead casting vampires, as mad, bad criminals. As such, once I had ripped Castle out of the book, literally, I discovered a charming synthesis of many of the poetic precepts and theories that shaped the Romantic movement. I sympathized with Austen's treatment of the heroine in Northanger Abbey-I'm no fan of the Twilight series myself-but I found the story redeemed by Radcliff's bravery with the manifestos she absorbed, as well as chilling situations she illustrated. Of course, the historical detail was off, but who could fault Radcliff when confronted with her timing and attention to mental detail. This was a good time and I felt as giddy as Cinderella escaped to a ball, while her wicked step-fath, *ahem* step-mother, prowls the streets looking for a way to cheat her out of rightful fortune and the love of her life! ( )

What fun! A long (600+) book, but so much fun. Written in the late 1700s, this book is a sweeping gothic romance, with poetry, sweeping poetic landscapes, a thwarted love affair, evil step-uncles, secrets (some even kept from the reader but known by the protagonist, our dear Emily!), ghosts, castles, Carnivale in Venice......come on, now....who can resist all this? Due to a couple of extraneous tangents in the plot, which I felt were completely unnecessary, I only give out four stars. It was not particularly profound, but boy, oh boy, was it fun?! ( )

I found The Mysteries of Udolpho to be like being on an Alaskan wilderness fishing trip without the insect repellent. All the elements were in place for a good time...the fresh air, the beauty, the fish...everything was just so - but for "bzzz" "slap" "bzzzz" "whack" "bbzzzzz""thwap".

The frequent, and sometimes beautiful, descriptive passages concerning the Gascony countryside, the Pyrenees, the Alps, were interrupted, invariably, by a black, cloud, of no-see-um, commas that bit me repeatedly - b,z,b,z,z,z ,z, z,z z,z,z,.

Then too, I stumbled time after time over the syntax - most often a log of a preposition a ",that," or a ",which," "therefore"; or appositive phrase. For example,

"Annette obeyed, and Emily returned to the agonizing considerations, that had assailed her before, but which she, at length, endeavored to soothe by a new remark. If the stranger was Valancourt, it was certain he had to come alone, and it appeared, therefore, that he had been able to quit the gardens, without assistance; a circumstance which did not seem probable, had his wound been dangerous."

Again, to use an Alaskan image, from a different season, the experience was like following a footpath through a winter wonderland but where the snow had melted and refrozen, so that every third or fourth step, one's contemplation of the scenery was disturbed by one's foot breaking through the crust.

I would rather have watched the movie - if only there were a movie. If only Stanley Kubrick had chosen to make a film of Udolpho instead of Thackeray's Barry Lyndon. The same techniques he used in the latter - of natural but dimmer lighting indoors and sweeping vistas outdoors - would have been well suited to the strength's of Radcliffe's visual imagination. Further, Kubrick's touch with villainy, and dread, would have served him well in depicting Count Montoni, the interior of the Castle of Udolpho, and the scene of Ludovico's disappearance.

The narrative is engaging and moves apace, the characters do unfold, the scenery is lush, the chateau and castle are creepy...but you do have to hack and hack and hack to clear away the brush. What's left is a Romantic, gothic tale - with a dash of feminism - about a young woman's perils and obstacles in obtaining the property and love she deserves.

And I almost forgot to mention - the gratuitous and random interjections of poetry. Well, to continue with the fishing trip analogy, they're a bit like the off-color jokes of a guide/pilot - sometimes perfect, sometimes boring, and sometimes embarrassing. ( )

First came across a reference to this book in Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey. A lot of fun. ( )

Evocative landscapes but turgid in many places. Lots of frightened heroines but not much really happening. ( )

Despite too much fainting and poetry, I really enjoyed this. I only read it because it was mentioned in Austen's Northanger Abbey. The descriptions of the Pyrenees, lightening storms, the castle were beautiful. It also had secrets, mysteries, clues, a romance -- all of which were delightfully 19th century. ( )

A Christmas gift from my sister. Actually I've been reading this book for several months now, working my way through 50 or 100 pages and then putting it aside for a week or two. At the time of publication apparently people thought it was the greatest thing ever, I guess for the same reason I found it so interminable: the plot's not much more than a loose framework for a variety of settings and situations that are meant to "very solemnly affect" Emily, and through her the reader. Personally, I wasn't that affected. Also, the desperate overuse of commas is a little distracting.