Ann Radcliffe (1764–1823)

The Mysteries of Udolpho came within pages of being the third book off one of my reading lists that was left unfinished. Ann Radcliffe's novel relating the ordeals of Emily St. Aubert is an exasperating slog which taxes your patience through the tedious repetition of mundane details intended to elicit sympathy for her melancholy protagonist and multiple ineffective attempts to create mystery by the withholding of crucial facts by an otherwise intrusive narrator.

The first hundred pages of the show more book see Emily lose both parents in a manner more akin to batteries draining than the effects of disease, as well as losing Valancourt, the man who wins her lifelong affection despite the lack of meaningful interaction between them leading up to her infatuation. Her tearful brooding over these tragedies occupies all her spare time during this period.

After fulfilling her father's dying wish by burning his secret letters, Emily is placed in the care of her aunt, the first of several characters masquerading as wealthy while seeking to enrich themselves through favorable marriages to someone of actual wealth. Forced to travel from her native France to Venice, Emily is stalked by Count Morano, another charlatan who is so besotted with Emily that he forgets he is royalty and she nothing. His repeated proposals are enthusiastically supported by her aunt's villainous husband Montoni, who conceives to force Emily to wed the Count despite her strenuous objections. In the first but not last unbelievable turn of events, Emily unwittingly agrees to wed Morano while believing she is discussing a different topic.

On the morning before her coerced nuptials, Emily is again forced to flee in the company of her aunt and uncle, this time to Udolpho castle, where she and her aunt are held prisoner by Montoni and his despicable henchmen. During her captivity, she sees a sight so horrible she faints but tells no one what it is, including the reader and alternates between brooding over her lost love Valancourt, investigating the mysterious music and singing outside her window, and vacillating whether to sign over her birth right to Montoni in exchange for her freedom.

Unfortunately, you are only halfway through the novel at this point, and have another three hundred pages of—among myriad other nuisances—Emily's constant tears, tiresome references to her father's mysterious letters and the sight at Udolpho that caused Emily to faint, a chateau haunted by mysterious music and singing (yes, again) and a dying, disreputable nun with a secret upon which the whole novel turns.

Most disappointing about The Mysteries of Udolpho is that it is actually an entertaining and ultimately redeeming story ruined by the way Radcliffe goes about supposedly building mystery and suspense through tiresome repetition of known and uninteresting facts (which adds a significant number of unnecessary pages) and summarizing events she should have instead spent time narrating, as well as swooping in like Agatha Christie's Poirot to reveal—in two unsatisfying pages near the very end of the book—the mystery of Emily's father's letters and the horrid sight at Udolpho. If that is typical of the gothic style, this will be my only venture into the genre.

If you keep in mind the era this novel was written in, the level of sophistication of readers of the time and perhaps the lack of entertainment alternatives that would leave readers no choice but to tolerate writing of this nature, you might enjoy this book more than I did. show less

The Mysteries of Udolpho is probably now the best-known of Ann Radcliffe's novels, and holds an important place as one of the earliest works in what came to be known as the Gothic genre. If, like me, you're interested in the history and development of Gothic literature, I would say this is a must-read. However, I probably wouldn't recommend it to the average reader. I think a lot of the criticism directed at this book is based on something of a cultural disconnect - the literary style of the show more late 1700s, as well as reader expectations around storytelling and prose, were quite different from what we're accustomed to now. For the modern reader, The Mysteries of Udolpho probably comes across as tediously long, there are grammatical choices that seem odd (so many commas!) and the characters lack the psychological nuance that we usually expect. That said, I think the story itself is compelling. It takes a long time to get going, but the middle part of the book in particular is very tense and atmospheric. I also thought the gender dynamics at play were fascinating - a lot of readers nowadays likely find Emily annoying and weak, but I think that ignores the facts of the time when this book was written and set (it's supposed to take place vaguely in the 1500s). Emily truly has no power in the situations in which she finds herself, and in my opinion that adds to the terror. At one point I found myself thinking "why doesn't she just run away?" and then I remembered that not only are they in the middle of the wilderness, but Emily as a minor noblewoman has no survival skills. She can't hunt food, she can barely light a fire, she's been kept in a state of learned helplessness that renders her particularly vulnerable. That said, she's also consistently shown to be logical and practical, even more so than the male protagonists (Valancourt in particular is an emotional mess most of the time), and resilient in the face of suffering. She does faint a lot, yes, albeit usually in situations where she's just seen a corpse or has witnessed a man being shot or is being kidnapped - situations of high stress in which I think fainting is maybe a forgivable, if dated, response. Furthermore Ann Radcliffe seems very aware of the sexist dynamics at play - Montoni in particular both compliments and berates Emily on the basis of her gender at various points, threatens her with sexual harm, and has a history of violence towards women.
Ultimately, I enjoyed this book (save for the last hundred pages or so, which were unnecessary and largely boring), despite its many imperfections and dated style of writing. I'd recommend it for readers passionate about Gothic literature - it's essential for an understanding of the history of the genre. But if you know you don't like classic literature, lots of description, or the tropes that have come to define Gothic literature (many originated with this book and Radcliffe's other novels), then I'd suggest giving this one a pass. show less

Emily has always had a sheltered and happy life with her parents on their small estate in Gascony. But when tragedy strikes, a combination of events brings Emily to the castle of Udolpho in Italy. While there, her guardian, Montoni, threatens her life and her sanity. In the isolated fortress filled with tales of ghosts and murders, Emily's chances of escaping and reuniting with her true love, Valancourt, seem dubious at best.

This novel is not for the faint of heart. And I don't mean that the show more subject matter is particularly terrifying. Instead, if you pick up this book, be prepared for a novel that is very much of its period. It is a Gothic novel with the biggest capital G you can imagine. There are tragic deaths all over the place, murders, possible ghosts, a heightened romance that is constantly under threat, and Emily only managed to make it through a single chapter without crying once. With all of that going on, I did enjoy it and all of its very conventional genre conventions. This is not my first Radcliffe novel nor will it be my last. And I'm pleased that I now know exactly what is lurking behind the black veil that Catherine Morland and Isabella Thorpe spend so much time discussing in Northanger Abbey. show less

The Mysteries of Udolpho was Ann Radcliffe’s fourth and most popular novel. Published in 1794, it was one of the earliest works of Gothic fiction, a tremendously popular genre of the period. Jane Austen was significantly influenced by Udolpho, satirizing the Gothic fiction genre in Northanger Abbey.

I avoided this book for years, thanks to its length and derision from fellow readers. Inspired by Jane Austen’s Bookshelf, I finally took the plunge. And I loved it! Okay, so you have to get show more past 8 chapters of our heroine, Emily, traipsing pointlessly around the French countryside on her father’s whim. You also have to either read (or in my case skip over) a lot of very bad poetry. It takes a long time for Emily to reach Castle Udolpho but by that point there’s romance, intrigue, and skullduggery galore. Emily, under the “care” of her aunt and the aunt’s abusive husband, was forced to leave the love of her life to essentially be held captive in the castle where strange, eerie things are happening. The aunt’s husband is a villain of the highest order, and hopes to profit from Emily’s family wealth. Radcliffe’s portrayal of a controlling, abusive man is so on the mark it made my skin crawl. The numerous titular “mysteries” appear and remain unexplained as the novel winds through many twists and turns. Radcliffe expertly ties everything up with reveals that are both unexpected and satisfying. show less