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What a fun book Mysteries of Udolpho by Ann Radcliffe turned out to be! Sure it’s a long book, and sure there is lots of wandering and admiring the sublime scenery, but oh, when I got down to the end and all the secrets and mysteries began to be revealed, what fun! All the revelations at the end could have been handled better. Instead of making them part of the narrative, they end up feeling like Radcliffe knew she had to end the book and disclose all the secrets and she wasn’t sure how so she just tells us in one long rush. She does manage to tie up everything which was good because I was starting to wonder if she was going to remember to say what was behind the black veil at Udolpho. Now I know why there is so much wondering about this very thing by Catherine in Austen’s Northanger Abbey.
The Mysteries of Udolpho was published in 1794 in four volumes. It is a Gothic Romance with love, bad men, castles, hidden passages, ghosts, bandits, murder, coincidences, and secrets galore. But Radcliffe did not write a supernatural gothic novel, for her there is an explanation for everything. And to make extra sure we know we are not to believe in the supernatural, she makes fun of the people in the novel who do.
The story follows Emily St. Aubert who becomes an orphan at the tender age of seventeen. Because she is not yet of age, she is given to the care of her father’s sister, Madame Cheron, a vain, ambitious woman with a mean streak. Not long after Emily goes to live with her aunt, Madame Cheron agrees to marry Count Montoni, a handsome, passionate and agreeable Italian. Almost immediately they set out for Venice. Montoni turns out to be other than he represented himself and his sins, to the horror of the good and pure Emily, begin to mount up fast as soon as they arrive in Venice. After a few months in Venice where Montoni tries to trick Emily into marrying Count Morano, Montoni suddenly packs up his household and hurries his servants and women off to Udolpho, his crumbling and remote castle in the Pyrenees. The only thing that sustains Emily’s spirits throughout her trials at Venice and Udolpho is her love for the Chevalier Valancourt who loves her in return.
Poor Emily’s road is never smooth but in spite of the river of tears she cries, the horrors she must face, the many moments of fainting and insensibility, she remains true and kind and good so is therefore rewarded in the end.
There are many things the book is about but I think the one that stands first in line is, in the words of Emily’s father:
‘A well-informed mind,’ he would say, ‘is the best security against the contagion of folly and of vice. The vacant mind is ever on the watch for relief, and ready to plunge into error, to escape from the languor of idleness. Store it with ideas, teach it the pleasure of thinking; and the temptations of the world without, will be counteracted by the gratifications derived from the world within. Thought, and cultivation, are necessary equally to the happiness of a country and a city life; in the first they prevent the uneasy sensations of indolence, and afford a sublime pleasure in the taste they create for the beautiful, and the grand; in the latter, they make dissipation less an object of necessity, and consequently of interest.’
Of course Emily has a well-informed mind and it is from all this her goodness and many virtues flow. It is also because of this that she is the only one in the book who, while suffering more than anyone, comes through it all unblemished. We are subtly and not so subtly reminded of this throughout the book.
We are also to learn what it means to have good taste as well as gain an appreciation of the sublime. In fact, there is so much sublime this sublime that in the book I was prompted, by the suggestion of Tom, to read Burke’s Enquiry into the Sublime and Beautiful. Which I did, mostly, and about which I will write tomorrow and attempt to relate it to Udolpho without boring you too much.
The completion of this book also concludes my RIP Challenge reading. It has been great fun, as usual, and I even managed to read one more book than I had planned. Yay!
I’m enjoying the way this book is enjoying a resurgence of popularity. I’ve never read it, but read a lot of references to it in late 18th century lit.
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Jeanne, yes, I think it might be having a bit of a resurgence. It was very popular in its day. I think it is still very readable in spite of the melodrama since Radcliffe declines to resort to the supernatural so the story stays away from being completely over-the-top silly like Castle of Otranto.
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I thought The Mysteries was often hilarious, though not, perhaps, as its author had intended. I was not quite able to restrain myself when writing my review! See http://anzlitlovers.com/2010/11/09/the-mysteries-of-udolpho-by-ann-radcliffe/
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Lisa, fun review! I was often amused while reading the book but having read other gothic lit including the Castle of Otranto, Udolpho seemed so much more contained and rational if you can believe it!
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And nowadays the vacant mind has the internet for company! No wonder we are in such a mess… Udolpho sounds rather marvellous and that period of fiction between Fielding/Richardson and Dickens is rich and strange.
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Ian, heh, you got that right! But really, it goes to show that there has always been something through the ages to keep a vacant mind company. Udolpho is indeed marvelous, it is sensational while still managing to have educational value for the ladies without being so overtly didactic like Richardson.
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I’ve been wanting to read this book for ages… maybe next year it should be at the top of my RIP list!
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lakeside, it’s a hoot and a half. Just be aware there are long stretches in which not much at all happens. And if you have not read Northanger Abbey, I’d recommend reading them together π
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I had great fun reading this as well and read it along with Austen’s Northanger Abbey. I should look for Burke’s writing (is it just an essay or a book?), though perhaps too much time has passed since reading Radcliffe that it may not have quite the same punch to it. I have always meant to read more of Ann Radcliffe’s work…but you know how that goes. I find this period of literature fascinating!
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Danielle, Burke’s is a very long essay. You can probably find it free online but I borrowed it as a book from the library and the introduction was longer than Burke’s essay! Now that I have read Udolpho I’d like to give Romance of the Forest a go. Maybe next year!
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I know there is a copy of this sitting on my bookshelf, but I can’t for the life of me think why I bought it. It isn’t the sort of book I would have bought just on a whim because gothic isn’t really my thing. However, you make it sound fun and so perhaps when I’m no longer up to my armpits in historical fiction I might just give it a try.
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Alex, I do love a good gothic novel and this one was great. I so much appreciated that she didn’t reach for the supernatural tricks which tip many books over into the absurd. The book is fun if you are in the mood for melodrama and a fair maiden in despair. It is interesting in terms of our hist fic class too because the book is set in 1584 but Radcliffe does absolutely nothing to make it historically accurate.
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Really? A day of Burke and the Sublime. Yes, I suppose you should worry about not boring other people too much.
Danielle – Burke’s book is endlessly relevant. It should still have lots of punch. My most direct use of it was on Little House on the Prairie, for pity’s sake.
I suppose even Gothic literature can be divided into the sane and the crazy, even though you would think it would all lean into the crazy. But Udolpho and, say The Monk are certainly not up to the same thing.
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Tom, you made me laugh π Definitely Udolpho and the Monk are up to two different things with The Monk landing firmly in the freaking crazy category. I hope Burke doesn’t bore too many people. I appreciate the recommendation to read it!
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This one has been in the TBR tome since the first year I started blogging, I think. You make me want to get a copy pronto!
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Emily, if it helps you can download a copy free from Project Gutenberg π
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Isn’t this one of the books Jo was reading in Little Women? I’ve always wondered if it was a real book…
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wherethereisjoy, hmm, I don’t know. It’s been forever since I read Little Women I can’t remember. If she was reading it I can say that yes, it is a real book π
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So this is what it’s all about. Thanks Stefanie for reading it and reviewing it for me. It in itself is a worthwhile read, if I have the time and patience. Now I know what’s in Catherine’s mind, and, maybe JA is using this to poke fun at her superstitious inclination (?)
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Alex, you bet! It’s loads of fun. And yup, JA totally uses it to poke fun at Catherine and all others with a superstitious inclination.
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I’m glad you enjoyed it! I think Radcliffe is great fun too, and I’m happy knowing there are Radcliffe novels I haven’t read yet. Have you read The Castle of Otranto? That’s another gothic novel to put in the absolutely crazy category.
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Rebecca, I did like it very much but I figured I wold since I knew you liked it and your tastes are similar enough to mine that it was a safe bet π Oh yes, I’ve read The Castles of Otranto which definitely belongs in the crazy category, I agree!
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Excellent review, Stefanie! Another of those books I’ve been meaning to read in forever. Should maybe try to get to this for next year’s R.I.P. challenge – oh and congrats on finishing your challenge!
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Iliana, thanks! It’s a fun book especially if you know going in there will be long slow bits and lots of weeping, then instead of being bored your brain can turn to figuring out the whys and wherefores. If you read it I hope you enjoy it!
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I read this many years ago, primarily because it was referenced in an Austen novel – maybe Northanger Abbey? Anyway, I quite enjoyed it at the time, although I confess I didn’t read all the poetry! Whether I’d enjoy it these days I don’t know and to be honest I’ll probably never reread it. I guess this would have been really scary to the young ladies of it’s day.
Lynn π
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