This is on the Big Book List which is apt in this case because it is a very big book, coming at almost 700 pages. So, get this, a 700 page Victorian gothic romance novel - not my cup of tea I might imagine, but surprise surprise, I loved this book. I am going to keep this section short because I have a lot to talk about this week but the love story between Emily St. Aubert and Valancourt was entrancing. I was all the way at one particular moment, when Montoni takes Emily and her aunt with him to Udolpho though we don’t know what to expect there, Radcliffe writes this very honest moment about the aunt’s regret at this endeavor as sort of a humility and self-awareness that the aunt had planned to con Montoni because she wasn’t as wealthy as he had hoped and also the aunt knowing that Montoni was also a scoundrel and they they sort of deserved each other but Emily did not deserve either of them was a breath-taking turn of writing and logic and pathos. I was hooked for this one moment about 150 pages into the book. I would lop off the first 100 pages and the last, but the middle section was remarkable and engrossing and wonderful and strange, and Annette was such a dynamic character and when *SPOILERS* Ludovico comes back at the end! I shouted out loud as I listened to this book, Ludovico! in my car, it was hilarious and wonderful. Read this book!
It hard to know how to summarize this expansion novel. It is too long, told in 4 volumes but – after the first volume – moves at an exceptional pace that concerns a young woman that almost never does anything at all but experiences quite a lot. To summarize very briefly, a young girl is born into a mostly happy family but is quickly orphaned. She starts on a journey with her father and encounters a young man whom her father accidentally shoots in the arm. Her father dies on the journey and she returns home with an Aunt who is quickly swept up in what seems obvious at the time is a scam by an Italian of ill repute. It is during this time that she is furiously enchanted by Valancourt who comes back, after getting shot in the arm to elope with her before she leaves for Italy with her Aunt and new Uncle Montoni.
Montoni is the master of the Castle Udolpho whereupon the eponymous mysteries take place. Montoni quickly shifts character to one of a bandito as Radcliffe describes him in the novel, and Madam Montoni shifts character as well to one forlorn and regretful that she brought her innocent niece into this mixed up world. This is one of the most fascinating dynamics in the book. Then the other Italian neardowells begin to hassle Emily and her aunt. We are introduced to one of the best characters in novel, Annette, who serves as comedic relief often. Annette’s character though is problematic on the world stage today as the not so bright, deeply superstitious lower class servant who is there only to explain the plot to Emily. She works as a character, though, and serves to keep the pace of the novel moving. The scene quickly dissolves into madness at Udolpho, and Montoni imprisons Madam Montoni because she refuses to sign over the estate that is hers now but will eventually fall to Emily. Emily fears her aunt has been murdered.
**Research Sidebar**
Every chapter in the many chaptered book, Mysteries of Udolpho, begins with a quote from some classic work of literature but they are not always attributed nor are they attributed to the text pulled from only the author so I did some research and found out what each of them are pulled from. (Note here: Yes, I checked the notes and references at the back of the book – sorry not there either). Then I plugged these findings into a spreadsheet to figure out who is the author Radcliffe quotes from most often. First place goes to Shakespeare, duh. Second place: tie between James Thomson (who?!) from Castle of Indolence and James Beattie (double who?!) from The Minstrel, anyways, now I know which piece I will read from each of these authors when I inevitably pull their names from the Small Works List.
In addition to this odd note of research, the Oxford World Classics editions of books include a “Selected Bibliography” section at the beginning of their texts which has intrigued me and started a bit of a hot research angle that I am hoping to pursue. In this Bibliography, the editors include a citation for Sir Walter Scott’s memoir of Ann Radcliffe that was included as introductory material to a later collection of novels in one volume. I have secured the ability to read this and will weigh in soon. Also in this set of citations, Samuel Taylor Coleridge wrote an unflattering review of Mysteries of Udolpho at the time of publication for which he was required to write a correction to some part of it. This is the stuff I am looking for as I want to see how classic literature talks about itself with itself, Sir Walter Scott and Coleridge are certainly and were considered in their lives successful writers, and so this is important to me when these interesting intersections happen.
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