The Mysteries of Udolpho

This book by Ann Radcliffe was published in 1794, and I read it in the spring of 2020 (yeah, we all remember). It was a welcome respite from my book club books as I sat on my lawn chair accompanying the main character, Emily Saint-Aubert, as she journeyed through the Languedoc. It was a long and arduous journey with long and arduous descriptions, and while I am averse to these, the narrative and language fascinated me. The story pulled me into a moonlit graveyard abutting an ancient convent, then into the languid beauty of 16th-century Venice, the gloomy castle Udolpho,… show more.

Gothic novels took the romance genre and added elements of death, inheritance, gloomy locations, and supernatural twists. Ann Radcliffe's Mysteries of Udolpho is the canonical example of this style.

The book features a detailed rendering of the many locations featured in the book, one of which is the oppressive castle named in the title. Radcliffe conjures entire moods in this story, and you'll be whisked along in the footsteps of Emily St. Aubert as she's spirited away by the villainous Montoni.

The book also features in Jane Austen's Northanger Abby, as Catherine and Isabella both read it.

The groundbreaking Gothic novel that invented many of the conventions of Gothic literature today is still as breathtaking today as it was when it was first published.

From star-crossed lovers to crumbling castles to stumbling upon skeletons, this has everything you could ask for in a macabre tale. Montoni is a deliciously evil villain whom readers will love to hate, while Emily navigates a cold, unforgiving world bathed in shadows and conspiracies.

The varied environments give the story plenty of ground to cover, and plenty of horrors to wrest with, as circumstances grow ever more dire for our heroine. This… show more.