It rarely takes me more than a week to read any book (I often pick light-weight books of less than 300 pages) but just occasionally, I pick a weighty tome which keeps me occupied for some weeks!
I've wanted to read the Mysteries of Udolpho ever since I first read Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen, in which the heroine, Catherine Morland reads the novel. Unlike most people, this is in fact my favourite Jane Austen novel. CBC thinks it is because I have a
Anyway, so I bought the Mysteries of Udolpho.
It is a book that many people have made presumptions about. It is considered a gothic romance and yet it fails to be pinned into this particular genre.
It is a story of a young French girl called Emily who is very virtuous, beautiful and talented who becomes orphaned and then ends up trapped in the mysterious castle of Udolpho in Italy and has to escape the rapacious schemes of her evil guardian Montoni and faces the prospect of her own psychological disintergration.
Or that's what the blurb would have you believe! Yes, he's a rotter and yes, he has grand schemes for her but that's all a bit of an exaggeration. It is well nigh on two hundred pages (small print) before Emily even gets to Udolpho. She's there because her nasty aunt marries him, not realising he's a scoundrel (she's nasty and proud and selfish so there's a certain moralistic sense to this book that says she gets her just deserts) .
The description is very very flowery, Emily frequently expresses raptures over the beauty of the Pyrenees and the countryside (she sounds a bit like me!) but it intersperses the action all the time, not always in a convenient way. You just want her to up the pace a bit!
Emily's never in danger from Montoni himself although you do worry about her. Yes, he has evil designs on her money and wants to sell her off, but he actually protects her from danger through the book to a certain extent, heck, when the castle is under siege, he actually sends her off to a lovely cottage some miles away where she has a gay and merry old time. She escapes danger at every turn, fortunately for her. I think this is because in that time, a virtuous young woman would never have nasty things happen to her (good thing too!)
Love interest comes in the form of Valancourt, an amiable, nature-loving young man. He's nice but a bit wet.
One thing which I did find a bit annoying was the poetry interspersed ALL through the book, including Shakespeare and Milton and other 18th century poets (Radcliffe herself too) . I like flowery poetry but ALL the time???
Emily herself is a bit annoying, she's full of sensibility (i.e. faints at any slight scare, full of emotions and well-meaning indignation) and overactive imagination (er, like me) and scares really easily. She's also a little wet.
I sound like I didn't like this book. I really did! The suspnse is well maintained throughout the 675 pages or so (not including a lenghthly academic introduction and copious references and explanations at the end) - mysteries such as what is behind the black veil, who is the ghost, or is there one? Who were certain characters? Where did certain characters disappear to? Who was Emily's mother?
The descriptions were beautiful, if rather lenghthly, the plot is an interesting one, if a little imbalanced. For example, Emily's escape from Udolpho takes place over 2 pages (huh? Where's the action?) whereas she and Valancourt take several pages to part from each other when she's first off to Venice, other characters remain a little 2D as does Emily a bit, but that's fine, I love the labyrinthine idea of Udolpho. A secondary plot which is crucial to the final denouement for Emily which is SUDDENLY introduced to the book, with a whole new set of characters 500 pages in, was a bit of a surprise which I was inititally confused about, it seemed a bit jolty, but later on realised the significance even if I think she could have introduced it a bit, earlier. I liked the way the whole plot knitted together in the end. I liked the fact we find out what everything was and why it happened - I hate books where things are left unexplained. Call me simple,but that's just what I like.
If your read it, DON'T read the introduction to the book at the beginnings because it will spoil all the mystery and suspense of the story- what IS behind the black veil, who will Emily marry? It gives it all away, spoilsport! How will she escape from Udolpho? Not least, I didn't read it because I find such things boring UNLESS I've already read the book which is fortunate for me! That said, when I read it, it was very well written and concurred with many of my thoughts on the book!
I think this is a brilliant book to read, it has such a strange dreamlike quality to it and the suspense is well-maintained, despite the length of the book, it gets a little spooky at times! And you can feel proud once you have read it. I did feel proud to have finished it, being so long! I'd like to try some of her other books!
Linking up to Lakota's Tah Dah Wednesday as I am really happy to have finished the book! It's taken a while!
If you want to read it, you can buy the edition I have from here: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Mysteries-Udolpho-Oxford-Worlds-Classics/dp/0199537410/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1351714380&sr=8-2
