The Mysteries of Udolpho

By Ann Radcliffe

Follow the fortunes of Emily St. Aubert who suffers, among other misadventures, the death of her father, supernatural terrors in a gloomy castle, and the machinations of an Italian brigand. Considered by many to be the first "Gothic" novel.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Start Classics
• Release date: Feb 13, 2015
• ISBN: 9781633558489

Ann Radcliffe

Ann Radcliffe (1764-1823) was an English novelist. Born in London, she moved with her family to Bath in 1772 and was known as a shy girl in her youth. In 1787, she married Oxford graduate William Radcliffe, who owned and edited the English Chronicle. While he worked late to supervise the publication of the evening paper, Ann remained at home working on stories for her own entertainment. Eventually, with William’s encouragement, she began publishing her novels and soon became one of the bestselling writers of her time. Recognized as a pioneering author of Gothic fiction, Radcliffe first found acclaim with The Romance of the Forest (1791) and published her magnum opus, The Mysteries of Udolpho, just three years later. By the end of the eighteenth century, Radcliffe found herself at odds with the growing popularity of Gothic fiction and withdrew from public life almost entirely. While several biographers, including Christina Rossetti and Walter Scott, have attempted to piece together the story of her life, a lack of written correspondence and her overall pension for privacy have made her a figure whose mystery mirrors that of her novels.

Reviews for The Mysteries of Udolpho

[kristelh_15 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Wow, this is one long tale of one gothic castle after another. Very convoluted tale of young girl who dad dies and is left to the machinations of her heartless aunt. Not much real horror, some spectre/ghosts but mostly this is a long gothic romance. This is a rag to riches tale for the poor orphaned Emily and also for her penniless and somewhat weak Valancourt. The audio read by Karen Cass is excellent. She is really great with voices for the various characters. Point of interest, this story has a prominent role in Northanger Abbey

[dreesie-1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Three stars, but I did actually enjoy this novel more than I expected, and more than I enjoy most novels written in the late 18th/early 19th centuries.Radcliffe herself never traveled to Italy, and used contemporary guidebooks for research. This means she has a fair number of anachronisms in the book (especially coffee, which was getting to be common in the late 18th century, but was not when her novel takes place). Those are annoying, though if not pointed out by the editor, I would probably not have noticed--and coffee might have been the one I might have picked up on.What I did like--the women in this novel have agency. That does not mean they always make good choices, but they do their best. Emily, Madame Montoni, Sra Laurentini, Blanche, Annette. All walk their own paths and though their elders may have had sway (especially for Emily and Blanche) that does not mean they did not still have a voice to agree or not. I also like how Annette (and Ludovico), though a servant(s), are given real roles and characters in this novel. Though Annette is a chatterbox and Ludovico is portrayed as a hero, both are instrumental to Emily and are her true friends (as is Theresa). Servants are usually background characters to be forgotten in the end, but Radcliffe lets us know how Annette and Ludovico will be caretakers (a lifelong position) for another of Emily's properties--which is a very important and necessary position to fill well, as we hear throughout the novel. Radcliffe portrays these characters as kind, loyal, and most importantly trustworthy, which is also unusual--so often servants are expected to steal and be bribed, or to make mistakes during dinner parties, or run off with another servant, leaving a family "stuck" with no help. Radcliffe integrates these characters into the novel as they would have been in life--they are part of the community and will continue to be so.

[dandeethings · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Very lengthy book with scenery described in agonizing detail - oddly characters descriptions are limited or nonexistent. I agree with other reviewers that the main character and other women in the novel are prone to weeping for hours on end or fainting. So much so, that you want to say "buck up and get on with it." I stayed with it and enjoyed the ending which was less scenery descriptive and more action driven.

[lisamorr · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

What a tome - and in my view just too many words! For what it's worth, I do now understand about all the mysteries of Udolpho... This is a gothic story of a young woman who loses both her parents and comes under the guardianship of her aunt who is not very nice. Her aunt marries someone even less nice who eventually takes his new wife and her niece to live in a castle/fortress in the Italian countryside where he tries very hard to get the women in his life to sign over their assets. Ann Radcliffe would start every chapter with a quote from a poem or Shakespeare and she would also include a variety of sonnets within the novel - something like, she walked along and the scenery was so beautiful she put to pen to paper and came up with the following verses. I have to say after the first few, I ritually was skipping those sonnets...

[laurochka-1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Orphaned Emily endures grief, ghostly apparitions, imprisonment in the gloomy Udolpho, frustrated love and a sequence of fantastic coincidences...but ultimately lives happily ever after. Utter trash but classic trash! Quite enjoyed it though ;-)

[mnicol_11 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I finished the whole 672 pages expecting a final revelation on the fate of the faithful dog, Manchon. But Manchon disappears on page 260. Still, you cannot appreciate Northanger Abbey if you have not read this book. Emily is 100 times more plucky than flighty Catherine Morland - but by no means as interesting.

[jbd1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is one heck of a long book, but I actually ended up enjoying it more than I thought I would, and was surprised to find that I rather wanted to binge-read it (I expected it might be one of those books that languished on my bedside table for a long time). It's an extremely odd story, filled with funny anachronisms, weird side-plots, and more fainting by the heroine than seems healthy for anybody. It's also got some pretty suspenseful moments, and the eponymous mysteries ... well you'll just have to read the book to find out about those.Lots of gothic delights to be had (or at least to roll your eyes at). It almost seems to me like Radcliffe might be having a little fun with the gothic tropes here, and she has some excellent set-piece scenes that work really nicely.Odd? Yes. Long? Yes. Silly, at times? Yes. Worth it? You bet.

[mickyfine · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

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 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.

[emanate28 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Gothic novels aren't to my taste and I probably wouldn't have read this except for its role in Austen's Northanger Abbey. Unsurprisingly, I was generally exasperated with the heroine's endless weeping and fainting spells, and the weepy and loquacious lover. I ended up skimming most of the scenery descriptions and skipped the poems altogether. The story felt rambling, and even the chief villain suddenly disappeared at a certain point in the tale.I did however find the final explanation of the mysteries satisfying, and the desire to find out the truth certainly kept me reading to the end. I also liked some of the characters; Annette was particularly vivid and Ludovico was perhaps the actual hero of the tale.I don't think I'll read any more of Radcliffe's works, and while I'm glad I did try this one, will most certainly not read it again!

[breakerfallen · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

A very, very long gothic novel with sonnets and other verse thrown in at random moments.I probably would not have finished the book had it not played such a large part in the Austen cannon. The major plot line is a great one, but it suffers from many "and at the same time, [character] was doing..." that are unnecessary. A thick red pen through half of the pages would greatly improve it, but I obviously have "modern" tastes.Worth a read, or a skim, if you are interested in gothic literature and the history of the novel.

[amerynth · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Give me a book about a troubled orphan, whose fate and fortunes are left in questionable hands and whose love life is in a shambles, and I'm a happy reader.Ann Radcliffe's "The Mysteries of Udolpho" has all that in spades. The unfortunate heroine Emily St. Aubert struggles to keep her emotions in check as she is essentially imprisoned in the Gothic castle of Udolpho by the dastardly Montoni. Cue plenty of weeping and fainting as events unfold at the creepy castle. Going in, you should know that Radcliffe's book is a Gothic romance -- so there are plenty of overwrought scenes and vivid (often delicious) descriptions of the landscape that serve as a precursor to the emotions evoked in the following chapters. Yet, the story itself (especially volumes two and three) is not only compelling, but at times is sublime. I'm told (by a friend who is an English professor) that Udolpho was the Harlequin romance of its day -- all of the famous literati were secretly reading it but unwilling to admit it. I can completely understand why, as the book, written in 1794, is still readable and enjoyable even today.

[randystafford · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Accomplished, refined, and beautiful, our heroine Emily St. Aubert finds herself orphaned, her finances in doubt, and surrounded by uncaring, vacuous, and social climbing relatives. Refusing to marry her true love Valancourt, she accompanies her aunt to Italy. There, they both become the prisoners of the sinister Count Montoni. His Castle Udolpho has all the stock trappings of the Gothic: the medieval architecture, the heavy tapesteries, the veiled and oddly familiar portraits, requisite secret passages, horrible sights in the dungeons, mysterious apparitions, hinted murders, and ghostly voices. Through it all, Emily finds time to write a fair amount of poetry. (It's not for nothing the novel's subtitle is "A Romance Interspersed with Some Pieces of Poetry".) Radcliffe was one of the most influential Gothic writers, and this 1794 work is generally regarded as her best. Is it worth reading today solely on its own merits? Not quite. Radcliffe's story is too long, her reveries over landscape wearisome. There is a flavor of earnest moral instruction as Emily not only struggles to master her emotions, but Radcliffe, in her contrived solutions to supernatural mysteries, is intent on stamping out the unreasonableness of superstition. Yet, there is not just great sentiment but psychological insight too. And the ending is surprising despite the inevitable familiarity of many of the story's trappings. Matthew Lewis _The Monk_ is much more fun, a distillation of much of Radcliffe's images and tropes into a delightfully lurid and supernatural plot. (To extend Stephen King's metaphor that the first Gothic novel, Horace Walpole's _The Castle of Otranto_ was the genre's Elvis Presley and Lewis' novel its Sex Pistols, one is tempted to say this is its prog rock.) But students of the genre and the novel in general will want to read one of the most popular Gothics and study Radcliffe's technique -- including her somewhat clumsy backstory passages. Finally, it would be a mistake to leave the impression this is just a novel of fear and anxiety. The love between Valancourt and Emily makes this a romance in every sense of the word.

[john257hopper · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This gothic romance novel is beautifully written. It is very slow by modern standards and a bit dull at first, but it must be understood in its own terms, with long evocative descriptions of the countryside and of people's feelings. The gothic horror elements are well drawn and not a huge part of the novel, but atmospheric and intriguing, and eventually explained in rational terms. The various plot strands come together in the end, with the coincidences one would expect of a novel of this period. Spellbinding, as long as one reads it slowly and sees it in perspective.

[kemeki · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This work was definitely written in a different time! Parts were a bit slow, which was not what I was expecting. And I wasn't expecting it to be 600+ pages either. The quintessential Gothic novel - it turns out to be true, but if you read it - I recommend just skipping the first volume entirely! And I almost never condone not reading a work in its entirety. It's an interesting work, griping in parts, and I can't wait to re-read Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey, I know this will give me new perspective!

[schmerguls · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

1004 The Mysteries of Udolpho Volume One, by Ann Radcliffe (read 16 Apr 1969)1005 The Mysteries of Udolpho Volume Two, by Ann Radcliffe (read 21 Apr 1969) I finished the second volume of this two-volume work on 21 April 1969. Written in the 1790's, it is quite a story. Slow-moving, inartful, it yet caught me up. Emily St. Aubert, a fainty girl of 20, is taken by her mean aunt to an Italian castle, Udolpho, where she had various scary adventures. She finally escapes fairly easily, and the rest of the book traces the difficulty of Valancourt--abandoned, rejected, but then triumphant. Sir Walter Scott does all this much, much better. Is it worthwhile to read more of these early Gothic novels? [I must have concluded it was not, since I don't recall reading any others.]

[collectorofashes · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Being my first read of the First Lady of Gothic fiction, I can say that I'm a bit underwhelmed. The story has some occasionally excellent descriptions, lots of emotion, and generally moody atmosphere. However, often the descriptions are generic (must every single sea view have sails?) and the characters so overwrought that either they're fainting or they're failing to communicate, and because of this lack of communication, many trials and sorrows result. There's also a lot of deus-ex-machina going on which leaches away the gothic atmosphere. Must everything be of human origin that at first seems supernatural? Radcliffe seems to think so. However, with all that said, I learned a few new words and the story had enough complexity and emotion to propel me towards its close. Strangely, there's also quite a bit of profane oaths which generally reflect the syncrenistic view of Christianity the author possesses -- that is, having a form of godliness but denying its true power, and that is most disappointing of all.

[pj77_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

The Mysteries of Udolpho is a fantastic book for lovers of a great gothic romance. Austen's reference to The Mysteries of Udolpho in Northanger Abbey was intriguing and led me to Radcliffe's work. Her writing is full of beautiful landscape descriptions and her character development in the first half of the novel captivates you. It is a long novel, but it keeps you in suspense until the very end and takes you on a rollercoaster ride throughout the last 100 -150 pages! The romance, gothic castles, horror, intrigue and mystery are everything you could wish for in a novel of this genre. It is a really great read and I recommend it to all.

[keristars_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This is a very long and sometimes very boring book, but I think it's well worth reading - especially in a group setting! (because it's fun to complain about the long and boring bits with other people, or to laugh at how silly Emily is.) I think the Gothic novel genre is fascinating, and of course Radcliffe's The Mysteries of Udolpho is one of the earlier and more well-known examples.Fans of Austen, especially Northanger Abbey, will find that familiarity with Udolpho provides a greater richness to Austen's novels. But more than that, Udolpho gives insight to 18th century thought regarding Deism, Sensibility, Benevolence, patriarchy, feminism &c &c and it comments upon philosophy that came out of the Enlightenment, such as Rousseau's idea that man is naturally good (as compared to Locke's statement that man is naturally wicked).Beyond the academic worth, I still think the Mysteries of Udolpho is fantastic and it is something that I'm glad to have read and will likely find myself reading again in the future.

[hemlokgang · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

What fun! A long (600+) book, but so much fun. Written in the late 1700s, this book is a sweeping gothic romance, with poetry, sweeping poetic landscapes, a thwarted love affair, evil step-uncles, secrets (some even kept from the reader but known by the protagonist, our dear Emily!), ghosts, castles, Carnivale in Venice......come on, now....who can resist all this? Due to a couple of extraneous tangents in the plot, which I felt were completely unnecessary, I only give out four stars. It was not particularly profound, but boy, oh boy, was it fun?!

[ganeshaka · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I found The Mysteries of Udolpho to be like being on an Alaskan wilderness fishing trip without the insect repellent. All the elements were in place for a good time...the fresh air, the beauty, the fish...everything was just so - but for "bzzz" "slap" "bzzzz" "whack" "bbzzzzz""thwap".The frequent, and sometimes beautiful, descriptive passages concerning the Gascony countryside, the Pyrenees, the Alps, were interrupted, invariably, by a black, cloud, of no-see-um, commas that bit me repeatedly - b,z,b,z,z,z ,z, z,z z,z,z,.Then too, I stumbled time after time over the syntax - most often a log of a preposition a ",that," or a ",which," "therefore"; or appositive phrase. For example,"Annette obeyed, and Emily returned to the agonizing considerations, that had assailed her before, but which she, at length, endeavored to soothe by a new remark. If the stranger was Valancourt, it was certain he had to come alone, and it appeared, therefore, that he had been able to quit the gardens, without assistance; a circumstance which did not seem probable, had his wound been dangerous."Again, to use an Alaskan image, from a different season, the experience was like following a footpath through a winter wonderland but where the snow had melted and refrozen, so that every third or fourth step, one's contemplation of the scenery was disturbed by one's foot breaking through the crust.I would rather have watched the movie - if only there were a movie. If only Stanley Kubrick had chosen to make a film of Udolpho instead of Thackeray's Barry Lyndon. The same techniques he used in the latter - of natural but dimmer lighting indoors and sweeping vistas outdoors - would have been well suited to the strength's of Radcliffe's visual imagination. Further, Kubrick's touch with villainy, and dread, would have served him well in depicting Count Montoni, the interior of the Castle of Udolpho, and the scene of Ludovico's disappearance.The narrative is engaging and moves apace, the characters do unfold, the scenery is lush, the chateau and castle are creepy...but you do have to hack and hack and hack to clear away the brush. What's left is a Romantic, gothic tale - with a dash of feminism - about a young woman's perils and obstacles in obtaining the property and love she deserves.And I almost forgot to mention - the gratuitous and random interjections of poetry. Well, to continue with the fishing trip analogy, they're a bit like the off-color jokes of a guide/pilot - sometimes perfect, sometimes boring, and sometimes embarrassing.

[otterlake_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

First came across a reference to this book in Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey. A lot of fun.

[jontseng · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Evocative landscapes but turgid in many places. Lots of frightened heroines but not much really happening.

[nx74defiant · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I can understand why it was popular in its own time. Especially among young ladies.But as a modern reader it is a slog. It is too long, too slow. Were get poems and songs. There are a lot of description for the countryside.Emily is a very passive heroine, she faints a lot and is just there so things can happen to her.

[charrlygirl · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

3.5 stars for this classic gothic novel.
This was an engaging read and is considered to be one of the first gothic novels. I loved the language, I loved the characters (except for the evil M. Montoni and Madame Charone) , but I did dislike the extensive descriptions of scenery that seemed to go on forever. I'm glad that I read it, but I doubt I will ever tackle it again for a re-read.

[leslie398 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I might have given this classic 3* if it hadn't had all those unnecessary (and bad) poems!

[kathleen586 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I enjoyed this book much more than I thought I would! The beginning is slow, but the plot really picks up once Emily gets to Udolpho. I loved that part of the book—it was so gothic and horrifyingly suspenseful! The last volume was a little slow, too, mostly because there was too much of the de Villeforts and not enough of Emily. I loved Emily and I was happy to see that her and Valancourt's typical literary misunderstanding gets worked out in the end. The evildoers are punished and the good people all have a happy ending.

Some quotes I bookmarked (I've known people like Madame Cheron so I identify with Emily here):

"The repast was silent and melancholy on the part of Emily; and Madame Cheron, whose vanity was piqued on observing her dejection, reproved her in a manner that did not contribute to remove it."

"...Emily had frequently blushed at the fearless manners, which she had seen admired, and the brilliant nothings, which she had heard applauded; yet this applause, so far from encouraging her to imitate the conduct that had won it, rather made her shrink into the reserve, that would protect her from such absurdity. Madame Cheron looked on her niece's diffidence with a feeling very near to contempt, and endeavoured to overcome it by reproof, rather than to encourage it by gentleness."

"When the company arrived, Emily entered the saloon with an air of timidity, which all her efforts could not overcome, and which was increased by the consciousness of Madame Cheron's severe observation."

A typical nature-y quote from the book that made me laugh:

"The Lady Blanche, meanwhile, hastened to indulge, amidst the wild wood-walks around the chateau, her new enthusiasm, where, as she wandered under the shades, her gay spirits gradually yielded to pensive complacency. Now, she moved with solemn steps, beneath the gloom of thickly interwoven branches, where the fresh dew still hung upon every flower, that peeped from among the grass; and now tripped sportively along the path, on which the sunbeams darted and the checquered foliage trembled—where the tender greens of the beech, the acacia and the mountain-ash, mingling with the solemn tints of the cedar, the pine and cypress, exhibited as fine a contrast of colouring, as the majestic oak and oriental plane did of form, to the feathery lightness of the cork tree and the waving grace of the poplar."

I have to admit I did not read the poetry the characters were constantly composing.

[souloftherose · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

”She saw herself in a castle, inhabited by vice and violence, seated beyond the reach of law and justice, and in the power of a man, whose perseverance was equal to every occasion, and in whom passions, of which revenge was not the weakest, entirely supplied the place of principles.”Ever since I first read Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey, I've wanted to read The Mysteries of Udolpho, the book Northanger's heroine, Catherine Morland, found so fascinating. But, I've spent years putting off reading Radcliffe's most well-known work because I'd heard it's long and boring and because it was published in the 18th century and I wasn't sure I'd be able to understand it; basically I was scared.Then before rereading Northanger Abbey earlier this year I decided I was going to try and read an 18th century gothic novel. I picked The Castle of Otranto by Hugh Walpole because it was the shortest and surprised myself by quite enjoying it. I decided this meant there might be hope I could read Udolpho and provided myself with the Oxford World’s Classics edition from the library.I found this book a lot more enjoyable than I expected to. I can understand why people find it boring and silly; there are a lot of passages describing the beautiful scenery of the south of France and Italy where the story is set, Radcliffe writes in very long sentences, the characters will randomly compose poetry which Radcliffe includes in the text and the heroine faints a lot. It took me quite a while to get used to Radcliffe’s prose and I found I needed to read this book at a much slower pace than usual to appreciate it but once I’d managed to adjust to this I took a great deal of pleasure in this dreamlike tale.Several aspects of the book surprised me. The first was that the heroine, Emily St Aubert, is a real heroine, not a pathetic girly-girl despite the number of times she faints. Although essentially a demure heroine, Emily’s struggle against her evil guardian is something she is left to cope with on her own; orphaned, separated from her fiancé, with only a maid who is almost Shakespearean in her loquaciousness to support her, and she is successful in this lone struggle. Yes, in her final escape from the castle she is assisted by a man, but in my eyes, by that point, the battle has already been won. Secondly, one of the things Radcliffe seems to be trying to get across with this book is the idea that self-restraint should be exercised over one’s emotions rather than giving them free rein. This doesn’t mean that she thinks emotions are bad, her long descriptions of the scenery are, after all, trying to evoke emotions of awe and wonder in the reader, she does seem concerned that sensibility can be dangerous if encouraged to excess. This made me wonder how much of Jane Austen’s parody of The Mysteries of Udolpho in Northanger Abbey was at least in part, a parody on the public reaction to Radcliffe’s book rather than the book itself. If Catherine Morland had read Udolpho more carefully she would have known not to encourage her sensibilities and the embarrassing scene with Henry in his mother’s room could have been avoided.A note on the Oxford World’s Classics edition: I found the notes in this edition really very helpful as in addition to explaining any 18th century words or phrases a 21st century reader would be unfamiliar with; they also gave a lot of background to the areas of 18th century philosophy and thinking which Radcliffe was drawing on. The introduction by Terry Castle was also very good but, like most introductions, I wouldn’t recommend reading it until after you’ve finished the book.

[marcelrochester · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Emily’s a bitch. I liked Du Pont & was disappointed we didn’t find out his fate. The mysteries’ being solved was on the anticlimactic side.