The Mysteries of Udolpho
(35 votes)Set in 1584, The Mysteries of Udolpho tells the story of Emily St. Aubert, a young French woman who is orphaned after the death of her father. The novel is a quintessential Gothic romance, replete with incidents of terror, castles, seemingly supernatural events, a brooding, scheming villain, and a persecuted heroine. Jane Austen featured The Mysteries of Udolpho and other similar Gothic novels that were popular at the time in her own work, Northanger Abbey. New! See the illustrated edition in the Ebook Store!
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Well, where do I start? The story loses the point between landscape descriptions and unnecessary characters on each page, most significantly the Count de Villeroi and his family. You can't trace the personality of the main characters. How does a 16-year-old girl who only had lived with her parents speak like she was a grown up woman? And if you read carefully, the hero is unbelievable: he has been in the army for years? A far as I know, trained armies started in 18th century, and in this novel they are apparently in the 16th century.
Regarding Madame Cheron, Emily's aunt, she is described as vain and stupid, but she says smart things sometimes. Madame Cheron threatens Emily with secluding her in a convent, and she is afraid. But Emily secluded herself in a convent at the beginning of the story, then when she returns to France she goes to live in a convent!
The story still has potential. That was the reason I finished even if the writer thought it a good idea to include Count de Villefort and family, it was the crazy nun who murdered the Marchionaise.