This is the fourth week of the readalong of ‘The Mysteries of Udolpho’ by Ann Radcliffe that I am doing with Delia from Postcards from Asia. You can find the previous posts of the series here – part 1, part 2, part 3.
In volume 3, Emily had escaped from the castle of Udolpho with her friends and now she is at the Count Villefort’s home and has become friends with his daughter Blanche. Valancourt also makes an appearance there. Unfortunately, Emily discovers that he is not the same person with whom she parted and after Valancourt had gone to Paris, he had got into debt and had been keeping the company of not-so-good women. At the end of the third volume, we had left Emily on the verge of her meeting with Valancourt when he is expected to explain his conduct.
Volume 4 starts with the meeting between Emily and Valancourt. The meeting doesn’t go well. Valancourt says that he is unworthy of her without getting into the details, while Emily assumes the worst that she has heard about him. Valancourt leaves. Then the story starts moving at a rollicking pace. Volume 4 is the ‘good’ volume – in the sense that good things happen to all the good characters in the story. Emily and her friends get to know that Montoni has been imprisoned and then later he dies in prison. Emily’s aunt’s estates come to her. Emily stays for some time in the convent in St.Clair, but later moves on to her own childhood home. All the mysteries which are described in the earlier volumes are all revealed in this volume – the secret behind the veiled picture in the castle of Udolpho, the identity of the person in the mini portrait that Emily has, the mystery of the music which comes out in the night, whether the different castles are haunted by spirits or not, what was there in the mysterious papers that Emily’s father asked her to burn. Radcliffe is on the side of reason when all these mysteries are revealed – she gives logical explanations for all of them, even for the supposedly supernatural events. Towards the end of the fourth volume, it also turns out that Valancourt, though he is in debt, is otherwise a nice person and he and Emily unite. All’s well that ends well, Emily and Valancourt get married, Lady Blanche and St.Foix get married and everyone lives happily everafter.
One of the things that I liked about the fourth volume was that all the loose ends were tied and all the mysteries were revealed. There was not one loose end left. It showed that Ann Radcliffe had meticulously planned the story. One of the issues I had was on the way the mysteries were revealed. Emily doesn’t really discover the secrets by luck or after pursuing them, but the author describes them to us in her omniscient voice. She doesn’t ‘show’, but she ‘tells’. It takes away part of the enjoyment somewhat, because in my opinion, the beauty of a mystery is partly in the way it is revealed.
My favourite parts of ‘The Mysteries of Udolpho’ are the one which describes Emily’s life in Gascony with her parents and the beautiful descriptions that Radcliffe gives us here, Emily’s time in Venice which are also filled with beautiful descriptions (this is the part of the book that I want to read again) and the part where Radcliffe evokes the scary, gothic atmosphere of the castle of Udolpho where Emily is imprisoned.
I read the introduction to the book after I finished reading the main story. I do it this way, rather than reading the introduction at the beginning, because most of the time introductions have spoilers. The introduction was by Jacqueline Howard and I liked it very much. One of the things that I liked about the introduction was what it said about how the story combined two different time periods – though the story happens in the sixteenth century, the good characters in the story all have eighteenth century liberal values, while the bad characters have sixteenth century ‘medieval’ values – and though some of it anachronistic, how it still works. The way Jacqueline Howard put it was by describing how Radcliffe was ‘imbuing her Catholic heroine with Protestant enlightenment’.
I think if ‘The Mysteries of Udolpho’ had been published as a serial in a magazine, it would have worked better, as there would have been a lot of time for readers to enjoy the beautiful descriptions, linger over the beautiful sentences and enter and stay in the beautiful world that Ann Radcliffe had created.
Many thanks to Delia for hosting this readalong. Eventhough I took six weeks to complete a four week readalong, I was glad to be part of it and read this interesting and beautiful book. You can find Delia’s thoughts on volume 4 for ‘The Mysteries of Udolpho’ here.
I want to read ‘Northanger Abbey’ by Jane Austen now and find out what she has written about ‘The Mysteries of Udolpho’ in it. I also want to read ‘The Castle of Otranto’ by Horace Walpole, which has (according to the introduction here) “an animated portrait, bleeding statue, walking skeleton and dramatic appearances of gigantic Piranesi-like fragments of the murdered Alfonso…”. It looks like a book which should be read over a dark and stormy night 🙂
You made it! So glad you enjoyed the book! Thanks for joining me for the read-along.
I don’t have that introduction, my book starts with the story right away…it would have been nice to read more about the book.
I have Northanger Abbey so I might read that soon, especially since I just signed up for the R.I.P. event hosted by Carl. Maybe you’d like to join? Or have you had enough scary stories for now? 🙂
Thanks for hosting this readalong, Delia! It was fun reading ‘The Mysteries of Udolpho’ with you and comparing notes and sharing thoughts. Sorry to know that you didn’t have the introduction to the book. I don’t know how they missed that out. Nice to know that you are planning to read ‘Northanger Abbey’ for the R.I.P. event hosted by Carl. I am thinking of joining Carl’s event, but am thinking of watching a movie. Maybe ‘The Raven’ 🙂 But I would like to read ‘Northanger Abbey’ also sometime. It is not very long. Do let me know whenever you are starting. I will try to join.
I’ll let you know when I’m planning to read Northanger Abbey. It’s a short book so I might give it a try soon.
Looking forward to it, Delia! Meanwhile, Happy reading!
[…] You can find Vishy’s review here. […]
I’m still surprised it wasn’t serialized. I could imagine that would have worked really well. I’m looking forward to read about your impressions of Northanger Abbey. It makes fuin of these gothic novels and at first i was a bit disappointed. It was my first Jane Austen and I expected her books to be quite different. Nortanger Abbey is very different from her other books. Looking back, I like it.
Me too, Caroline. It would really worked as a serialized novel. I am looking forward to reading ‘Northanger Abbey’ soon. I first heard about ‘The Mysteries of Udolpho’ through the movie ‘The Jane Austen Book Club’ where a few Austen fans read one Austen book every month and then discuss it. When they are discussing ‘Northanger Abbey’, the guy who is hosting that book club meeting says that he read ‘The Mysteries of Udolpho’ too, which made me want to read the book then. Now I am happy to have read it. One of the things I found interesting in ‘The Mysteries of Udolpho’ is how Ann Radcliffe gives rational explanations for all the supernatural happenings in the story. I think she was reflecting the sensibility of the readers of her time. In contrast, Horace Walpole’s ‘The Castle of Otranto’ seems to be a ‘real’ gothic novel, in the sense the ghost scenes and the supernatural happenings seem to be very real in it. I want to read that too and compare it with Radcliffe’s book.
That will be interesting. I think Northanger Abbey makes fun of those who believe in the supernatural but it’s been a while since I’ve read it, I might not remember it so well. I also seem to remember it’s set in Bath one of my favourite cities.
Hi Vishy! Wow, I’d love to read Udolpho someday. I only found out about it from Northanger Abbey, too. I just read your beautiful comments at my blog. I just came home from work and about to go to bed, but just wanted to say thanks very much for dropping by and I’m so glad to know you’re still reading and blogging and so happy to be visiting your blog again! See you around!
Thanks for stopping by, Claire 🙂 I went to Bellezza’s blog after a long time and read a post where she had mentioned you. Then I wanted to find out what my old friend Claire was up to. So I visited your blog and was delighted to discover that you are back from your blogging break. Now I will check it everyday 🙂 I am also delighted that you have started a food blog. I love it! Looking forward to having literary and foodie conversations with you 🙂 Happy reading, writing and cooking!
I need to read this for my homework, but it seems that im running out of time. If someone could tell me about the mysterious painting and “ghosts” in the castle, i would really appreciate it. Im sooo gonna finish the book, very good reading. Thanks 🙂