After reading Northanger Abbey I got interested in Udolpho due to Austen's several references to it. I have now read that book with considerable pleasure but am puzzled by the novel's heroine Emily St Aubert. Her father taught her to avoid excessive sentimentality and keep her emotions under control, yet she is weeping and swooning and staggering about due to some emotional meltdown in every other scene in which she appears.
I believe I can propose with considerable confidence that Radcliffe has created, in Emily, the most sentimental and weepiest character in the history of English, or probably any other, literature. Is Emily a typical Gothic heroine? Was this normal female behavior in the late 18th century? Or perhaps it was just the style of the era's literature to make the protagonists emotional since all the non-evil men were weepers also, but not in the same class as Emily.
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Radcliffe's Mysteries of Udolpho
- Miss Moppet
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[quote=""Denise""]After reading Northanger Abbey I got interested in Udolpho due to Austen's several references to it. I have now read that book with considerable pleasure but am puzzled by the novel's heroine Emily St Aubert. Her father taught her to avoid excessive sentimentality and keep her emotions under control, yet she is weeping and swooning and staggering about due to some emotional meltdown in every other scene in which she appears.
I believe I can propose with considerable confidence that Radcliffe has created, in Emily, the most sentimental and weepiest character in the history of English, or probably any other, literature. Is Emily a typical Gothic heroine? Was this normal female behavior in the late 18th century? Or perhaps it was just the style of the era's literature to make the protagonists emotional since all the non-evil men were weepers also, but not in the same class as Emily.[/quote]
It's part of the fashion for 'sensibility' which Austen mocks in Sense and Sensibility, but the Gothic heroine was particularly mocked for fainting and weeping one minute, intrepidly exploring bloodstained passages the next, as the plot demanded. So yes, I think Emily was typical, and indeed a prototype since the novel was hugely successful. And nothing's changed - look at Bella Swan.
If you liked Udolpho, I recommend The Romance of the Forest, and also Regina Roche's The Children of the Abbey.
I believe I can propose with considerable confidence that Radcliffe has created, in Emily, the most sentimental and weepiest character in the history of English, or probably any other, literature. Is Emily a typical Gothic heroine? Was this normal female behavior in the late 18th century? Or perhaps it was just the style of the era's literature to make the protagonists emotional since all the non-evil men were weepers also, but not in the same class as Emily.[/quote]
It's part of the fashion for 'sensibility' which Austen mocks in Sense and Sensibility, but the Gothic heroine was particularly mocked for fainting and weeping one minute, intrepidly exploring bloodstained passages the next, as the plot demanded. So yes, I think Emily was typical, and indeed a prototype since the novel was hugely successful. And nothing's changed - look at Bella Swan.
If you liked Udolpho, I recommend The Romance of the Forest, and also Regina Roche's The Children of the Abbey.
I have Romance of the Forest on the pile as well as another Radcliff title (the name escapes me at the moment).
At home with a good book and the cat...
...is the only place I want to be
...is the only place I want to be
- Miss Moppet
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[quote=""Misfit""]I have Romance of the Forest on the pile as well as another Radcliff title (the name escapes me at the moment).[/quote]
Romance of the Forest takes a different turn 2/3 of the way through and really stops being a Gothic novel - but the Gothic bits are so wonderful that it's worth the read.
The next Gothic novel I've got on my TBR pile is Clermont also by Roche. I've also tried a couple of times to read Uncle Silas and determined to finish it one day.
Romance of the Forest takes a different turn 2/3 of the way through and really stops being a Gothic novel - but the Gothic bits are so wonderful that it's worth the read.
The next Gothic novel I've got on my TBR pile is Clermont also by Roche. I've also tried a couple of times to read Uncle Silas and determined to finish it one day.
Have you ever tried Bungay Castle by Elizabeth Bonhote? Talk about your first teen detectives in a novel, at times you'd swear you were watching the Scooby Gang. It really was a lot of fun though.
At home with a good book and the cat...
...is the only place I want to be
...is the only place I want to be
- Miss Moppet
- Bibliophile
- Posts: 1726
- Joined: April 2009
- Location: North London
- Contact:
[quote=""Misfit""]Have you ever tried Bungay Castle by Elizabeth Bonhote? Talk about your first teen detectives in a novel, at times you'd swear you were watching the Scooby Gang. It really was a lot of fun though.
[/quote]
Yes I want to read Bungay Castle - going to try to get the library to order it, when I remember.
[/quote]
Yes I want to read Bungay Castle - going to try to get the library to order it, when I remember.
[quote=""Miss Moppet""] Yes I want to read Bungay Castle - going to try to get the library to order it, when I remember.[/quote]
I'd send you my copy but it would cost as much as buying one unfortunately. No media mail US to UK
I'd send you my copy but it would cost as much as buying one unfortunately. No media mail US to UK
At home with a good book and the cat...
...is the only place I want to be
...is the only place I want to be
- LoveHistory
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- LoveHistory
- Bibliomaniac
- Posts: 3751
- Joined: September 2008
- Location: Wisconsin, USA
- Contact: