Rating: 
Summary: Gothic at its best
Review: What more can one possibly ask for? Two separate haunted areas, forbidden love, murder, torture, a picture worthy of Dorian Grey, a wing of the house worthy of Rebecca, and a mystery upon mystery. The best way to describe this book is to have you think of every gothic novel's plot you have ever read, heard of, or imagined, and then remember this, it is all in there. Every single gothic plot or image is in this novel. The main character is an interesting and enjoyable character, though she and her lover do spend far too much time weeping, and one really does mean to say FAR too much. She is the exact opposite from Catherine in Nothanger Abby, except in the idea of letting their imaginations get the better of them. Still this book is the epiphany of gothic literature, and any true Jane Austen fan must read it if they truly want to enjoy Northanger Abby
Rating: 
Summary: An important and a grand novel
Review: When published in 1794, this lengthy tale of romance and intrigue became a best-seller, reportedly the first best-seller ever. When reading it, one can very well imagine the author -- a reclusive English lady -- writing this story for her own entertainment and as a record of her own day dreams, her intimate flights of fancy.There is no question that the sweet, suffering, intelligent, compassionate, level-headed, courageous Emily St. Aubuert of the story is the author's other self, the self she imagines herself to be. The trials she faces as her other self, she faces with courage and intelligence and outstanding patience: the loss of parents, the awful tyranny of her aunt with whom she has been placed as a ward, the terror of the Archvillain Montoni who kept her captive in the remote, ghostly castle of Udolpho and her daring escape -- all were most likely Ms. Radcliffe's day dreams set to paper. Afterall, she was childless and well-bred and in those times, there was little for a well-educated lady of her class do but to read and dream and write. And she developed her craft grandly. Her descriptions of scenery, the locations of each set-piece of her novel are vivid and memorable. She had an eye for the sweep of detail of a landscape, a forest, a plain, a mountain and she had the talent of painting her scenes under shrouds of mystery and melancholy. Emily's love affair with the chevalier Valancourt to whom she gave her entire capacity for love, and his betrayal of it and proof of his unworthiness, comes as a disappointment. But then, at the end there is a reconciliation and appropriate romantic solution of the problem, however unlikely. The novel is long, too long, really. But for the era it was written, when time was more abundant, such lengths are understandable and acceptable. It is said, with accuracy in my opinion, that this is an important novel for those who study English-American literature because it is the forerunner of the gothic novels that have earned a large modern following. And the way to read it, is not to hurry through the pages, but to relax and relish Ms. Radcliffe's marvelous descriptions which serve as delicious backdrops to her romantic melodrama.
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