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The Mysteries of Udolpho

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The Mysteries of Udolpho

By: Ann Radcliffe
Narrated by: Karen Cass
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About this listen

Wildly popular upon its release, The Mysteries of Udolpho is a Gothic novel of undeniable charm and power. The virtuous and loving Emily, the young protagonist, finds herself in the care of her aunt following the death of her father. Her aunt promptly marries the villain Montoni, a cruel and calculating man whose scheming leads him to lock both women in the dark and winding castle of Udolpho. Will they survive to tell of its terrors?

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Public Domain (P)2016 Naxos AudioBooks Classics Linguistics Social Sciences British Mysteries
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One of the first and most acclaimed novels in the Gothic genre. This has it all - heartache, betrayal, corruption, cruelty, kidnap, imprisonment, violent storms, appiritions and murder to name a few. Madame Cheron is the flighty guardian of Emily, who is an orphan. Emily is in love with Valancourt and is given permission to marry him. However Madame Cheron sees an opportunity for her own advancement by marrying Count Motoni, thinking he is wealthy. In fact Motoni is penniless and takes aunt and neice to live in his derelict castle, Udolpho, far from human habitation in Italy. Emily is parted from her lover and permission to marry is withdrawn. When the count discovers that Charon is not the wealthy woman he thought she was, and owns only an estate in France he treats her badly. He pressures her to sign the estate to him but refuses and he imprisons her in a tower, where she eventually dies. Emily inherited an estate from her father and now has inherited the aunt’s estate. Motoni attempts to trick her into signing a document giving him the estates. She refuses at first, but then capitulates, on the condition that he will let her return to France fearing she will die in the same way as her aunt. Needless to save the villain reneges on his promise as Emily lives a miserable life in her room. In 30 + hours listening time there is much room for dashed hopes, interminable swoons, trembles and tears that I began to wonder if I would be shaken and drowned before the end, or even whether it would finish before I died! Through modern eyes you may be frustrated with Emily’s passive behaviour, she is what we would now call a “Snowflake” but in the time depicted in the novel we have to remember that women were almost entirely dominated by men and rarely given sufficient education to be independent.

Alas, Alack Woe is me!

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I came across this novel many years ago listening to the afternoon play on radio 4 & thought it was fantastic, however, the story shortened immensely.
Whilst the overall story is fantastic the overuse of ‘melancholy, fortitude, solicitude & countenance’ becomes very tiring, as do the accents & singing by the narrator.
If you’re happy to ignore all of this, you’ll love the story, full of everything you’d expect from a gothic novel.

What a tome

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