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October 1-8, 2007
Anne Radcliff's "Mysteries of Udolpho" (1794)
The first really remarkable feature of this
book: it's so slow! Slow by our standards, to
be sure, and to be expected, but it's so slow
it's hard to imagine anyone being engaged by it.
You get hundreds of pages into
it's 700 odd, and you will find It's astounding, Lovecraft praised
NOTHING HAS HAPPENED. The main Radcliff for ability to establish
characters don't even arrive at atmosphere, and objected only to
the castle Udolpho of the title the poetry.
until page 200 or so.
But then: GHOSTWATCH
Shifting fashions in
the style of prose. Ah, and also... (But: SPOILERS)
Once it was very I think he also objected to her
verbose and slow, constant resolution of the
then during the fantastic elements as an illusion
pulp period it rooted in the mundane.
became terse and
quick... Everything neatly explained.
Now it's veered
somewhat back
toward the PARSIMONY
earlier style.
As the novel progresses, the prose
takes on a kind of weight, there's
a definite fascination here after
around the half-way mark, watching
the gathering storm clouds around
this remarkably passive woman, as
she bounces between clear knowledge
and obvious denial --
But midway through, I was
left wondering: Where can
this story go? Our heroine
has only two possible Ah: around two-thirds of
saviours, two forms of the way through, she
calvary that can storm in comes up with a glimmer
and save the day without of an escape plan! It's
Lacking her getting her dainty, absurdly late, and
strength feminine hands dirty: the ineffectual, but it gives
of arms, arrival of Vallancourt one the sense that she
or a line and/or supernatural might not be thoroughly
of communi- intervention -- the revenge retarded.
cation with of ghosts on the badguys
any author- (She asks her maid
ity; she (Vallancourt if her boyfriend
deigns to being the guy might be able to
indulge in she should spring the two of
any distaste- have just them on promise of
ful activity eloped with and reward later.)
such as avoided the
spying or entire fucking
conspiracy... problem, but
noooo she had
to keep a I had a thought that
promise made to the stuff she read in
her evidently her father's papers
braindead dear before burning them
deceased might be a terrible
father). spell, some words of
power to invoke the
spirts on her behalf.
Were this a, shall we
say, normalstory,
where the hero is
By the by... expected to have some
I don't think role in their fate, With "women's
we're ever I might have been fiction" such
told what the correct. as this, all
hell she read bets are off.
that was such
a shock. SPOILERS
Radcliffe went But I'd forgotten
through the Radcliffe's
trouble to set reputation as a
up that wild tease that always
card, and later explains away the
to remind the supernatural by
reader that it the end.
exists, and then
never plays it. Funny, because
that's one of the
reasons I resolved (Way back
By the end of the story, to read this book: when, 700
it surprises by developing long pages
a degree of psychological I was interested ago.)
realism underneath the in the history of
stilted prose. that trope.
And all in all, No one would be
this is a huge The major interested in this
improvement on plot twists form who was not
Walpole's that turn fascinated by the
"Castle of up are fantastic, and yet
Otranto". pretty it's important to
crazy though: undercut it and
(Which strikes return to the normal
me as a more Everything by story's end.
direct is tied up That is,
influence on with Is this intended if you
Sir Walter Udolpho to sanitize it in regard
Scott than some way? pirates
Radcliffe.) creeping
Tales of the through
Could it be that daemonic that pose secret
she was learning as the opposite. passages
to write as she as "normal"
was working on
this book? That VILLAINY
would explain
the interminable
meandering at it's
outset.
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