Recommendations
Books Like The Mysteries of Udolpho
Best books to read after The Mysteries of Udolpho by Ann Radcliffe
Readers who love The Mysteries of Udolpho by Ann Radcliffe are drawn to its combination of the most influential female Gothic romance, Emily St. Aubert's survival through apparently supernatural terrors, and the atmospheric castle of Udolpho in the Apennines. They want works that deal with the female Gothic tradition, the persecuted heroine in the isolated great house, and the tradition Radcliffe established that runs through Charlotte Brontë, Daphne du Maurier, and beyond.
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The Italian
by Ann Radcliffe
Radcliffe's companion finest novel — Schedoni and Ellena. The companion as Radcliffe's most concentrated and dramatically intense Gothic: where The Mysteries of Udolpho is four volumes of accumulated terror, The Italian is more economical and organized around the extraordinary villain Schedoni
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Jane Eyre
by Charlotte Brontë
The companion Victorian heir — the female Gothic tradition. Jane Eyre is the fullest development of the tradition Radcliffe established: the orphaned heroine, the isolated castle, the male authority figure with a hidden secret, and the investigation of female vulnerability and survival
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Rebecca
by Daphne du Maurier
Du Maurier's companion — the second Mrs. de Winter at Manderley. The companion as the twentieth-century female Gothic heir: Rebecca uses all the conventions Radcliffe established (the isolated great house, the threatened woman, the sinister housekeeper, the secret from the past)
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The Monk
by Matthew Lewis
Lewis's companion — the monk Ambrosio's fall. The companion as the transgressive response: Lewis wrote The Monk partly in reaction to Radcliffe's explained supernatural, taking the Gothic into territory Radcliffe refused — literal supernatural and explicit sexuality
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Northanger Abbey
by Jane Austen
Austen's companion — the satirical response to Udolpho. Austen explicitly parodies The Mysteries of Udolpho in Northanger Abbey, and the satire is both accurate and affectionate — Catherine Morland's Gothic-inflamed imagination is Austen's investigation of what the Gothic does to its readers
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The Castle of Otranto
by Horace Walpole
The companion predecessor — the founding text of the Gothic. The companion as the origin: where Walpole established the conventions, Radcliffe fully realized them in the female Gothic tradition over four volumes of atmospheric accumulation
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Frankenstein
by Mary Shelley
Shelley's companion — the Gothic novel transformed into philosophical fiction. Mary Shelley uses the Gothic conventions Radcliffe had developed (the isolated great house, the supernatural threat, the investigation of the limits of the human) to investigate questions of creation and responsibility that go beyond the Gothic tradition
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Wuthering Heights
by Emily Brontë
Brontë's companion — the atmospheric Gothic power of the Yorkshire moors. The companion as the most powerful Gothic novel that Radcliffe's tradition eventually produced: where The Mysteries of Udolpho achieves its atmosphere through accumulated detail, Wuthering Heights achieves it through the power of the landscape and the absolute passion of its characters
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