Reading Order
The Mysteries of Udolpho Reading Order
The Mysteries of Udolpho (1794) by Ann Radcliffe is the greatest and most influential work of the first phase of the Gothic novel — a four-volume novel in which the orphaned Emily St. Aubert is taken to the gloomy castle of Udolpho in the Apennines by her villainous guardian Montoni, where she experiences a series of supernatural terrors (mysterious music, a veil that conceals a horrifying sight, apparitions, disappearances) that are eventually all given rational explanations. Radcliffe's innovation was the 'explained supernatural' — she creates the full atmospheric effect of horror and the supernatural, then in the final pages reveals that every seemingly supernatural event had a natural explanation. This technique (which Montague Summers memorably criticized and Ann Austen memorably parodied in Northanger Abbey) was so influential that the critics of the period recognized 'the Radcliffe school' as the dominant mode of Gothic fiction. The novel is also a remarkable landscape novel: Radcliffe fills it with extended passages describing the Alps, the Pyrenees, and the Apennines in the vocabulary of the picturesque and the sublime, and her landscapes are as important as her plots. Radcliffe never left England and wrote these descriptions from travel accounts — a fact that simultaneously made them more impressive (pure imagination) and more vulnerable to parody (Northanger Abbey makes gentle fun of the Gothic heroine who imagines the English countryside as Gothic landscape).
Where to start
The Mysteries of Udolpho (1794) — the Oxford World's Classics edition edited by Bonamy Dobrée, with an introduction by Terry Castle (2008), is the standard scholarly edition. The novel is very long (four volumes); the first half (the Pyrenees and Venice sections) is slower and can be skimmed; the Udolpho section itself (vol. 2–3) is where Radcliffe's power is fully on display.
Complete The Mysteries of Udolpho Book List
- 1Buy
The Mysteries of Udolpho (Oxford World's Classics)
Ann Radcliffe (ed. Bonamy Dobrée, intro. Terry Castle)·2008·The standard scholarly edition — Castle's introduction is the definitive modern account of Radcliffe's method, her relationship to the picturesque and the sublime, and her place in the history of the novel; essential reading. - 2Buy
The Italian
Ann Radcliffe·1797·Radcliffe's final novel and the most mature of her works — The Italian intensifies the Udolpho formula (the villain is now a genuinely sinister monk, Schedoni, one of the great Gothic villains) and is by many critics considered her best; read after Udolpho. - 3Buy
Northanger Abbey
Jane Austen·1817·Austen's comic response to The Mysteries of Udolpho — Catherine Morland's Gothic delusions come entirely from reading Radcliffe; the parody is affectionate (Austen loved Radcliffe) and reading Udolpho first makes Northanger Abbey vastly funnier. - 4Buy
The Castle of Otranto
Horace Walpole·1764·The founding Gothic text that Radcliffe transformed — Walpole invented the conventions Radcliffe refined; reading Otranto first shows exactly what Radcliffe inherited and what she changed (most importantly, the explained supernatural). - 5Buy
Ann Radcliffe: The Great Enchantress
David Durant·1982·The standard scholarly biography and critical study — Durant traces Radcliffe's remarkable career (she wrote five major Gothic novels, then stopped publishing entirely thirty years before her death) and the critical debate about her method.
The Mysteries of Udolpho — Frequently Asked Questions
What is The Mysteries of Udolpho about?
The Mysteries of Udolpho (1794) by Ann Radcliffe follows Emily St. Aubert, a young Frenchwoman orphaned in the Pyrenees, who is taken against her will to the gloomy Italian castle of Udolpho by her ruthless guardian Montoni. There she experiences a series of seemingly supernatural terrors — mysterious music, a terrifying sight beneath a veil, apparitions, disappearances, and the threat of forced marriage and imprisonment — all of which are eventually given rational explanations. The novel is also an extended landscape poem in prose, featuring remarkable descriptions of the Alps, Pyrenees, and Apennines.
What is the explained supernatural in The Mysteries of Udolpho?
Ann Radcliffe's defining technique is the 'explained supernatural' — she creates the full atmospheric effect of Gothic terror and seemingly supernatural events throughout the novel, then in the final pages provides rational, naturalistic explanations for every apparently ghostly occurrence. The mysterious music is a hidden musician; the figure under the veil is a wax memento mori; the apparition is a real person in disguise. This technique was enormously influential (it defined the 'Radcliffe school' of Gothic fiction) and enormously controversial — critics from Coleridge to Ann Austen objected that it was artistically dishonest to build up supernatural terror only to explain it away; defenders argued that the technique was psychologically true to how the fearful imagination works.
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