Reading Order
UdolphoThe Mysteries of Udolpho Reading Order
The Mysteries of Udolpho (1794) by Ann Radcliffe is the most important English Gothic novel before Frankenstein — a four-volume romance in which the orphaned Emily St. Aubert is taken to the castle of Udolpho in the Apennines by her villainous uncle Montoni, where she experiences a sustained series of apparently supernatural terrors that Radcliffe eventually explains away through natural means. Radcliffe invented the technique that Samuel Taylor Coleridge later called the 'explained supernatural' (and that Montague Summers called the 'terror of the unexplained vs. the horror of the explained'): all the supernatural phenomena in the novel — the veil, the mysterious music, the figure behind the curtain — turn out to have natural explanations that Radcliffe provides at the end, but which are often so disappointingly mundane that readers find them less satisfying than the supernatural explanations they had imagined. The Mysteries of Udolpho was the biggest bestseller of the 1790s, running through four editions in its first year; it was read by virtually everyone, including Jane Austen, who parodies it in Northanger Abbey (1817). Radcliffe's contribution to Gothic fiction was to develop the atmospheric — the picturesque landscape, the sublime mountain scenery, the effects of light and shadow on ruined architecture — into a mode of emotional intensification that is as important as her plots.
Where to start
The Mysteries of Udolpho (1794) — the Oxford World's Classics edition edited by Bonamy Dobrée (with introduction by Terry Castle) is the standard text; the Penguin Classics edition is also good. The novel is long (600+ pages in most editions) but was designed for evening serial reading; read each volume as a unit. Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey is essential companion reading.
Complete Udolpho Book List
- 1Buy
The Mysteries of Udolpho (Oxford World's Classics)
Ann Radcliffe (ed. Bonamy Dobrée)·1998·The scholarly standard edition — Terry Castle's introduction is the best account of Radcliffe's place in the Gothic tradition and her invention of the 'explained supernatural'; the text is unabridged and the annotation identifies the picturesque landscape references and the Shakespearean epigraphs. - 2Buy
Northanger Abbey
Jane Austen·1817·The parody that proves Udolpho's cultural dominance — Austen's novel follows Catherine Morland's Udolpho-inflamed imagination at the real Northanger Abbey; reading both gives Northanger Abbey its full satirical point and shows exactly how completely Radcliffe's world had permeated English reading culture. - 3Buy
The Italian
Ann Radcliffe·1797·Radcliffe's masterpiece, published three years after Udolpho — where Udolpho is sprawling and loose, The Italian is tighter, more psychologically acute, and better plotted; the villain Schedoni is one of the great Gothic antagonists; many readers prefer The Italian and it is the best next step. - 4Buy
The Castle of Otranto
Horace Walpole·1764·The founding text that Radcliffe is developing — Walpole's short novel established the castle setting, the persecuted heroine, and the supernatural machinery that Radcliffe expanded into four volumes; reading both together shows the difference between the genre's invention and its first major elaboration. - 5Buy
The Monk
Matthew Lewis·1796·The Gothic novel written in response to Radcliffe, explicitly embracing the supernatural that she explained away — Lewis's Monk (which appeared between Udolpho and The Italian) represents the other path the Gothic could take; the contrast between Radcliffe's explained terror and Lewis's unredeemed horror is the defining generic debate of 1790s Gothic.
Udolpho — Frequently Asked Questions
What is The Mysteries of Udolpho about?
The Mysteries of Udolpho (1794) by Ann Radcliffe follows the orphaned Emily St. Aubert, who is taken by her villainous Italian uncle Montoni to the sinister castle of Udolpho in the Apennines. There she experiences a series of apparently supernatural terrors — mysterious music, a terrifying figure behind a veil, strange disappearances — while being pressured by Montoni and resisting his schemes. Radcliffe eventually provides natural explanations for all the supernatural phenomena. The novel is notable for its atmospheric landscape descriptions and its invention of the 'explained supernatural' — a technique in which Gothic terrors are resolved rationally at the end.
What is the explained supernatural in Gothic fiction?
The 'explained supernatural' is the technique invented by Ann Radcliffe in The Mysteries of Udolpho (1794) and The Italian (1797), in which apparently supernatural events — mysterious music, moving portraits, unexplained disappearances — are eventually revealed to have natural explanations. Radcliffe distinguished her Gothic mode from the fully supernatural Gothic of Horace Walpole and Matthew Lewis by insisting that all terrors could be rationally explained; the suspense lay in the gap between the supernatural impression and the delayed natural explanation. Jane Austen parodies this technique in Northanger Abbey, and critics have argued that the delayed explanation is often more disappointing than the supernatural version the reader had imagined.
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