Reading Order
The Mysteries of Udolpho Reading Order
The Mysteries of Udolpho (1794) by Ann Radcliffe is the most influential of the Gothic romances — a four-volume novel that established the conventions of the female Gothic and made Radcliffe the most popular novelist in England in the 1790s. Emily St. Aubert is a sensitive, cultivated, and orphaned young woman who is taken by her scheming aunt's husband (the Italian villain Montoni) to his castle of Udolpho in the Apennines, where she is imprisoned, threatened, and surrounded by apparent supernatural terrors. The novel's characteristic technique — which Coleridge called the 'explained supernatural' — is to present apparently supernatural events (the picture behind the veil, the mysterious music, the disappearing figure) and then explain them naturalistically at the end. Radcliffe uses this technique to investigate female vulnerability and survival in a world of male tyranny without endorsing the superstition that would make the supernatural real. Austen satirized The Mysteries of Udolpho in Northanger Abbey, which is both a tribute and a critique; and the novel's influence extends through the Gothic tradition to the present.
Where to start
The Mysteries of Udolpho (1794) — the complete four-volume novel. Best Radcliffe reading order: A Sicilian Romance → The Romance of the Forest → The Mysteries of Udolpho → The Italian. The Oxford World's Classics edition edited by Bonamy Dobrée is the standard edition.
Complete The Mysteries of Udolpho Book List
- 1Buy
The Mysteries of Udolpho
Ann Radcliffe·1794·The complete novel — Emily St. Aubert, Valancourt, and Montoni. The Oxford World's Classics edition edited by Bonamy Dobrée (with an introduction by Terry Castle) is the standard modern edition - 2Buy
The Italian
Ann Radcliffe·1797·The companion — Ellena, Vivaldi, and the monk Schedoni. The companion as Radcliffe's finest novel and the most concentrated realization of her Gothic method: where The Mysteries of Udolpho is enormous and psychological, The Italian is more dramatically intense and organized around the extraordinary figure of the villain Schedoni - 3Buy
The Monk
Matthew Lewis·1796·Lewis's companion — the monk Ambrosio's fall. The companion as the transgressive response: Lewis wrote The Monk partly as a reaction to Radcliffe's explained supernatural, taking the Gothic into territory that Radcliffe refused — literal supernatural, explicit sexuality, and a villain who is not redeemed - 4Buy
The Castle of Otranto
Horace Walpole·1764·The companion predecessor — the founding text of the Gothic. The companion as the origin: where Walpole established the conventions of the Gothic, Radcliffe fully realized them in the female Gothic tradition — the persecuted maiden, the explained supernatural, the romantic landscape - 5Buy
Northanger Abbey
Jane Austen·1818·Austen's companion — the satirical response to Udolpho. The companion as the satirical affectionate critique: Austen explicitly parodies The Mysteries of Udolpho in Northanger Abbey (Catherine Morland reads Udolpho and applies its conventions to the ordinary life of Bath and Northanger), and the satire is both accurate and affectionate - 6Buy
Jane Eyre
Charlotte Brontë·1847·The companion — Jane Eyre and Mr. Rochester. The companion as the Victorian inheritance of the female Gothic: Jane Eyre is the fullest development of the Gothic 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 - 7Buy
Rebecca
Daphne du Maurier·1938·Du Maurier's companion — the second Mrs. de Winter at Manderley. The companion as the twentieth-century version of the female Gothic: Rebecca uses all the conventions Radcliffe established (the isolated great house, the threatened woman, the sinister housekeeper, the secret in the past) but organized through the psychological novel's ambiguity - 8Buy
Frankenstein
Mary Shelley·1818·Shelley's companion — the creature and his creator. The companion as the Gothic novel's transformation into philosophical fiction: Mary Shelley uses the Gothic conventions Radcliffe had developed (and partially against Radcliffe's explained supernatural) to investigate questions of creation, humanity, and responsibility
The Mysteries of Udolpho — Frequently Asked Questions
What is The Mysteries of Udolpho about?
The Mysteries of Udolpho is about Emily St. Aubert, a sensitive and cultivated young woman who is orphaned and taken by her scheming aunt Madame Cheron (who marries the Italian villain Montoni) to the remote castle of Udolpho in the Apennines. There, Emily is imprisoned, separated from her lover Valancourt, threatened by Montoni's desire to force her to sign over her inheritance, and surrounded by apparent supernatural terrors — a mysterious figure, a picture that Emily cannot look at without fainting, unexplained music. The novel is organized around Emily's survival: her resistance to Montoni's demands, her escape from Udolpho, her gradual resolution of the apparent mysteries (which are all explained naturally), and her eventual reunion with Valancourt. The novel takes its title from the castle, and the castle has become one of the most famous settings in Gothic literature.
What is Ann Radcliffe's 'explained supernatural'?
The 'explained supernatural' is the technique that distinguishes Radcliffe's Gothic from the competing tradition of Lewis and Walpole: she presents apparently supernatural events that terrify her characters and readers, and then explains them naturally at the end. The figure behind the veil turns out to be a wax memento mori, not a corpse; the music turns out to have a human source; the apparent ghost is a disguised human being. Coleridge, reviewing The Mysteries of Udolpho, criticized this technique as anticlimactic — it builds up terror and then deflates it with a rational explanation. But modern critics have argued that the explained supernatural is itself a formal argument: Radcliffe is resisting the superstition that would make the supernatural real, insisting on the natural explanation even when the explanation is anticlimactic, and using this technique to investigate the relationship between female imagination and female survival in a world of male tyranny.
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