The Mysteries of Udolpho taught me to read

The Mysteries of Udolpho really is an escapist novel, and at first, I didn’t know how to approach a book like this. I became bored with Radcliffe’s lengthy narratives of the scenery and the emotions of Emily after her father’s death. But then I realized that most of the reason why I found myself rolling my eyes every time she cried or fainted was because I’m a lazy reader. What I mean by this is that, in my interest to finish a novel, I don’t really flesh out the scene that the author is describing, but rather imagine a rough sketch of the setting, the characters and what is going on. This time though, I forced myself to take advantage of all the descriptions and really push my mind to imagine everything, and I found it REALLY changed the way I read.

I was on the bus with my mom when I read the part where Emily finds out that she won’t get to marry Valancourt and I actually went “Oh no!” out loud, and I think people must have that I was kinda weird. I found myself actually understanding that heart grinding feeling that Valancourt and Emily must have felt on their last meeting and that scene which I normally would have considered over dramatic or too much like a soap opera actually began to seem very natural. All of Emily’s interactions with her aunt made me want to strangle the future Madame Montoni and when Montoni traps Emily in the castle and thwarts her every chance of escape, I felt her frustration.

The castle at Udolpho was probably the mostly richly illustrated in my mind, and all of Emily’s spooky adventures there had me scared too. (If some of you are raising your eyebrows, keep in mind that I mainly got the chance to read the book at around midnight if not well past it and I have a low tolerance for anything in the horror genre.) I think this book drew more out of me emotionally than any of the others, and while the length was horrifying, I found a way to appreciate Radcliffe’s wordiness.