The Mysteries of Udolpho
Emily St. Aubert is a sensitive young Frenchwoman whose father dies after a long illness, leaving her to the care of a vain and worldly aunt. The aunt marries the dark Italian nobleman Montoni, who soon carries them both off to his crumbling Apennine castle of Udolpho, a fortress where banditti drift through the corridors at night, where a black veil hides something Emily faints rather than describe, and where Montoni's intentions toward both his new wife's fortune and his niece's inheritance grow steadily more sinister. Across the wreckage of her family, Emily clings to her absent lover Valancourt and to the sensibility her father urged her to keep. Ann Radcliffe's 1794 novel was the runaway bestseller of its decade, the book Catherine Morland reads in Northanger Abbey and the work that defined the Gothic for a generation, balancing terror with reason, scenery, and a fundamentally rational world.
Themes & atmosphere
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Newly orphaned, young Frenchwoman Emily St. Aubert is taken from her father's country house to live with her aunt, who has just married the Italian Montoni. Montoni moves both women to his remote Apennine castle of Udolpho, where strange sounds and a black-veiled portrait push Emily toward escape.
The Mysteries of Udolpho was written by Ann Radcliffe and published in 1794. It is widely cited as the foundational gothic novel and is satirized in Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey.
Yes. The Mysteries of Udolpho was published in 1794 and is in the public domain. Free editions are available legally through Project Gutenberg.
The Mysteries of Udolpho is 506 pages in standard print editions, though page counts vary slightly between hardcover, paperback, and large-print formats.
At an average reading pace of about 250 words per minute, The Mysteries of Udolpho takes most readers 8 to 11 hours to finish.
The Mysteries of Udolpho is a standalone novel by an unknown author, not part of a series.
The Mysteries of Udolpho is available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats from Amazon, Bookshop.org, ThriftBooks, and most major bookstores.