I know this book has been a big one to tackle. I apologize for the amount required this month. Don't panic about where you are. There are still two weeks before we meet.
I also wanted to alleviate any stress about the next selection. I have another novel to recommend, but I have two plays to read as an alternative to the novel. The plays (yes, two, but they are short) will enable those who aren't able to finish Udolpho to continue reading in October-November and not feel like they are being left behind.
I had it in my head that a month's reading should be maxed out at about 400 pages, give or take a few. So, the next time we tackle such a huge book, we'll split it in half and meet twice on it (we'll HAVE to do that for Tolstoy or Dostoevsky).
So, relax and enjoy what you are reading. I think the pace is pushing things a bit, but don't stress. See if you can guess what "natural" occurrences are causing the mysterious/supernatural perceptions. It'll make the reading more interesting.
Showing posts with label The Mysteries of Udolpho. Show all posts
Showing posts with label The Mysteries of Udolpho. Show all posts
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
Saturday, September 26, 2009
Keep Reading!
The trials of everyone trying to obtain a copy of this book is kind of ironic in that there are such crazy obstacles and adventures within the story! You may find segments of the story to be slow, but I PROMISE, it allows her to tie everything up nicely at the end. So, keep on reading. She builds and builds and builds and then resolves. Her writing style is definitely a true and perfect exhibition of denouement!
Ann Radcliffe is flowery with her descriptions of things, yet this is influenced by other artists she admires. She makes mention of a couple of painters in her story. Looking at their works helps one understand her writing style better. (To view such pieces, search Salvator Rosa, Claude Lorraine, Gaspard Poussin, Domenico Zampieri). By viewing these paintings, you can understand more of the landscape and the mood Radcliffe invokes through her writings.
Like Dracula, there is hope, so you must journey to the "end of the rainbow" to have that satisfaction. Enjoy and keep reading!
Ann Radcliffe is flowery with her descriptions of things, yet this is influenced by other artists she admires. She makes mention of a couple of painters in her story. Looking at their works helps one understand her writing style better. (To view such pieces, search Salvator Rosa, Claude Lorraine, Gaspard Poussin, Domenico Zampieri). By viewing these paintings, you can understand more of the landscape and the mood Radcliffe invokes through her writings.
Like Dracula, there is hope, so you must journey to the "end of the rainbow" to have that satisfaction. Enjoy and keep reading!
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Ann Radcliffe and the Gothic Novel
"Terror and horror are so far opposite, that the first expands the soul, and awakes the faculties to a high degree of life; the other contracts, freezes, and nearly annihilates them. I apprehend that neither Shakespeare nor Milton by their fictions, nor Mr. Burke by his reasoning, anywhere looked to positive horror as a source of the sublime, though they all agree that terror is a very high one; and there lies the great difference between horror and terror, but in uncertainty and obscurity, that accompany the first, respecting the dreader evil." -- Ann Radcliffe
Ann Radcliffe was born on July 9, 1764 in Holborn, London, England to a haberdasher, which gave her entrance into the artistic world due to those with whom her father came in contact. She married a William Radcliffe, an editor of the English Chronicle in 1788. Without children in this marriage, Ann turned to writing to fill her time. Her husband much encouraged this pastime.
Publishing two works anonymously, Ann Radcliffe found acclaim in the genre of Gothic fiction. Although many of the highly educated and upper crust of society found these tales to be nothing more than "sensational women's entertainment" it influenced great writers such as Jane Austen, Sir Walter Scott, the Bronte sisters (esp. Jane Eyre), and Edgar Allen Poe. Still, she received great public acclaim and large compensations for her following two books; The Mysteries of Udolpho (published 1794 and our next reading) making her the most popular novelist in England at the time.
The Gothic genre was, early on, an attempt to meld the fantastic found in medieval literature with the realism in contemporary literature. Dark and dilapidated castles, swooning heroines, the supernatural along with combining both physical and mental horrors captivated readers of Gothic fiction. Radcliffe developed her style in response to trying to explain the supernatural. Demonstrated in her novels is the sense that even supernatural occurrences could be traced back to natural beginnings.
Although still finding favor and audience for her literature, Ann Radcliffe stepped out of the literary scene and was believed deceased in 1816. It was even published that she had died of "terrors." However, it wasn't until 7 February 1823 that she died, probably due to respiratory problems caused by pneumonia, complicated with her asthma. Again, upon her true passing, it was published more fantastically, touting that 'she died in a state of mental desolation not to be described'.
Radcliffe's influence upon the genre popularized the concept and many others copied the style, sacrificing it to an early death due to the unimaginative imitations of such works, leaving it to be mocked and parodied in other literature including Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey.
Ann Radcliffe was born on July 9, 1764 in Holborn, London, England to a haberdasher, which gave her entrance into the artistic world due to those with whom her father came in contact. She married a William Radcliffe, an editor of the English Chronicle in 1788. Without children in this marriage, Ann turned to writing to fill her time. Her husband much encouraged this pastime.
Publishing two works anonymously, Ann Radcliffe found acclaim in the genre of Gothic fiction. Although many of the highly educated and upper crust of society found these tales to be nothing more than "sensational women's entertainment" it influenced great writers such as Jane Austen, Sir Walter Scott, the Bronte sisters (esp. Jane Eyre), and Edgar Allen Poe. Still, she received great public acclaim and large compensations for her following two books; The Mysteries of Udolpho (published 1794 and our next reading) making her the most popular novelist in England at the time.
The Gothic genre was, early on, an attempt to meld the fantastic found in medieval literature with the realism in contemporary literature. Dark and dilapidated castles, swooning heroines, the supernatural along with combining both physical and mental horrors captivated readers of Gothic fiction. Radcliffe developed her style in response to trying to explain the supernatural. Demonstrated in her novels is the sense that even supernatural occurrences could be traced back to natural beginnings.
Although still finding favor and audience for her literature, Ann Radcliffe stepped out of the literary scene and was believed deceased in 1816. It was even published that she had died of "terrors." However, it wasn't until 7 February 1823 that she died, probably due to respiratory problems caused by pneumonia, complicated with her asthma. Again, upon her true passing, it was published more fantastically, touting that 'she died in a state of mental desolation not to be described'.
Radcliffe's influence upon the genre popularized the concept and many others copied the style, sacrificing it to an early death due to the unimaginative imitations of such works, leaving it to be mocked and parodied in other literature including Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey.
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