After a bit of an interruption, I am back to reading Ann Radcliffe's The Mysteries of Udolpho. Emily St. Aubert is now a ward of her father's sister, Madame Cheron, who is shallow and self-absorbed. She denies Emily any possible happiness. For a brief, shining moment Emily was betrothed to the handsome Valancourt, but her happiness was dashed when Madame Cheron accepted a marriage proposal from Count Montoni. Of course the only thing that pleases Madame Cheron is what others can give her. From the Count she wants his title and all the glorious trappings that come along with his money. They have left Toulouse to travel to the Count's home in Italy. At the moment they are in Venice. One of the things I love about this book are the many descriptions of the scenery. Nature is truly sublime in this book.
"Nothing could exceed Emily's admiration on her first view of Venice, with its islets, palaces, and towers rising out of the sea, whose clear surface reflected the tremulous picture in all its colours. The sun, sinking in the west, tinted the waves and the lofty mountains of Friuli, which skirt the northern shores of the Adriatic, with a saffron glow, while on the marble porticos and colonnades of St. Mark were thrown the rich lights and shades of evening. As they glided on, the grander features of this city appeared more distinctly: its terraces, crowned with airy yet majestic fabrics, touched,as they now were, with the splendour of the setting sun, appeared as if they had been called up from the ocean by the wand of an enchanter, rather than by mortal hands."
I've read that Radcliffe actually did not travel to all the places she wrote about. In the biographical information in my copy of Udolpho it says:
"...the tours of Southern Europe undertaken in the novels were more exotic, based on travel books, fashionable landscape paintings, and a vivid imagination; the scene-painting sometimes heightened by verse. Walter Scott was to describe Radcliffe as 'the first poetess of romantic fiction'."
I am also finding that there is quite a lot of poetry in this novel. Each chapter starts with some sort of poem or part of some verse. At times there are lengthy poems within the chapters as well. I think much of it is actually by Radcliffe, though I didn't read the introduction (yet)--I assume the editor will go into more detail on this aspect of the novel. I am not much of a poetry reader, as you may know, so I am getting a small weekly dose of poetry while reading Radcliffe as well!