Mysteries of Udolpho

Ann Radcliffe

Description

The Mysteries of Udolpho (1794) is the archetypal Gothic novel. A young woman, Emily St. Aubert, suffers the death of her father, followed by worsening physical and psychological death, mirrored in a landscape of crumbling castles and emotive Alps.

Informations

• Publié par: The Floating Press
• Date de parution: 01 mai 2009
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781775411017
• Langue: English

Extrait

THE MYSTERIES OF UDOLPHO
A ROMANCE INTERSPERSED WITH SOME PIECES OF POETRY
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ANN RADCLIFFE
 
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The Mysteries of Udolpho A Romance Interspersed With Some Pieces of Poetry First published in 1794 ISBN 978-1-775411-01-7 © 2009 The Floating Press
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Contents
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VOLUME 1 Chapter I Chapter II Chapter III Chapter IV Chapter V Chapter VI Chapter VII Chapter VIII Chapter IX Chapter X Chapter XI Chapter XII Chapter XIII VOLUME 2 Chapter I Chapter II Chapter III Chapter IV Chapter V Chapter VI Chapter VII Chapter VIII Chapter IX Chapter X Chapter XI Chapter XII VOLUME 3 Chapter I Chapter II Chapter III Chapter IV Chapter V Chapter VI Chapter VII Chapter VIII Chapter IV Chapter X Chapter XI Chapter XII Chapter XIII VOLUME 4 Chapter I Chapter II Chapter III Chapter IV Chapter V Chapter VI Chapter VII Chapter VIII Chapter IV Chapter X Chapter XI Chapter XII Chapter XIII Chapter XIV Chapter XV Chapter XVI Chapter XVII Chapter XVIII Chapter XIX Endnotes
 
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Fate sits on these dark battlements, and frowns, And, as the portals open to receive me, Her voice, in sullen echoes through the courts, Tells of a nameless deed.
VOLUME 1
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Chapter I
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Home is the resort Of love, of joy, of peace and plenty, where, Supporting and supported, polish'd friends And dear relations mingle into bliss. [1]
On the pleasant banks of the Garonne, in the province of Gascony,stood, in the year 1584, the chateau of Monsieur St. Aubert. Fromits windows were seen the pastoral landscapes of Guienne and Gasconystretching along the river, gay with luxuriant woods and vine, andplantations of olives. To the south, the view was bounded by themajestic Pyrenees, whose summits, veiled in clouds, or exhibitingawful forms, seen, and lost again, as the partial vapours rolledalong, were sometimes barren, and gleamed through the blue tinge ofair, and sometimes frowned with forests of gloomy pine, that sweptdownward to their base. These tremendous precipices were contrastedby the soft green of the pastures and woods that hung upon theirskirts; among whose flocks, and herds, and simple cottages, the eye,after having scaled the cliffs above, delighted to repose. To thenorth, and to the east, the plains of Guienne and Languedoc were lostin the mist of distance; on the west, Gascony was bounded by thewaters of Biscay.
M. St. Aubert loved to wander, with his wife and daughter, on themargin of the Garonne, and to listen to the music that floated on itswaves. He had known life in other forms than those of pastoralsimplicity, having mingled in the gay and in the busy scenes of theworld; but the flattering portrait of mankind, which his heart haddelineated in early youth, his experience had too sorrowfullycorrected. Yet, amidst the changing visions of life, his principlesremained unshaken, his benevolence unchilled; and he retired from themultitude 'more in PITY than in anger,' to scenes of simple nature,to the pure delights of literature, and to the exercise of domesticvirtues.
He was a descendant from the younger branch of an illustrious family,and it was designed, that the deficiency of his patrimonial wealthshould be supplied either by a splendid alliance in marriage, or bysuccess in the intrigues of public affairs. But St. Aubert had toonice a sense of honour to fulfil the latter hope, and too small aportion of ambition to sacrifice what he called happiness, to theattainment of wealth. After the death of his father he married avery amiable woman, his equal in birth, and not his superior infortune. The late Monsieur St. Aubert's liberality, or extravagance,had so much involved his affairs, that his son found it necessary todispose of a part of the family domain, and, some years after hismarriage, he sold it to Monsieur Quesnel, the brother of his wife,and retired to a small estate in Gascony, where conjugal felicity,and parental duties, divided his attention with the treasures ofknowledge and the illuminations of genius.
To this spot he had been attached from his infancy. He had oftenmade excursions to it when a boy, and the impressions of delightgiven to his mind by the homely kindness of the grey-headed peasant,to whom it was intrusted, and whose fruit and cream never failed, hadnot been obliterated by succeeding circumstances. The green pasturesalong which he had so often bounded in the exultation of health, andyouthful freedom—the woods, under whose refreshing shade he hadfirst indulged that pensive melancholy, which afterwards made astrong feature of his character—the wild walks of the mountains, theriver, on whose waves he had floated, and the distant plains, whichseemed boundless as his early hopes—were never after remembered bySt. Aubert but with enthusiasm and regret. At length he disengagedhimself from the world, and retired hither, to realize the wishes ofmany years.
The building, as it then stood, was merely a summer cottage, renderedinteresting to a stranger by its neat simplicity, or the beauty ofthe surrounding scene; and considerable additions were necessary tomake it a comfortable family residence. St. Aubert felt a kind ofaffection for every part of the fabric, which he remembered in hisyouth, and would not suffer a stone of it to be removed, so that thenew building, adapted to the style of the old one, formed with itonly a simple and elegant residence. The taste of Madame St. Aubertwas conspicuous in its internal finishing, where the same chastesimplicity was observable in the furniture, and in the few ornamentsof the apartments, that characterized the manners of its inhabitants.
The library occupied the west side of the chateau, and was enrichedby a collection of the best books in the ancient and modernlanguages. This room opened upon a grove, which stood on the brow ofa gentle declivity, that fell towards the river, and the tall treesgave it a melancholy and pleasing shade; while from the windows theeye caught, beneath the spreading branches, the gay and luxuriantlandscape stretching to the west, and overlooked on the left by thebold precipices of the Pyrenees. Adjoining the library was a green-house, stored with scarce and beautiful plants; for one of theamusements of St. Aubert was the study of botany, and among theneighbouring mountains, which afforded a luxurious feast to the mindof the naturalist, he often passed the day in the pursuit of hisfavourite science. He was sometimes accompanied in these littleexcursions by Madame St. Aubert, and frequently by his daughter;when, with a small osier basket to receive plants, and another filledwith cold refreshments, such as the cabin of the shepherd did notafford, they wandered away among the most romantic and magnificentscenes, nor suffered the charms of Nature's lowly children toabstract them from the observance of her stupendous works. Whenweary of sauntering among cliffs that seemed scarcely accessible butto the steps of the enthusiast, and where no track appeared on thevegetation, but what the foot of the izard had left; they would seekone of those green recesses, which so beautifully adorn the bosom ofthese mountains, where, under the shade of the lofty larch, or cedar,they enjoyed their simple repast, made sweeter by the waters of thecool stream, that crept along the turf, and by the breath of wildflowers and aromatic plants, that fringed the rocks, and inlaid thegrass.
Adjoining the eastern side of the green-house, looking towards theplains of Languedoc, was a room, which Emily called hers, and whichcontained her books, her drawings, her musical instruments, with somefavourite birds and plants. Here she usually exercised herself inelegant arts, cultivated only because they were congenial to hertaste, and in which native genius, assisted by the instructions ofMonsieur and Madame St. Aubert, made her an early proficient. Thewindows of this room were particularly pleasant; they descended tothe floor, and, opening upon the little lawn that surrounded thehouse, the eye was led between groves of almond, palm-trees,flowering-ash, and myrtle, to the distant landscape, where theGaronne wandered.
The peasants of this gay climate were often seen on an evening, whenthe day's labour was done, dancing in groups on the margin of theriver. Their sprightly melodies, debonnaire steps, the fancifulfigure of their dances, with the tasteful and capricious manner inwhich the girls adjusted their simple dress, gave a character to thescene entirely French.
The front of the chateau, which, having a southern aspect, openedupon the grandeur of the mountains, was occupied on the ground floorby a rustic hall, and two excellent sitting rooms. The first floor,for the cottage had no second story, was laid out in bed-chambers,except one apartment that opened to a balcony, and which wasgenerally used for a breakfast-room.
In the surrounding ground, St. Aubert had made very tastefulimprovements; yet, such was his attachment to objects he hadremembered from his boyish days, that he had in some instancessacrificed taste to sentiment. There were two old larches thatshaded the building, and interrupted the prospect; St. Aubert hadsometimes declared that he believed he should have been weak enoughto have wept at their fall. In addition to these larches he planteda little grove of beech, pine, and mountain-ash. On a lofty terrace,formed by the swelling bank of the river, rose a plantation oforange, lemon, and palm-trees, whose fruit, in the coolness ofevening, breathed del