The Mysteries of Udolpho

This book could've been about 200 pages shorter if they edited ninety percent of the "sublime" images and scenery from it. The protagonist Emily is kind of a prude as well. She's too exaggerated. Everything is grace, and prudence, and propriety. She almost doesn't have a personality. Oh and there's too much crying in this novel. Men are weeping openly almost every ten pages, and none of them seem emasculated by it. I would argue that Emily easily contributed to probably half of her misfortunes in the novel. She never stands up for herself or anyone else in the novel. Decorum is always restraining her. Her father supposedly made her in to this ideal woman, but that ultimately injures her. She's slow to act, if she does at all. It takes until the end of the novel (which I'm sure was Radcliffe's plan) to mary Valancourt, which would've happened much earlier if she had prevented her aunt from stealing her wedding. I was pretty disapointed when all of the supernatural stuff was explained at the end of the novel. It kind of takes the fun out of the story. Some of the explanations were a bit of a stretch too. The whole Pirates store treasure in the abandoned part of the house deal was a bit too much. The one interesting note is that the only man Emily has any control of is Valancourt, and that's because his womanliness (crying, neediness) exceeds hers. A ton of male domination in this novel. It's basically about one woman constantly being subjected to domineering men.