Started: August 1
Finished: August 27
Notes: I've been on something of a Gothic literature reading phase the last year or so, yet I've yet to read anything from this prominent author of the period. Now I'm jumping in.
Mini review: I heard this one called the quintessential gothic novel, and I can see that, because all the elements are here rolled into one. A young French woman suffers the passing of her parents and is then placed under the care of an evil aunt and uncle who force her to move to a haunted castle in Italy where she is held against her will. Along the way our heroine falls in love, is caught up in misadventures with bandits and ghosts and more, cries a lot, and stares out upon scenery of forests and mountains. Most modern readers would probably find this one long and dull, and I can appreciate that, but I've also grown a fondness for such 18th-and-19th-Century novels because I've come to appreciate what the writers are trying to accomplish. Story, mainly meaning plot movement and characters, is king in our day and age, and there's nothing wrong with that, but earlier periods often had what some would consider more artistic motives, usually either with a focus upon the visuals of the outside world (sort of like a painter) or a focus upon the sufferings of the inner world (sort of like an analyst) or a mixture of both, while some earlier fictions were basically travelogues or sort of educational guides for readers who rarely got to see much of the world beyond their immediate area. Again, all this is likely quite boring for modern readers, but I have an occasional fondness for it.
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