The Mysteries of Udolpho

I recently finished The Mysteries of Udolpho by Ann Radcliffe.  I have read her Romance of the Forest, and Udolpho had been on my list for awhile.  It was most famously lampooned in Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey.  In my freshman year of college, I took a course on gothic literature and we actually read excerpts from The Mysteries of Udolpho.  Our teaching fellow explained that it even though it was one of the formative (and genre-defining) gothic texts, it had been so thoroughly panned in the course feedback that they decided to drop it from the course.  One of my classmates said that she had read it on her own and it was a waste of time, and that she felt very disappointed in the mysterious “reveal.”  So I certainly had a good deal of forewarning, but I still wanted to read it myself.  Udolpho’s heroine is the young, beautiful and virtuous Emily St. Aubert.  She is a Frenchwoman and a good deal of the novel is her traversing the ‘sublime’ landscapes of France, Italy, the Alps and the Pyrenees.  After the death of her parents, she is spirited away by her aunt and new, villainous step-uncle Count Montoni to Italy.  They first travel to Venice, and then to Montoni’s ancestral pile-the Udolpho Castle of the title.  There, Emily becomes a prisoner, and realistically becomes concerned that Montoni will sell her to the highest bidder.  Radcliffe is also famous for creating the “explained supernatural”-a trope probably most exploited by (and familiar to viewers of) the Scooby Doo series.   Terry Castle is an academic who wrote the introduction to my Oxford edition, and she makes a very good case for The Mysteries of Udolpho‘s contributions to our current understanding of death and memory.  However, if you’re a general interest reader, I’d probably advise you to skip it.  If you’re interested in an early gothic story, I’d recommend The Monk by Matthew Lewis.  It’s much juicier, and a good deal shorter than 672 pages! Has anyone else read The Mysteries of Udolpho?  What do you think?

Eat Locally

One of my favorite trips in the summer months is to…Copley Square. You know how there’s a big library right there at the Green Line stop? Well, right across from it, on Tuesdays and Fridays from 11am to 6pm, there is a farmers market. There are many farms represented here, all selling delicious locally grown produce (and some are certified organic). In addition to produce, you can shop for uh, pottery. You can get sammiches, pizza, and breads from Iggy’s Bread. Sometimes there is a stand for Equal Exchange coffee. The goat cheese picnic lunch guy is there. Stillman Farms is also there with their coolers of meats. You can buy pies, cookies, brownies, honey, flowers, herbs and nut breads. If you can’t make it to the one in Copley Square, try finding another one! And when you go, make sure to take plenty of cash.

MYSTERY!

One of my favorite summer traditions has started up again with MYSTERY! on PBS.  This summer they seem to be featuring Inspector Lewis, Foyle’s War and the Inspector Lynley Mysteries.  And it looks like it will be the final season for both Foyle’s War and Inspector Lynley.  I’m not crazy about their credits redesign and Alan Cumming as host, but I always love a good British mystery.  I also find that most British productions feature the same rotating crew of about 80 actors, so there’s always a familiar face. The Inspector Lynley and Lewis mysteries are also based on literary detectives-Elizabeth George writes the popular Lynley mysteries and Inspector Lewis is a spin-off of Colin Dexter’s Inspector Morse series.  You can pick up one of these at Snell Library today!

Saturday

SaturdayContinuing my TBR 2008 Challenge, I read Saturday by Ian McEwan.  I loved McEwan’s Atonement, but was less crazy about McEwan’s Amsterdam and put down The Cement Garden after only a few pages.  My admittedly limited exposure to McEwan’s early works suggest that he takes a pretty dark view of human relations (and I think this shifts with Atonement, and Saturday, which follows it).  While I didn’t love Saturday with the same fervor as Atonement, I did find it interesting and well-written, and I’d recommend it to most readers. Saturday is the story of one London neurosurgeon’s Saturday-from his pre-dawn awakening, through his squash game, visiting his senile mother, his son’s jazz concert, to an evening family reunion, to a midnight surgery, to sleep.  In addition to this journey through one man’s life, the novel also looks at larger social issues.  Terrorism forms the backbone of the story, at both a macro and a micro level.  Henry Perowne is awakened by what he thinks is a plane crash caused by terrorists, and protestors against the Iraq War have gathered in the streets and parks of London on this February Saturday.  These protestors disrupt his day in multiple ways-forcing him to take alternate driving routes (and causing an accident with serious repercussions) and compeling him to grapple with his own thoughts and opinions on the British (and American) invasion.  Saturday also deals with other types of terrorism-the fear and raw tensions of city life-beatings and muggings, home invasion-dormant threats that are ever-present, and part of Henry’s bargain to live in the city.  The novel maintains a pretty constant state of high anxiety and it has what I would consider to be a nail-biting climax.  (I read it on the T and could feel my adrenaline surge).  I also think that it’s a fair and thoughtful novel, and it makes good use of Matthew Arnold’s ‘Dover Beach.’ Have any of you read Saturday?  What did you think?  And what do you think of Ian McEwan?

My vacation in Brazil

Greetings everyone, I have returned from my vacation in Brazil. It is winter down there so I have once again experienced the shortest day of the year on earth December 21 in the Northern Hemisphere and June 21in the southern Hemisphere. Fortunately, Sao Paulo winters are not as cold as Boston winters. The weather was mostly dry and overcast. However, the smog and the Traffic has gotten progressively worse. Sao Paulo is one of the top five largest mega cities in the world. Here is a link to wikipedia with more information: Sao Paulo Traffic in the city is so bad that the city government passed a law prohibiting cars with license plate numbers that are odd from being on the road during rush hours (8am-10am and 4pm-8pm) Monday, Wednesdays and Fridays. Cars with even numbers have a similar prohibition on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Most working people need to own two automobiles with different license plate numbers just so that they can drive to work 5 days a week. Of course there is always the bus and the subway…I have ridden on both during rush hour and it makes commuting in Boston seem easier. Riding the bus in Sao Paulo can physically challenging since the bus drivers drive very fast through the city’s narrow and twisting roadways. Pedestrians do not have the right of way on the city roads. So the Bostonian way of walking will get you killed or severely injured since motorists have the right of way. As for the subway during rush hour… the trains are packed and you need to literally push your way through people just to get out of the train because people will not step aside for you. So if you like having lots of personal space don’t ride the bus or the subway in Sao Paulo because you will be in very close proximity to strangers. Traveling hassles aside, I enjoyed spending time with my in-laws, who are very nice. I got quite the mental workout while I was there speaking and listening Brazilian Portuguese. I am glad to be back.