The Mysteries of Udolpho

The Mysteries of Udolpho, Radcliffe's fourth and most popular novel, follows the fortunes of Emily St. Aubert, whosuffers, among other misadventures, the death of her father,supernatural terrors in a gloomy castle and the machinations of anItalian brigand. Often cited as the archetypal Gothic novel, Themovel, along with Radcliffe's The Romance of theForest, plays a prominent role in Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey,in which an impressionable young woman, after reading Radcliffe'snovel, comes to see her friends and acquaintances as Gothic villainsand victims with amusing results.