"My dreams were at once more fantastic and agreeable than my writings."

Mary Shelley quote.  And about the best excuse I have for why I stopped writing this blog, because I was really having a great time reading the books and writing on them here.  And busy is really no excuse for anything.  In other words, why did I stop?

Okay. My world did look a bit like this...

But that's really no excuse either, since that's what I'm always like.

And wow this post is boring. It feels like a necessary thing to do as far as getting started, but still.

Yeah.

Long story longer... I'm starting this sucker again. I'm going to keep at it come hell or high water because I've largely given up on things in my life and even if it is just reading old books and writing about them, this is something I can do.

Let the horror return!

The blood! The torment! And of course, the fainting!!

I'm going back to Castle of Wolfenbach tomorrow.

Next Read! Castle of Wolfenbach by Eliza Parsons

For one thing, I think it is about time that I actually look into the history of gothic and detective literature.  I'm still all for just reading for pure enjoyment, but I'm getting curious about the history and significance of these novels.

So my next read is The Castle of Wolfenbach by Eliza Parsons and is one of the Northanger Novels.  It was written before The Mysteries of the Udolpho and is more in line with what classic gothic literature is than what Radcliffe wrote.

All I'm hoping for is less poetry.

So you have your proper innocent young thing, running from her incestuous uncle.

Along with masses of bad writing and a story that moves like a racehorse--at least by all accounts, and the typical gothic heroine who faints and cries all the time.  Radcliffe was different in making her heroines more proactive and reasonable and making all seemingly supernatural stuff actually explainable.  This is going to be gothic horror as it normally was and my first foray into the Dan Brown of the age.  I can't wait.

Next Read!--Starting May 9th!

The Leavenworth Case by Anna Katherine Green.

I'd have more to say on this book but most of the stuff I can find on it is more about how Anna Katherine Green is the mother of mysteries and how she started this series with Detective Ebenezer Gryce 9 years before Sherlock Holmes. Another unsung woman author. Etc.

Not that I'm against lamenting the unfairness of unsung authors, but... Tell me about the book! So here is the synopsis that I know about.


Big millionaire Horatio Leavenworth is murdered in his library. The case is attended by Ebenezer Gryce with the help of a junior law partner. There are family members with motives, including daughters--one of whom said junior law partner falls in love with (of course!)

And that is what I know. Not much for a back of book blurb, is it? So I'll have to write a better one at the end. Remind me, please.

Anyway, here is where you find it.
Amazon--Free!
Barnes and Noble--Free!
Project Gutenberg--Free!
GirleBooks--Free!

So on May 9th I start reading and we'll find out how Gryce stacks up to Holmes.

Other Weirdos! Woo! (An Introduction to the Classics Club Challenge)

Trolling about for discussions on books--as usual-- I followed a link to another link to another link and wound up here-- The Classics Club. They have a little challenge where you read a list of classic books-- a list of your own making-- within a certain amount of time and blog about them. And they are un-fusty about what constitutes a classic. (I had to make sure of this before I decided to join, since most of the books I like to read tend not to land on the official classics lists.) Their whole purpose is to get discussions going about classic books and my whole purpose is to get discussions going about horrid books and mysteries. Wee!!

In order to join I must put a list of at least 50 books I intend to read here and give a date to have them finished by. I'm going to go with 3 years. It gives me a lot of room and I can always add more books. Here is my list. I make no promises that this is the order I will read things in.

Northanger Horrid Novel Collection

1.      Castle of Wolfenback- Eliza Parsons

2.      The Necromancer- Ludwig Flammenberg

3.      Horrid Mysteries- Marquis de Grosse

4.      The Mysterious Warning- Eliza Parsons

5.      The Italian- Ann Radcliffe

6.      The Midnight Bell- Francis Lathom

7.      Clermont, A Tale- Regina Maria Roche

8.      Orphan of the Rhine- Eleanor Sleath

More Gothic-ish Sorts

9.      Phantom of the Opera- Gaston Leroux

10.  The Monk, A Romance- Matthew Lewis

11.  The Phantom Ship- Frederick Marryat

12.  The King in Yellow- Robert Chambers

13.  The Lancashire Witches, A Romance of Pendle Forest- William Harrison Ainsworth

14.  Catherine: A Story- William Makepeace Thackeray

15.  The Cloister and the Hearth- Charles Reade

16.  The Castle of Otranto- Horace Walpole

17.  Lady Audley’s Secret- Mary Elizabeth Braddon

18.  East Lynne- Ellen Wood

19.  Moonstone- Wilkie Collins

20.  The Haunted Hotel-Wilkie Collins

21.  The Tenant of Wildfell Hall- Anne Brontë

22.  Black Oxen- Gertrude Franklin Horn Atherton

23.  The Wind In the Rosebush and Other Stories of the Supernatural- Mary Eleanor Wilkins Freeman

24.  A New England Nun and Other Stories- Mary Eleanor Wilkins Freeman

25.  Melmoth the Wanderer- Charles Maturin

26.  Dracula- Bram Stoker

27.  Maria, or the Wrongs of Woman- Mary Wollstonecraft

28.  Vathek- William Beckford

29.  House of the Seven Gables- Nathaniel Hawthorne

30.  The Parasite- Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

UPDATE!!
Varney the Vampire Or the Feast of Blood- Thomas Preskett Prest
Wagner the Wehr-Wolf- George W.M. Reynolds
Mysteries of London- George W.M. Reynolds

Mysteries

31.  The Woman In Black- E.C. Bentley

32.  Mystery of Cloomber- Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

33.  The Man in Lower Ten- Mary Roberts Rinehart

34.  The Circular Staircase- Mary Roberts Rinehart

35.  The Bat- Avery Hopwood and Mary Roberts Rinehart

36.  Lady Molly of Scotland Yard- Baroness Orczy

37.  The Experiences of Loveday Brooke, Lady Detective- C.L. Pirkis

38.  The Avalanche: A Mystery- Gertrude Franklin Horn Atherton

39.  Monsieur Lecoq- Émile Gaboriau

40.  Dead Man’s Money- J.S. Fletcher

41.  The Paradise Mystery- J.S. Fletcher

42.  The Man Who Knew Too Much- G.K. Chesterton

43.  The Innocence of Father Brown- G.K. Chesterton

44.  The Red Thumb Mark- R. Austin Freeman

45.  The Mystery of 31 New Inn- R. Austin Freeman

46.  John Thorndyke’s Cases- R. Austin Freeman

47.  The Leavenworth Case- Anna Katharine Green

48.  That Affair Next Door- Anna Katharine Green

49.  The Circular Study- Anna Katharine Green

50.  Mystery of the Hasty Arrow- Anna Katharine Green

Mysteries of the Udolpho by Ann Radcliffe-- Starting Today!

Mysteries of the Udolpho is a roller coaster tale of poor, orphaned Emily St. Aubert who is sent to live with her aunt after her father's tragic death. Her aunt is married to an evil count (of course!), named Montoni, who is bent upon stealing Emily's inheritance and forcing her to marry his pawn, Count Morano, against her will. Alas! She is in love with another, a virtuous and handsome young man named Valancourt, from whom she is ripped away and held prisoner in the Castle of Udolpho. Castles, deaths, inheritances, abductions, imprisonments, ghosts, and escapes, it is by all accounts a heart-pounding, unput-downable read, with a slow start that heightens into a frenzy of suspense and excitement.

It is also quite long, though many (if you read comments on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Goodreads) have said that they were so mesmerized they could not put it down and finished it within days. Hope it lives up to the centuries of hype it has garnered. We'll see. Enjoy!!

You can find Mysteries of the Udolpho by Ann Radcliffe:

For Kindle-- Free!-- Here!
For Kindle as part of the Northanger Abbey Horrid Novel Collection-- $0.99-- Here!
For Nook-- $0.99-- Here!
On Project Gutenberg-- Free!-- Here!
On YorkU.ca-- Free!-- Here!
On Classicly-- Free!-- Here!

Next book on my list

Well, Dear Reader, did you guess?

Of course you did! (Though, because after a few days of blogging I surmise I have no dear readers who have been waiting and guessing the answer, I feel sure that you have come later, are reading this post prior to the earlier post, and are guessing at the question rather than the answer. Well, guess away and we'll call this my version of Gothic Jeopardy.) Where else to begin but where Catherine herself began! The Mysteries of Udolpho by Mrs. Ann Radcliffe!

I wish to start straight away, but, alas! I have no time to do so and therefore am beginning on the 15th of April when tax season ends. And though our hero and Catherine's love, Henry Tilney, declared that he read the work from end to end in a matter of 2 days, I believe, Dear Reader, I do not have the leisure of a gentleman. So as much as I might be engrossed and wish to think of nothing but Udolpho until I have have read every last word, I must go a bit slower than Mr. Tilney. Though if it really is so exciting...

I shall be reporting my progress and every shudder and shock as I read right here, and gossip about the characters. I shall, however, attempt to discuss no true spoilers, and only give such hints as to parts to titillate you, but not destroy your own nerve wracking pace in the book if you decide to read it sometime.

If you have no copy of your own already in your library, then I have a few suggestions as where to find it.

First off, it is available for free on Kindle if you look here.

It is also available for $0.99 as part of the Complete Horrid Novel Collection, also for Kindle, available here. I think this of good value, since it has all 9 of the novels I intend to be reading for much of the next year, and therefore gives you all the works at your immediate disposal.

If instead of a Kindle you have a Nook, do not despair. Though I cannot find the free edition, nor the Complete Horrid Novel Collection, there is a copy of Mysteries of the Udolpho available for $0.99 (still a paltry sum) available here.

If you have neither of such devises, you may still read it on your computer by accessing either pdf or html files at Project Gutenberg, YorkU.ca, and Classicly.com. All of these resources are free.

If you wish to find hard copy, I always recommend the local library or you may attempt to find it at the bookstore or website of your choosing.

Oh my god! I am so excited to begin! Until anon, Dear Reader, all of my most sincere love!