Book Review--Castles and Dungeons and Darkness-Oh My!


by Linore Rose Burkard - Date: 2007-02-08 - Word Count: 413 Share This!

This is a true late eighteenth century book in the sense that it has a leisurely (very leisurely) opening, a great deal of waxing eloquent on the beauties of nature--which are well written, but so frequent that one becomes inured to them--and enough pages to fill up the four volumes that the book originally was published as (over 600 of them).

But there's more--castles, and dungeons and darkness, Oh my! In true Gothic fashion, the book does not disappoint in the gloom and suspense department, and is replete with all the trappings that make for some fun reading. There are plenty of scares and false alarms, and a couple of true horrors, and all is told with taste and style. There are certainly flaws, in the modern sense, of the drawn-out plot, and the fainting heroine routine gets a bit tired; but all in all, a fascinating study of an early novel, and a hero and heroine you root for.

The high moral tone is refreshing though a little too strained; And disappointingly, the sense of being in the late sixteenth century is not as pronounced as one could wish for. (Aside from the castles and the absence of law and order in the land, that is.) More attention could have been given to costume, for instance, instead of just landscape, but the book earns five stars in my opinion for being an immense work that is very readable, even page-turning to a remarkable degree, and has a satisfying denouement. (There are a few elements that stretch plausibility, but this is certainly nothing new in fiction; and, given what the author needed to explain at the end, she does a fine job.)

Fans of the novel, of Austen and other nineteenth century authors, will find this book interesting in other ways, too. There are whispers of later works in many of the pages; one can hardly miss that Radcliffe influenced the later writers. In addition, any Regency reader worth her salt should read this book, if only because so many Regency heroines did. This Dover edition is unabridged from the original 1794, and my only niggle with it is that I waited in vain to come upon the scene on the cover of the book, but to no avail. (There are tapestries and curtains hiding fearful discoveries, for sure, but none that exactly correspond to the otherwise fitting and intriguing cover illustration.)

Notwithstanding, my advice is to get the book, and read it. You won't be sorry.


Related Tags: romance, books, novel, novel writing, gothic, gothic literature, english literature, 19th century

Linore Rose Burkard writes Inspirational Regency Romance as well as articles on Regency Life, Homeschooling, and Self-Improvement. She publishes a monthly eZine "Upon My Word!" which you can receive for FREE by signing up at her website quickly and easily. For her latest short story check Here Ms. Burkard graduated from the City University of New York with a Magna Cum Laude degree in English Literature, and now lives in Ohio with her husband and five children.

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