Okay, I'm torn between "Thank god, it's over" and "Wow, what a fascinating story." I still think it would make a good telenovela. The story is way too complicated and has too many characters and side-stories to reasonably fit into a movie or even a mini-series. That would break it. It is a story that, to develop its full potential, needs to be told exactly as Radcliffe tells it: slowly adding layer after layer of mystique and mystery, building a many skinned onion of tension that then, only in the last volume, slowly gets peeled open, revealing what's behind it all.

It's a book that does not gel with modern tastes very well, where everything has to be efficient, on-point and immediately gratifying. This book takes patience and devotion. But then the reward is fantastic. I absolutely understand why this book was so loved at a time when reading was for many people, especially many women, their main way of escapism, when there was no tv, no social media, no quick way to entertain yourself. And I also understand why it has fallen out of favor since. It's not an instant dopamine rush. Instead it is a slowly rising tide that only gets you fully submerged towards the end.

Bandits! Robbers! A very narrow escape. Okay, I admit it. The book is really exciting and there is never a dull moment. Well, maybe a few dull moments in all the landscape descriptions and poems, but the author really knows how to weave a tale. I'm beginning to understand why this book has captivated its readers so much and propelled the genre of the gothic novel to unexpected heights. It's the "Twilight" or "Iron Wings" of its time.

I'm doing the Jane Austen July and the book I had picked as non-fiction originally absolutely did not pull me in, so I DNFed that and decided to give Romney's book a try instead. I found it as audiobook on Spotify. So far I really like it. It is a good companion-read to "The Mysteries of Udolpho", since Ann Radcliffe is one of the authors featured by Romney. And also because I'm quite interested in "forgotten" female authors from Austen's time in general. I'm on a similar hunt for German female authors from the same period (because those also existed, but have been buried even deeper than the English ones).

I am reading this book for the Jane Austen July readathon, so I am very eager to finish it this month. That made me struggle with Radcliff's long-winded style and the many side-stories a bit more than I otherwise would have. In parts the book reminds me of one of those long Turkish telenovelas that go on for more than 100 episodes and that spend many minutes in each episode on montages with melodramatic music and people staring longingly into the distance. That's what it feels like to read this book. Actually, it would make a good basis for a telenovela like that. Yet there are so many secrets and mysteries, so many questions that need answering, that the tension rises and rises and I find it hard to put the book down, even though it is still hard to read.

Oh, and by the way ... Valancourt ... more useless than ever. Seriously, run, girl! Find someone else. He's a disaster waiting to happen and about as sexy as a bag of oatmeal.