The Mysteries of Udolpho

In the year 1584, the chateau of Monsieur St. Aubert stands on the banks of a river called the Garonne in the province of Gascony (in France). The landscape is lush, with the Pyrenees mountains to the south. St. Aubert likes to wander the area with his wife (Madame St. Aubert) and daughter (Emily). He comes from an illustrious family but doesn’t have much money, particularly due to some of his father’s bad financial decisions. And because St. Aubert wasn’t willing to sacrifice his own happiness for money, he ended up married to a woman who is friendly but no richer than him.

St. Aubert’s chateau was just a simple summer cottage until he made some renovations to allow it to fit his whole family. Now, the house has a big library with new and old books. Next to the library is a greenhouse with rare and beautiful plants. Emily has her own room full of books, drawings, and musical instruments.

Although St. Aubert has mostly lived in happiness at La Vallée, his family had some difficult periods in the past, including the death of two very young sons, leaving Emily as the only surviving child. From then on, St. Aubert became particularly protective of Emily, teaching her to be brave but to exercise self-control. He also taught her about scholarly subjects, like languages, art, and science.

Emily likes to walk around the local area, particularly to a little fishing house by the Garonne. One day, Emily sees that someone has written an anonymous sonnet on the wall of the fishing house that seems to be about her, although she is anxious because she can’t be sure she’s the subject. She doesn’t think about the sonnet, however, after St. Aubert falls ill.

Despite his severe fever, St. Aubert eventually begins to make a full recovery. At one point during his recovery, he asks Emily to play the lute for him. She keeps her lute in the fishing house, so she goes there, only to hear the sound of someone already playing the lute. She listens until the musician finishes, then she goes in and finds that the fishing house is totally empty.

Emily takes the lute and meets up with St. Aubert and Madame St. Aubert on their way to the top of a grassy hill. There, they sit and look out at the tranquil landscape while Emily plays for them until the evening. It’s so pleasant that they all regret having to leave—and for Madame St. Aubert, this is the last time she’ll ever see that hill.

As they’re leaving the hill, Madame St. Aubert notices that she’s missing a bracelet that has a lot of sentimental value to her because it has a miniature on it of Emily. Madame St. Aubert remembers last placing it on a table in the fishing house before going on the walk. The family searches for it, but they can’t find it. Emily fears that the mysterious lute-player and sonnet-writer may also have stolen the bracelet. She decides never to go alone to the fishing house again.

When St. Aubert, Madame St. Aubert, and Emily make it back to their home, they see an unusual amount of activity. It turns out Quesnel and Madame Quesnel, Madame St. Aubert’s brother and sister-in-law, have come to visit. Quesnel and Madame St. Aubert have never been particularly close, particularly since Quesnel didn’t approve of her marriage to a relatively poor man. He himself married a rich Italian heiress.

Quesnel and Madame Quesnel talk with St. Aubert and Madame St. Aubert, marveling at how the two of them manage to live in such a remote area without getting bored. Quesnel, who also has a stake in La Vallée (though he seldom visits), now wants to improve it so that he can bring some friends, a duke and a marquis, to spend a couple months there. He also wants to cut down some of the nearby trees. St. Aubert is horrified by these suggestions, but Quesnel says he trusts St. Aubert to make these changes before the next time he returns.

Later that evening, Quesnel takes St. Aubert aside to speak to him alone. No one hears the conversation, but when St. Aubert comes out of the room, he looks pale and disturbed. The two of them have another mysterious conversation the next day before Quesnel leaves.

That evening, after the guests are gone, Madame St. Aubert doesn’t feel well, so St. Aubert and Emily go on a walk alone. They go to see some pensioners whom St. Aubert supports with a weekly stipend. As they walk, St. Aubert tells Emily about how the evening gloom of the woods has always calmed and delighted him, making him think of the supernatural, like fairies. Emily says she feels exactly the same. She recites a poem she composed called “The Glow-Worm.”

St. Aubert and Emily return to La Vallée. They find that Madame St. Aubert has already retired to her chamber, and the next day she has a fever. St. Aubert calls a physician and tells him that he had a bad feeling earlier that his wife’s illness might be fatal. The physician doesn’t understand the disease, but Madame St. Aubert herself feels that she is about to die. Madame St. Aubert tries to be brave and pass on whatever wisdom she can before finally dying of her illness.