jupitersterrain four

Adeline also finds a manuscript written by someone who had been held captive inside the abbey during 1642

He informs her that he is imprisoned and his death is imminent because of the assault he made on his general officer

Pierre de la Motte is placed on trial for a robbery he previously committed against the Marquis before he knew who the Marquis was

While Pierre is on trial, witnesses come forward, and it is discovered that the Marquis is not who he claims to be; he had previously murdered a relation to Adeline and stole the person’s identity. Because of these recent developments, Theodore is released from his imprisonment while the Marquis poisons himself, but not before he confesses all his wrongdoings






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cavernous landscapes and labyrinthine passages of Sicily's castles and convents to reveal the shameful secrets of its all-powerful aristocracy


and went all, "Family values, my dear!" on her, even though he was part of one of the most dysfunctional, sex-crazy families in history

Villains are numerous, from the unloving father to his “seductress” second wife to an odious unwanted suitor to a malignant abbot of a monastery to several packs of bandits

doors with rusting locks . Two ship wrecks occur. Several crumbling buildings appear in the forest

Several people believed to have died turn up alive and well

Ghost sightings, murder, poisoning, sword fights, dungeons, forced marriage, dark secrets–all of these elements add to the stress and excitement
 The “Mad Woman in the Attic” 

You can see a direct line from fairy tales to the gothic elements of Radcliffe to the sensation fiction Wilkie Collins 






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The story highlights the trapped woman within her own house

She softened her refusal with a tender grace

abandoned castles, expansive mountain ranges, and dark forests

She is trapped in Aunt Cheron's tacky house which is filled with large furniture, servants in spiffy uniforms, and gaudy decorations

Portraying her heroine's inner life, creating a thick atmosphere of fear, and providing a gripping plot that continues to thrill readers today


HIGH mid Alverna's awful steeps,
  Eternal shades, and silence dwell,
Save, when the gale resounding sweeps,
  Sad straings are faintly heard to swell:

Enthron'd amid the wild impending rocks,
  Involv'd in clouds, and brooding future woe,
The demon Superstition Nature shocks,
  And waves her Sceptre o'er the world below.

Around her throne, amid the mingling glooms,
  Wild--hideous forms are slowly seen to glide;
She bids them fly to shade earth's brightest blooms,
  And spread the blast of Desolation wide.

See! in the darkened air their fiery course!
  The sweeping ruin settles o'er the land,
Terror leads on their steps with madd'ning force,
  And Death and Vengeance close the ghastly band!

Mark the purple streams that flow!
Mark the deep empassioned woe!
Frantic Fury's dying groan!
Virtue's sigh, and Sorrow's moan!

[PAGE 29]
Wide--wide the phantoms swell the loaded air
With shrieks of anguish--madness and despair!
  Cease your ruin! spectrs dire!
    Cease your wild terrific sway!
  Turn your steps--and check your ire,
    Yield to peace and mourning day!"



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But chief I love thee, when thy lucid car
   Sheds through the fleecy clouds a trembling gleam,
And shews the misty mountain from afar,
   The nearer forest, and the valley's stream:

And nameless objects in the vale below,
   That floating dimly to the musing eye,
Assume, at Fancy's touch, fantastic shew,
   And raise her sweet romantic visions high.

Then let me stand amidst thy glooms profound
   On some wild woody steep, and hear the breeze
That swells in mournful melody around,
   And faintly dies upon the distant trees.

What melancholy charm steals o'er the mind!
   What hallow'd tears the rising rapture greet!
While many a viewless spirit in the wind
   Sighs to the lonely hour in accents sweet!

[PAGE 209]

Ah! who the dear illusions pleas'd would yield,
   Which Fancy wakes from silence and from shades,
For all the sober forms of Truth reveal'd,
   For all the scenes that Day's bright eye pervades!"