Romance of the Forest Part Two

I still wish Adeline would quit fainting but at least the book is starting to get interesting. When Adeline makes her plan with Peter to escape and ends up at the Marquis’ home is where things really start to become interesting. Her flight with Theodore and the journey that eventually leads her to his family is a lot more exciting and the use of the sublime in the parts that talk about her time with La Luc make one thing about nature differently. I enjoyed Radcliff’s vivid descriptions and the book starts to feel a little less gothic and a little more romantic. However comparing how far I am in the book with the number of pages still left to read, I knew that something was going to change. I was a bit disappointed in how Radcliff choose to tie everything together. After reading the entire book and with thirty pages left it didn’t seem right to give all the back ground information and tie up all the loose ends in one shot. I felt like I had become so invested in the book (partly because it was rather long) and to have everything in my opinion, so matter of factly tied up made me a bit sad. I wanted to be able to gradually learn what had happened to Adeline’s father and what would become of Theodore and LaMotte but summing it all up together took the fun out of guessing what would happen. Romance of the Forest while not one of my favorite books wasn’t awful; Radcliff really progresses what it means to write a novel. Her use of literary elements makes the book not only longer but adds another layer of horror and suspense. Along with that it also adds length, which would my biggest complaint, it really could have been summed up in about a hundred less pages, however, I’m sure the middle class readers of the time period would beg to differ

Romance of the Forest Part One

Thus far in reading Romance of the Forest I’ve yet to be entertained I’ve just been annoyed. Adeline, while being the epitome of a proper woman of the time period is just downright annoying! I understand the sections of the book serve to act as a guide to show how women of society should act and that by fainting she is showing her virtue and exerting control but really, how many times does she have to faint?  It makes reading Anne Radcliff so much less enjoyable. However I am glad that there are bits of excitement being added in to keep things interesting. The old abbey with its supposed haunting and stories of its past coupled with the circumstances in which the LaMottes and Adeline come to inhabit it keep the book interesting enough that I don’t want to throw it down everything Adeline faints. I am starting to hope though that they story line will pick up a bit. It tends to drag in parts and the details that go into some parts of the story, in my opinion could be left out but I assume it was just the style of the time.