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162 reviews for:
The confessional of the black penitents, or The Italian
Ann Radcliffe, Ann Radcliffe
3.35 AVERAGE
162 reviews for:
The confessional of the black penitents, or The Italian
Ann Radcliffe, Ann Radcliffe
3.35 AVERAGE
adventurous
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
I feel like I would have been able to appreciate it more if I didn’t have to finish it in a matter of days for my assignment but it was still enjoyable. I genuinely think my favorite parts were just vivaldi being pissed and insulting people or being extremely dramatic.
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
This has all the elements one expects in a Gothic novel: conflicted lovers, crumbling edifices, sinister villains assisted by even more sinister assistants, disguises, poisoned daggers, ghostlike apparitions… For a modern reader, the pace, especially at the start is a little slow but, once one settles into the style and mood, the story becomes absorbing. The heroine is a little too good to be true and one becomes impatient with her scruples and gullibility, but is still glad when her happiness is assured after all the trials that she and her lover, Vivaldi, have to endure. A plus is the Italian setting with some wonderful descriptions of craggy peaks, wild forests and inhospitable plains as well as the splendid Bay of Naples. Recommended for those who want an escape from everyday concerns to a very different world.
This book was so good for so long and then in the last 100 pages every single character became INSUFFERABLE so I stopped reading in order to prevent myself from hating them all.
adventurous
dark
funny
hopeful
mysterious
medium-paced
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Influentially written with a good story but somewhat long.
2.5/5
As hinted at previously, this work reads very much as if someone took the characteristics of a Shakespeare play and stretched and strained it into the shape of a novel. There's some genre bending involved that made 'The Italian' into something not quite history, not quite tragedy,
not quite (romantic) comedy, that makes for something rather stilted but, ultimately, necessary stepping stone from 'The Spanish Tragedy' to, say, [b:Jane Eyre|10210|Jane Eyre|Charlotte Brontë|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1327867269s/10210.jpg|2977639]. The strongest aspect of all this, in my mind, was the character of Schedoni, which mixes the character of Iago and Macbeth into something that most closely approximates the complexities of a human being and is a direct ancestor of Raskalnikov, the Byronic hero, and the Count of Monte Cristo. I wasn't surprised, then, when I wiki'd this work and saw that a whole section was devoted to the menacing monk, as a civilization continuously won over by Milton's Satan is doomed to infatuation with the believable flawed, with all the mysteries of their tortured ego driving the majority of the plot. Comparatively, all the other characters pale into rote archetypal roles, as there are no foils when, out of the many names and characterizations, only one struts and starts and stares as we do at the record of our various temptations and respective indulgences.
The fact that I, raised Catholic, can read and passively put behind me what amounts to a load of anti-Catholic propaganda attests to both my own atheism and the changing fads of hatred. Anti-Catholic sentiment certainly has had an effect on the US, judging by the religious layouts of past presidents, and likely continues to play a role in other countries, but it seems rather pointless to confront it when there are so many more pressing identity politics issues (it wouldn't be identity politics if there weren't people who wanted me dead because of my identity, fuckercunts) to reckon with. Much has changed in the 222 years since this was first published, and at times reading this was akin to observing a living fossil with all its relevant irrelevancies. Barring the totaling of my eyesight, it was a worthwhile experience.
He thought that to be a guard over prisoners was nearly as miserable as being a prisoner himself. "I see no difference between them," said he, "except that the prisoner watches on one side of the door, and the centinel on the other."I have every reason in the world to hate this book. The writing is convoluted in aping Shakespeare while playing at novelhood, the plot is dramatic to a fault, and the edition itself contributed a fair deal to the decay of my eyesight with its compacted mess (the standard edition of this is around 500 pages while this is a mear 242) and increasing number of typos. However, from an academic perspective, this was a fascinating bridge between my studies of 16th/17th and the 19th century iterations of English literature, so my habit of not (purely) reading for entertainment came in handy. I'm not interested in reading more of Radcliffe, especially with the knowledge that 'The Italian' is seen as her most cohesive literary effort, but I'm glad to have it under my belt as reference, as well as for reading cred. The work also appeased my guilt over having been so 20th/21st century in my reading habits lately, and I am more than ready to venture elsewhere.
As hinted at previously, this work reads very much as if someone took the characteristics of a Shakespeare play and stretched and strained it into the shape of a novel. There's some genre bending involved that made 'The Italian' into something not quite history, not quite tragedy,
not quite (romantic) comedy, that makes for something rather stilted but, ultimately, necessary stepping stone from 'The Spanish Tragedy' to, say, [b:Jane Eyre|10210|Jane Eyre|Charlotte Brontë|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1327867269s/10210.jpg|2977639]. The strongest aspect of all this, in my mind, was the character of Schedoni, which mixes the character of Iago and Macbeth into something that most closely approximates the complexities of a human being and is a direct ancestor of Raskalnikov, the Byronic hero, and the Count of Monte Cristo. I wasn't surprised, then, when I wiki'd this work and saw that a whole section was devoted to the menacing monk, as a civilization continuously won over by Milton's Satan is doomed to infatuation with the believable flawed, with all the mysteries of their tortured ego driving the majority of the plot. Comparatively, all the other characters pale into rote archetypal roles, as there are no foils when, out of the many names and characterizations, only one struts and starts and stares as we do at the record of our various temptations and respective indulgences.
The fact that I, raised Catholic, can read and passively put behind me what amounts to a load of anti-Catholic propaganda attests to both my own atheism and the changing fads of hatred. Anti-Catholic sentiment certainly has had an effect on the US, judging by the religious layouts of past presidents, and likely continues to play a role in other countries, but it seems rather pointless to confront it when there are so many more pressing identity politics issues (it wouldn't be identity politics if there weren't people who wanted me dead because of my identity, fuckercunts) to reckon with. Much has changed in the 222 years since this was first published, and at times reading this was akin to observing a living fossil with all its relevant irrelevancies. Barring the totaling of my eyesight, it was a worthwhile experience.
"But, if you be afraid to hear the worst,
Then let the worst, unheard, fall on your head."
-Shakespeare