Udolpho and a Slight Attempt at Bettering Myself. But To Know Avail. At All. Ever.

Impulse buy today: 'The Mysteries of Udolpho'. No, I don't understand either. But I was feeling all 'failure-like' and then I remembered that some celebrity type said they read War and Peace just so they'd said they'd done it and in a 'I can now be proud of myself sort of way'. So I think this is why I have a socking great older-than-Jane-Austen-time piece of gothic literature on my bed, waiting to be devoured. But, like the other pile of books on my bedside table, (my bedside table has more books on it than my actual bookshelf) it will just wait impatiently there for ages and not get read and then I will feel like a bonafide lime-a-looser.

Note: we're ignoring, at the minute, that I just spent £8.99 on it in Blackwells, not Waterstones, where I have an actual card, and £8.99 over budget this week. Again. And I have an essay in for Friday and bits of German to do and various pieces of revision, and hand in historical linguistics questions to do, so in fact, I shouldn't be reading it at all. I am very bad indeed. But the intentions were good. and the postive points are that I will have finished a literary great, therefore I will feel much better about myself, I will be well read, and therefore have better English and better grades etc etc etc. Also it's about a girl called Emily who 'struggles against Montoni's rapacious schemes and the threat of her own psychological disintegration'. It's basically me. I am Emmeline and due to the Universe's rapacious schemes I am psychologically disintegrating. I am pretty sure of it'.

However, slipping to one side the fact that I do Linguistics, naturally requires more science based terminology and not literature, so the new influx of literary excellence will do me no good at all. But I intend to finish this GODDAMMMIT. And as an incentive, I will buy and read Charlotte Bronte's Shirley afterwards, because that sounds equally riveting. I do reccommend both books. I don't read nearly enough, or nearly as much as I used to and I am dissapointed. But not anymore ! I will be well read and be able to talk about interesting books at dinner parties. Or book clubs and such like. I may never go to a dinner party or a book club, esepecially where they talk about reading very old Gothic lit stuff, and yeah it's a 'classic' but a film has never been made of it. The only promotion it's had has been Austen's Northanger Abbey, in which the heroine reads alot of gothic books, Udolpho included, has an active imagination and marries a man who looks alot like Jude Law. I think I may have mentioned this in the previous post, but the guy that plays Mr Tilney in the itv (?) version of N.A is hot, and this needs repeating. Naturally. Now, apologies for making this entire blog post a weak attempt in justifying a purchase on a novel that won't get read, but promises, I will be better next time. I have things planned. mu-haHAAA.

Quote of The Post: 'She blamed herself for suffering her romantic imagination to carry her so far beyond the bounds of probability, and determined to endeavour to check its rapid flights, lest they should sometimes extend into madness'- The Mysteries of Udolpho- Ann Radcliff Image from : heroine in training :) Emmy xo