fbpx
Wikipedia

The Castle of Wolfenbach

The Castle of Wolfenbach (1793) is the most famous novel[1] written by the English Gothic novelist Eliza Parsons. First published in two volumes in 1793, it is among the seven "horrid novels" recommended by the character Isabella Thorpe in Jane Austen's novel Northanger Abbey and an important early work in the genre, predating Ann Radcliffe's The Mysteries of Udolpho and Monk Lewis's The Monk.

The Castle of Wolfenbach
AuthorEliza Parsons
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish
GenreGothic fiction
PublisherMinerva Press
Publication date
1793
Media typePrint (hardback & paperback)
Pagesc. 200 pp

Dear creature! How much I am obliged to you; and when you have finished Udolpho, we will read The Italian together; and I have made out a list of ten or twelve more of the same kind for you.

Have you, indeed! How glad I am! What are they all?

I will read you their names directly; here they are, in my pocketbook. Castle of Wolfenbach, Clermont, Mysterious Warnings, Necromancer of the Black Forest, Midnight Bell, Orphan of the Rhine, and Horrid Mysteries. Those will last us some time.

Yes, pretty well; but are they all horrid, are you sure they are all horrid?

Northanger Abbey, Chapter 6

Jane Austen names The Castle of Wolfenbach in her novel Northanger Abbey to portray the Gothic novel as forming around a society of its own, giving evidence of readership and cross-class and cross-gender interest in the Gothic novel.[2] It contains the standard gothic tropes of the blameless damsel in distress, the centrality of a huge, gloomy, ancient building to the plot, the discovery of scandalous family secrets, and a final confrontation between forces of good and evil. Its resolutely anti-Catholic, pro–English Protestant sentiment is also a feature of the genre.

Major characters edit

Matilda Weimar: a supposed orphan, raised by her incestuous, murderous uncle in Germany. She's a damsel in distress, but also the novel's heroine; "bearing the conventional attributes of a Gothic hero: honesty, beauty, and courageousness." She falls in love with the Count De Bouville, befriends the Countess of Wolfenbach and the Marchioness de Melfort, and strives to find her ancestral background throughout the novel.
Mr. Weimar: Matilda's uncle, who has plans to rape and marry her. It is revealed that he loved Matilda's mother and killed Matilda's father (his own brother) in his drastic attempts to win the love of his sister-in-law. He is the villain of Matilda's story line, but is eventually pardoned by her.
Victoria, Countess of Wolfenbach: The lady of the "haunted" castle, wife of the Count. She has been held hostage in the castle for 19 years by her vengeful husband the Count, as punishment for accepting letters from her true love, the Chevalier. She eventually escapes and finds comfort in the friendship of Matilda. (Her pseudonym while in London is Madame LeRoche.)
Count Wolfenbach: the evil owner of the castle and villain of Victoria's story line, whose villainy abounds, from imprisoning his wife, absconding of their son, murdering countless characters, and showing a penchant for arson.
Count de Bouville: Matilda's true love, French by birth, he promises to marry her, though they are of different social classes. His heroism is shown as he crosses Europe in search of her.
Charlotte, Marchioness de Melfort: Victoria's sister, aid and friend to Matilda in France
Marquis de Melfort: Charlotte's husband
Mademoiselle de Fontelle: A French coquette who lusts after the Count de Bouville and is the avowed enemy of Matilda
Mrs. Maria Courtney: protector of Victoria in London, she is also amorous towards the Count de Bouville and grows to hate Matilda.
Lord Delby: Mrs. Courtney's uncle: he later weds Victoria.
Mother Hermine Magdalene: Matilda's favourite nun at the Annunciate Convent in England

Minor characters edit

Albert: Matilda's loyal servant, who escapes to the Castle of Wolfenbach with her
Margarite: Victoria's elderly servant while imprisoned in the Castle, she is murdered by the Count of Wolfenbach.
Adelaide de Bouville (later de Clermont): the young Count's sister
Monsieur de Clermont: Adelaide's fiancée, and later her husband
Chevalier de Montreville: Victoria's first true love, slain by the Count of Wolfenbach before Victoria's imprisonment
Count Berniti: Matilda's murdered father, a Neapolitan
Countess Berniti (nee Morlini): Matilda's mother
Joseph: the gardener and caretaker of the Castle of Wolfenbach. He knows that the Countess of Wolfenbach resides in the other tower of the castle and took an oath never to reveal the secret to anyone.
Bertha: Joseph's wife and the other caretaker of the castle. Though married to Joseph and living in the castle, she does not know the Countess of Wolfenbach resides there.
Captain: master of the Turkish ship that overtakes Matilda and Weimar's vessel, a virtuous pirate

Plot edit

Volume 1 edit

Matilda Weimar and her servant Albert arrive at a cottage inhabited by two peasants, Pierre and his wife Jaqueline. Matilda is ill for unknown reasons and there is no bed for her to rest in, so they go to the neighbouring haunted Castle of Wolfenbach, whose caretakers take them in. That night, Matilda hears chains and groans and asks Joseph about the noises next morning. He says he and his wife never hear them. Bertha then explains that Count Wolfenbach is the owner and he is a cruel man who locked up his wife and children, and they died. They are the ghosts that one hears. Matilda ventures up into the tower where the noises come from and encounters a lady and her servant. Matilda tells them the story of her life: her parents died while she was an infant and she was brought up by her uncle. She had a good upbringing with her servants Agatha and Albert, but her uncle started to "caress" her and she overheard his plan to rape her, so Matilda and Albert fled. The lady then says that she has a sister, the Marquise de Melfort in France and that Joseph knows she resides up there. The lady offers Matilda to live with her sister in France.

The next day, Matilda goes to converse with the lady of the castle again, but she is gone and the room is in disorder. Joseph and she find the lady's servant murdered on the bed. Matilda leaves to go to France and tell the lady's sister about her kidnapping. Count Wolfenbach arrives after Matilda leaves and tells Joseph that he has sold the property and Bertha and he are moving to another property of his. That night, Joseph wakes up to a fire in his room and escapes, but Bertha does not. The castle is burnt to the ground and Bertha is dead.

In France, Matilda is staying with the Marquise de Melfort and we learn that the Lady of the Castle is the Countess of Wolfenbach. Matilda tells Charlotte, The Marquise, of her sister's kidnapping. Matilda receives a letter from Joseph telling her about the castle and Bertha's ill fate. She shows the Marquise, and the Marquise decides to tell her about the Countess of Wolfenbach's past. Victoria was in love with a man, Chevalier, but their father made her marry Count Wolfenbach because he was rich and powerful. The Count later sent the Marquise a letter saying that Victoria had died in childbirth along with their newly born child. A few weeks after that, the Marquise received a letter from Victoria saying she was alive. Matilda sees the Count de Bouville and falls in love with him right away and the love is reciprocated.

Matilda's uncle shows up at the Hotel de Melfort to get Matilda to marry him, but the Marquise sends him away and Matilda falls desperately ill after hearing this news. Matilda agrees to see him under the circumstance that the Marquise is in the other room listening to their conversation. Matilda and her uncle, Mr. Weimar, meet and he explains that she misunderstood his intentions of raping her. He then says that he is not her uncle, but rather Agatha found her at the gate and they decided to keep her and he now wants to marry her. The Marquise receives a letter from Victoria saying she is safe with a lady named Mrs. Courtney in England. Mr. Weimar tells Matilda she has to marry him, but she refuses, saying she is joining a convent.

The Marquise and Matilda go to London, where they meet up with the Countess of Wolfenbach and she tells them the story of her kidnapping. The Count and a servant burst into her apartment at the Castle of Wolfenbach accusing her of breaking her oath by talking to Matilda and Joseph when she is supposed not to communicate with anyone. They kill Margarite, her servant, so she will not tell any more secrets and take Victoria to the woods to kill her. The Count's horse bucks him and the servant goes to aid him while Victoria escapes. Mrs. Courtney finds her and accompanies her to London.

Next, the Countess tells the reader of her fatal marriage to the Count; she was exchanging letters with her true love, Chevalier, but the Count intercepted one of them and killed Chevalier right in front of the Countess and locked her in a closet with his bloody corpse. The Countess went into labour and delivered a son whom the Count took away from her and faked both of their deaths. Her punishment for communicating with the Chevalier was having her son taken away and she was to be locked up in the Castle and he made Joseph take an oath to never tell anyone, even Bertha, of her occupancy there.

Volume 2 edit

The second volume of The Castle of Wolfenbach begins immediately after The Countess of Wolfenbach reveals the story of her past. Then the reader finds out that Mr. Weimar is in England and has spoken to the French Ambassador in an attempt to regain control of her. The reader also finds out that the Count de Bouville has travelled to England to join his friends after the wedding of his sister and the death of his mother. The Marquis consults first the French Ambassador and then the German Ambassador concerning Matilda's situation. It is agreed that Matilda will remain under the protection for one year, during which time her parentage will be investigated. If no information about her ancestry is discovered, Mr. Weimar will regain custody of Matilda. The Count de Bouville, realising he loves Matilda, proposes to her.

"Your story, which the Marquis related, convinced me you had every virtue which should adorn your sex, joined with a courage and perseverance, through difficulties which might do honor even to our's. Since I have been admitted a visitor in this house, I have been confirmed in the exalted opinion I entertained of your superiority to most women, and under this conviction I may justly fear you will condemn my presumption, in offering myself and fortune to your disposal."[3]

Matilda rejects the Count de Bouville's proposal, not because she doesn't love him, but because she comes from an obscure background.

“Ah! Sir, (said she, involuntarily) hate you! Heaven is my witness, that did my birth and rank equal yours, it would be my glory to accept your hand; but as there exists not a possibility of that, I beseech you to spare me and yourself unnecessary pain; from this instant determine to avoid me, and I will esteem you as the most exalted of men.”[4]

Attending the ball at night in the Lord Chamberlain's box, Matilda meets Mademoiselle De Fontelle again. Unbeknownst to Matilda, Mademoiselle has spent her time in England spreading vicious rumours about Matilda's past and causing harm to her in the eyes of society. Once Matilda learns of these rumours, she decides to retire into an Ursuline convent in Boulogne, France, where she strikes up an intimate friendship with Mother Magdalene, a nun who has lived there for ten years.

Meanwhile Mrs. Courtney has misconstrued the niceties and pleasantries of the Count de Bouville as overtures towards a more intimate relationship: she becomes convinced that the Count wishes to marry her. So she writes a letter to Matilda informing her of the imagined romance and intimates that they will soon be married. Matilda, now under the false impression that the Count's affections for her were only cursory, congratulates Mrs. Courtney on the match. She incorrectly assumes that the marriage has taken place and resigns herself to an austere convent life.

One day the Marquis receives a letter from London from the German Ambassador, stating that the Count of Wolfenbach is dying and wishes to make amends to his wife. The Countess travels to see her dying husband and hears his confession before his death.

After Matilda's friends leave the area on matters of business or pleasure, Mr. Weimar travels to her convent and demands that she accompany him. The Mother Superior tells Matilda that she cannot legally protect Matilda. Mother Magdalene advises Matilda to write a few lines explaining her situation to both the Marquis and the Countess of Wolfenbach before leaving with Mr. Weimar, who, after a long journey, embarks with Matilda on a boat to Germany.

A few days into their voyage, the boat is attacked by Barbary Corsairs. Mr. Weimar, thinking he is undone, stabs Matilda before turning the knife on himself: "I am undone, unfortunate girl; you have been my ruin and your own, but I will prevent both" (p. 162). The pirates spare Matilda's life and at her request nurse Mr. Weimar back to health. While on his sickbed, Mr. Weimar reveals that Matilda is actually the daughter of his older brother, the Count Berniti (whom Mr. Weimar murdered) and Countess Berniti, who is still living with her family in Italy. The pirate captain, unhappy with his, promises to deliver Matilda to her newly discovered mother.

Meanwhile, the Count de Bouville has learnt of Matilda's abduction and follows through Europe, finally finding her in the company of her mother, the Marquis and Marchioness, Lord Delby, and the Countess of Wolfenbach.

The novel ends with Lord Delby's marriage to the Countess of Wolfenbach and Matilda's marriage to the Count de Bouville. Mr. Weimar enters a Carthusian monastery and plans to spend the rest of his life in penitence for his criminal and immoral actions.

Historical context edit

The French Revolution was a major event as Parsons was writing The Castle of Wolfenbach. There are references to it throughout the book. The event that "began" it was the burning of the prison Bastille, a castle-like structure. This feeds the burning of the Castle of Wolfenbach in Parson's novel and displays the influence of the French Revolution on her writings, as she adopts scenes, ideas and politics from it in shaping the novel. It marked the first effective challenge to monarchical absolutism on behalf of popular sovereignty, creating a republican government in France and spreading such ideals in other European countries.[5] The French Revolution urged natural rights and gave novelists enthusiasm for liberty and sovereignty of the people.[6] Likewise, Matilda and other Gothic-novel heroines have been robbed of their birthrights and must war to reclaim them.[7] Matilda has to flee and confront her uncle to recover her right to know who her true parents are. The French Revolution not only impacted France, but Europe as a whole, including Britain. "As a response to fears of a lost British identity, Gothic novels (like The Castle of Wolfenbach) reaffirm authentic cultural values culled from the past. They do this first by copying the ways of the past, rather than breaking sharply with it. Further, some Gothic novels do more than rehearse the past or figure it as a presence that haunts the present in an unwelcome manner; they may alternatively (or simultaneously) figure the past as a lost Golden Age that can be recovered."[7] The Castle of Wolfenbach is likewise set in the past and in a distant land, yet deals with contemporary issues such as identity loss, marriage and choices.[7] The rise of supernatural fiction coincides with that of contemporary consumerism. The reading public expanded through new ways to distribute and market books. The Gothic novel correlates with the French Revolution, as the outbreak of Terror and explosion of demand for terror fiction make clear.[8]

Hiding and secrecy edit

The theme of hiding (and remaining hidden) and secrecy recurs throughout The Castle of Wolfenbach. an 18th-century British Critic reviewer already identifies the theme of secrecy and hiding by showing how the plot is so written as to "vanish into thin air".[9] Apart from the way the plot is constructed, the theme of hiding and secrecy appears in characters physically hiding and evading detection or keeping their past secret. This applies to several Castle of Wolfenbach characters.

The novel begins with Matilda and her servant Albert coming to the home of Jacqueline and Pierre as she seeks refuge from her Uncle, Mr. Weimar, arriving as someone wholly dependent on Jacqueline and Pierre, without friends, family or history.[10]). This makes her hiding easier, as there is nothing by which she can be readily identified. A sick Matilda asks to stay with Jacqueline and Pierre, but they have no place for her – she and Albert go to the Castle of Wolfenbach, which is rumoured to be haunted. As Matilda seeks refuge there, we meet the first example of the hiding/secrecy theme. Matilda arrives having no idea that the castle has secrets of its own. It is rumoured to be haunted, but this haunting is actually produced by the caretaker, Joseph. He has been instructed by the Count to keep the Count's wife, Victoria, locked up there and her status as an occupant a secret. Joseph must even disguise this from his wife Bertha, the second caretaker of the castle. The Count of Wolfenbach has previously faked the death of Victoria and their son. The Count has hidden Victoria so as not to arouse suspicion. Not only is Joseph given the task of keeping Victoria hidden, but he is also to make the castle seem haunted, by rattling chains and making other haunting, frightening noises that will keep others away and further reduce the chance of Victoria being found. Joseph must keep the Countess's presence secret, for he would be murdered if he ever "betrayed her place of residence, or life, to any one.[11]

The employment of seemingly supernatural events or an "invisible hand" to disguise the truth is not a new strategy employed by Parsons, but is consistent with other Gothic novels of the time such as The Castle of Otranto and The Mysteries of Udolpho.[12] The concept of the invisible hand is evident when Matilda finds lines written in the window that detail the grief and torment of Victoria, who is unknown to Matilda at the time she reads it. The anonymity of the lines etched into the window provides another example of how identities are kept secret. As the reader of the lines, Matilda can learn only what the writer wants her to know, while other aspects of the author's life are kept secret and hidden.[13]

A prominent story line in the novel is what the Count did with Victoria and their child after faking both their deaths and keeping her locked in his castle. This is revealed later as the Count explains how Victoria's son is both alive and an "officer now in the Emperor's service.[11] After revealing this to Victoria, the Count relates what has transpired since he faked the deaths and left them. He admits he was unable to live peacefully with his deeds weighing heavily on his mind, and how fearful he was that they would one day be discovered, so that "life became a burthen (burden) to me."[14] Furthermore, the Count details how he searched the Countess' apartment, found evidence of Matilda being there and soon after drugged Joseph with opium, locked all the windows and doors, and then set fire to the castle. The Count goes on to discuss how he left the castle and waited for the news of it being burned down. He then feigned distress and sadness about the loss of Joseph and his wife and was consoled by others for his loss with no one suspecting that he was the one who actually started the fire. In addition, the Count discusses his plans to murder both Victoria and her servant, Margarite, so that there would be no remaining people who could reveal his secret. He was able to kill Margarite and as he took Victoria to the woods to kill her, he was thrown from his horse and Victoria was able to escape as the Count and his servant were distracted.

Another example of secrecy is the true identity of Mr. Weimar. He raised Matilda as her uncle, but Matilda flees his care after he began making advances, attempting to seduce and even rape her. On finding her, he reveals to Matilda that he was never really her uncle, but took charge of her when he found her abandoned on his property.[15]). Mr. Weimar does his best to convince Matilda of this lie, which would license his attempt to convince her to marry him, but Matilda avoids this by entering a convent. Later, as Mr. Weimar is close to death, he again changes his story, telling Matilda what he says is the truth about her past and his involvement in it, notably his role in the death of her father and how he came to be her main guardian. In doing so, he reveals who Matilda's real parents are: her father was Count Berniti, Mr. Weimar's brother, whom Mr. Weimar hated for marrying the woman that Weimar had lusted after. She also learns that Mr. Weimar killed her father by ambushing him in the woods and stabbing him repeatedly until he died. He then made it look as if Count Berniti had been a victim of robbers by taking Count Berniti's valuables from his pockets and leaving the body. He then describes the search for Count Berniti's murderer and how he could convince her of his sorrow, so that he would not be a suspect in the murder. He then tells how he went to Agatha's room, found her child had died, and asked her to substitute the dead child for the Countess's living one. After those events, Mr. Weimar states, he was unable to stay there and moved away, buying property under the name Weimar and creating a new identity for himself.

Literary themes edit

Fainting and weeping edit

As the novel as a legitimate form emerged through the 18th century, sensationalist and theatrical elements of fiction were being explored as grossly popular characteristics of the Gothic. A common trope of the Gothic novel was excess sentimentality – The Castle of Wolfenbach is no exception. This presents itself as inability in its heroines to take control of their worldly bodies in the face of supernatural terror, villainous deeds or romantic gestures. Heroines swoon, weep and act "as if enraptured, delirious, or frenzied" whenever confronted with something extraordinary.[16]

In The Castle of Wolfenbach, the heroine Matilda Weimar and the secondary heroine, Victoria Wolfenbach, are subject to regular fits of fainting. Sometimes they are saved from losing consciousness by material objects in their path as they fall. It could be a chair ("She sunk fainting into a chair.")[17] smelling salts (“She turned sick and faint, was obliged to have recourse to her salts.")[18] or best of all, the arms of a lover ("down she dropped, and had not the Count been attentive to her motions, and caught her in his arms, she must have fallen to the ground.")[19] More often than not, however, the heroines have no dashing men, furniture or chemicals to protect their fall and must finish their frenzy of sentimentality on the cold, merciless ground: "[I] fell senseless,"[20] or "in a few minutes afterwards I fell senseless from my seat".[21]

While fainting in The Castle of Wolfenbach is excessive, weeping is still more so. Victoria and Matilda weep four times as often as they faint; their tears are as varied in cause as copious in amount. They deplore their fates: "'What can I – what ought I to do?' cried she, shedding a torrent of tears";[22] they exit a room heroically: "She quitted the apartment with a flood of tears";[23] they express relief: "A friendly burst of tears relieved her beating heart”;[24] they show gratitude: "Matilda's grateful heart overflowed; speech indeed was not lent her, but her tears, her expressive looks forcibly conveyed the language she could not utter";[25] it acts as an emotional outlet: "I must have vent for my feelings, or I shall be opprest to death. She burst into tears";[26] Tears also accompany mourning of dead children, reunion of lost family members, and hearing and telling of personal tragedies. Wherever she can, Parsons has characters weep. In fact Matilda and Victoria spend most of their time alternately weeping and fainting, as though they were favourite pastimes.[27]

As William Beckford satirises the nonsense of Gothic romance in Azemia and Jane Austen the dangers of subscribing to a Gothic lifestyle in Northanger Abbey, the fits of fainting and weeping, so common in the works of Parsons and her contemporaries, are parodied in countless responses, from 1807's anonymous Men and Women, to Eaton Stannard Barrett's The Heroine.[28] Barrett's heroine is named Cherry, and for her the model of a heroine in the Gothic sense is one who "blushes to the tips of her fingers, and when mere misses would laugh, she faints. Besides, she has tears, sighs, and half-sighs, always ready." The concept of the Gothic heroine as a woman who alternately faints and weeps was rooted in literary and popular culture.

This parodying of the heroine is not baseless. As scholar Angela Wright has commented, "The character of a Gothic heroine is seemingly a tabula rasa which exists to be over-written by emotions and overwhelming memories."[29] It is as if the Gothic heroine were a blank slate, and all that was needed to fill it was emotion and tragic circumstances. This recipe that Parsons utilises unabashed for Victoria and Matilda. It is this poor characterisation, based solely on emotionalism, that causes many to criticise the Gothic novelist as inferior, and gives way to easy parody.[30]

The Castle of Wolfenbach walks a fine line between realistic and theatrical. As scholar Robert Kiely has pointed out, Gothic abounds in theatricality and "the works [of romantic novelists] often seem about to turn into plays or poems."[31] It is almost impossible not to parody such unrealistic, sentimental plots. With fainting and weeping, the most theatrically ridiculous occurrence is when Matilda Weimar saves herself from fainting by a "copious flood of tears".[32] Furthermore, the plot seems as if it could be easily given a Shakespearean format. It contains heroines on a quest, star-crossed lovers, property-scheming villains, bumbling servants, and "ghosts" on top of them all – Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, King Lear and All's Well That Ends Well rolled into one; that is, if it were in the least bit realistically theatrical, rather than irredeemably ridiculous in its theatricality.

Finding an identity edit

Another theme in The Castle of Wolfenbach and often in Gothic novels as a genre, is secret parentage, unknown identity and questing to find oneself. As the Introduction to the Valancourt Edition points out, "[Matilda's] challenge in the novel is to discover the secret of her birth, find her parents, and inherit her rightful property."[33] Robert Miles, in his genealogy of Gothic writing, claims that in these novels "the usurped and disposed find their rights restored; the lost are found, and a true genealogy reasserts itself."[34] In fact, these things happen to Matilda; she discovers her parentage, finds her mother and inherits her noble class title. The Gothic and Romantic genres are obsessed with perfect, unsullied aristocratic lineages. It is Matilda's unwritten and unknown history that keeps her so long apart from her true love, the Count de Bouville; she cannot admit that she loves him until she discovers her ancestry: "She was of noble birth; no unlawful offspring, no child of poverty: then she thought of the Count.".[35]

As often the case with heroines, most of her friends are convinced of her goodness and beauty even before her noble lineage comes to light. Matilda's true identity is hinted sporadically:

Marquis de Melfort: If there is a mystery in her birth, time may yet bring it to light (p. 71).

Marquis de Melfort: I have no doubt but one time or other a discovery will take place to her advantage (p. 78).
Matilda: Yes, I have a pre-sentiment that I am no base-born unworthy offspring (p. 83).
Marquis de Melfort: For my own part I have little doubt but her birth is noble; her person, her figure, the extraordinary natural selection she possesses confirms my opinion that so many graces seldom belong to a mean birth or dishonest connexions (p. 72).
Marchioness de Melfort: You sprung not from humble or dishonest parents, – the virtues you possess are hereditary ones, doubt it not, my dear Matilda; if nobleness of birth can add any lustre to qualities like your's, you will one day possess that advantage (p. 124).

Mother Magdalene: 'tis possible you have parents still living, who may one day fold you to their bosoms.... you have no right to dispose of your future destiny, whilst there is the least probable chance you may be reclaimed (p. 148).

Editions edit

  • 1793, London: William Lane (The Minerva Press)
  • 1968, London: Folio Press
  • 2003, Wildside Press ISBN 1-59224-344-4
  • 2004, Kessinger Publishing ISBN 978-1-4191-5616-8
  • 2006, Valancourt Books ISBN 978-0-9777841-6-5

Popular culture edit

This novel is the book read by Mary Shelley (Elle Fanning) at the beginning of the film "Mary Shelley" (2017) by Haifaa al-Mansour.

Footnotes edit

  1. ^ "The Castle of Wolfenbach". Retrieved 12 December 2007 – via Project Gutenberg.
  2. ^ Wein, Toni. British Identities, Heroic Nationalisms, and the Gothic Novel New York, 2002.
  3. ^ Eliza Parsons, The Castle of Wolfenbach, 1793. Kansas City: Valancourt Books, 2007, p. 118.
  4. ^ Wolfenbach, 119–120
  5. ^ John Merriman, A History of Modern Europe. W. W. Norton & Company: New York, 2004.
  6. ^ Allene Gregory, The French Revolution and the English Novel. Kennikat Press: Port Washington, NY, 1915.
  7. ^ a b c Toni Wein, British Identities, Heroic Nationalisms, and the Gothic Novel. Palgrave Macmillan: New York, 2002.
  8. ^ E. J. Clery, The Rise of Supernatural Fiction, 1762–1800. Cambridge University Press: New York, 1995.
  9. ^ "Art. 21. Castle of Wolfenbach, a German Story, In Two volumes". British Critic, 3 (1794: February) pp. 199–200.
  10. ^ Edward Copeland, Women Writing About Money: Women's Fiction in England 1790–1820. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge UP, 1995.
  11. ^ a b Eliza Parsons, The Castle of Wolfenbach, 1793. Kansas City, MO: Valancourt Books, p. 151.
  12. ^ Stefan Andriopoulos, "The Invisible Hand: Supernatural Agency in Political Economy and the Gothic Novel", ELH, Vol. 66, No. 3, 1999, pp. 739–758.
  13. ^ Gillian Beer, "Our unnatural No-voice': The Heroic Epistle, Pope and Women's Gothic", The Yearbook of English Studies, Vol. 12, 1982, pp. 125–151.
  14. ^ Eliza Parsons, The Castle of Wolfenbach, 1793. Kansas City, MO: Valancourt Books, 1793, p. 151.
  15. ^ "The Castle of Wolfenbach; a German Story", Critical Review, or, Annals of literature, January 1794, No. 10, pp. 49–52.
  16. ^ James R. Foster, D'Arnaud, Clara Reeve and The Lees, History of the Pre-Romantic Novel in England, New York, 1949, pp. 190–191.
  17. ^ Eliza Parsons, The Castle of Wolfenbach, 1793. Kansas City, MO: Valancourt Books, p. 27.
  18. ^ Eliza Parsons, The Castle of Wolfenbach, 1793. Kansas City, MO: Valancourt Books, p. 122.
  19. ^ Eliza Parsons, The Castle of Wolfenbach, 1793. Kansas City, MO: Valancourt Books, p. 60.
  20. ^ Eliza Parsons, The Castle of Wolfenbach, 1793. Kansas City, MO: Valancourt Books, p. 97.
  21. ^ Eliza Parsons, The Castle of Wolfenbach, 1793. Kansas City, MO: Valancourt Books, p. 49/
  22. ^ Eliza Parsons, The Castle of Wolfenbach, 1793. Kansas City, MO: Valancourt Books, p. 28.
  23. ^ Eliza Parsons, The Castle of Wolfenbach, 1793. Kansas City, MO: Valancourt Books, p. 32.
  24. ^ Eliza Parsons, The Castle of Wolfenbach, 1793. Kansas City, MO: Valancourt Books, p. 69.
  25. ^ Eliza Parsons, The Castle of Wolfenbach, 1793. Kansas City, MO: Valancourt Books, p. 79.
  26. ^ Eliza Parsons, The Castle of Wolfenbach, 1793. Kansas City, MO: Valancourt Books, p. 166.
  27. ^ "Jane Austen Centre Website". janeausten.co.uk. Retrieved 3 April 2011.
  28. ^ Winfield H. Rogers, "The Reaction against Melodramatic Sentimentality in the English Novel, 1796–1830," PMLA 49 (1934)], pp. 103–106.
  29. ^ Angela Wright, "To Live the Life of Hopeless Recollection: Mourning and Melancholia in Female Gothic, 1780–1800", Gothic Studies Journal 6 (2004)], p. 22.
  30. ^ James R. Foster, D'Arnaud, Clara Reeve, and The Lees: History of the Pre-Romantic Novel in England, New York, 1949.
  31. ^ Robert Kiely, "Introduction", The Romantic Novel in England, 1972, Cambridge, p. 11.
  32. ^ Eliza Parsons, The Castle of Wolfenbach, 1793. Kansas City, MO: Valancourt Books, p. 14.
  33. ^ Diane Long Hoeveler, "Introduction", The Castle of Wolfenbach, Kansas City, MO, Valancourt Books, 2007, p. xi.
  34. ^ Robert Miles, "Narratives of Descent", Gothic Writing 1750–1820: A Genealogy, New York, 2002, p. 100/
  35. ^ Eliza Parsons, The Castle of Wolfenbach, 1793. Kansas City, MO: Valancourt Books, 2007 p. 171.

References edit

  • Rictor Norton, ed. (11 May 2000). Gothic Readings — The First Wave 1764—1840. London and New York: Leicester University Press. ISBN 978-0-7185-0216-4.

External links edit

  • Full text

castle, wolfenbach, 1793, most, famous, novel, written, english, gothic, novelist, eliza, parsons, first, published, volumes, 1793, among, seven, horrid, novels, recommended, character, isabella, thorpe, jane, austen, novel, northanger, abbey, important, early. The Castle of Wolfenbach 1793 is the most famous novel 1 written by the English Gothic novelist Eliza Parsons First published in two volumes in 1793 it is among the seven horrid novels recommended by the character Isabella Thorpe in Jane Austen s novel Northanger Abbey and an important early work in the genre predating Ann Radcliffe s The Mysteries of Udolpho and Monk Lewis s The Monk The Castle of WolfenbachAuthorEliza ParsonsCountryUnited KingdomLanguageEnglishGenreGothic fictionPublisherMinerva PressPublication date1793Media typePrint hardback amp paperback Pagesc 200 pp Dear creature How much I am obliged to you and when you have finished Udolpho we will read The Italian together and I have made out a list of ten or twelve more of the same kind for you Have you indeed How glad I am What are they all I will read you their names directly here they are in my pocketbook Castle of Wolfenbach Clermont Mysterious Warnings Necromancer of the Black Forest Midnight Bell Orphan of the Rhine and Horrid Mysteries Those will last us some time Yes pretty well but are they all horrid are you sure they are all horrid Northanger Abbey Chapter 6 Jane Austen names The Castle of Wolfenbach in her novel Northanger Abbey to portray the Gothic novel as forming around a society of its own giving evidence of readership and cross class and cross gender interest in the Gothic novel 2 It contains the standard gothic tropes of the blameless damsel in distress the centrality of a huge gloomy ancient building to the plot the discovery of scandalous family secrets and a final confrontation between forces of good and evil Its resolutely anti Catholic pro English Protestant sentiment is also a feature of the genre Contents 1 Major characters 2 Minor characters 3 Plot 3 1 Volume 1 3 2 Volume 2 4 Historical context 4 1 Hiding and secrecy 5 Literary themes 5 1 Fainting and weeping 5 2 Finding an identity 6 Editions 7 Popular culture 8 Footnotes 9 References 10 External linksMajor characters editMatilda Weimar a supposed orphan raised by her incestuous murderous uncle in Germany She s a damsel in distress but also the novel s heroine bearing the conventional attributes of a Gothic hero honesty beauty and courageousness She falls in love with the Count De Bouville befriends the Countess of Wolfenbach and the Marchioness de Melfort and strives to find her ancestral background throughout the novel Mr Weimar Matilda s uncle who has plans to rape and marry her It is revealed that he loved Matilda s mother and killed Matilda s father his own brother in his drastic attempts to win the love of his sister in law He is the villain of Matilda s story line but is eventually pardoned by her Victoria Countess of Wolfenbach The lady of the haunted castle wife of the Count She has been held hostage in the castle for 19 years by her vengeful husband the Count as punishment for accepting letters from her true love the Chevalier She eventually escapes and finds comfort in the friendship of Matilda Her pseudonym while in London is Madame LeRoche Count Wolfenbach the evil owner of the castle and villain of Victoria s story line whose villainy abounds from imprisoning his wife absconding of their son murdering countless characters and showing a penchant for arson Count de Bouville Matilda s true love French by birth he promises to marry her though they are of different social classes His heroism is shown as he crosses Europe in search of her Charlotte Marchioness de Melfort Victoria s sister aid and friend to Matilda in France Marquis de Melfort Charlotte s husband Mademoiselle de Fontelle A French coquette who lusts after the Count de Bouville and is the avowed enemy of Matilda Mrs Maria Courtney protector of Victoria in London she is also amorous towards the Count de Bouville and grows to hate Matilda Lord Delby Mrs Courtney s uncle he later weds Victoria Mother Hermine Magdalene Matilda s favourite nun at the Annunciate Convent in EnglandMinor characters editAlbert Matilda s loyal servant who escapes to the Castle of Wolfenbach with her Margarite Victoria s elderly servant while imprisoned in the Castle she is murdered by the Count of Wolfenbach Adelaide de Bouville later de Clermont the young Count s sister Monsieur de Clermont Adelaide s fiancee and later her husband Chevalier de Montreville Victoria s first true love slain by the Count of Wolfenbach before Victoria s imprisonment Count Berniti Matilda s murdered father a Neapolitan Countess Berniti nee Morlini Matilda s mother Joseph the gardener and caretaker of the Castle of Wolfenbach He knows that the Countess of Wolfenbach resides in the other tower of the castle and took an oath never to reveal the secret to anyone Bertha Joseph s wife and the other caretaker of the castle Though married to Joseph and living in the castle she does not know the Countess of Wolfenbach resides there Captain master of the Turkish ship that overtakes Matilda and Weimar s vessel a virtuous piratePlot editVolume 1 edit Matilda Weimar and her servant Albert arrive at a cottage inhabited by two peasants Pierre and his wife Jaqueline Matilda is ill for unknown reasons and there is no bed for her to rest in so they go to the neighbouring haunted Castle of Wolfenbach whose caretakers take them in That night Matilda hears chains and groans and asks Joseph about the noises next morning He says he and his wife never hear them Bertha then explains that Count Wolfenbach is the owner and he is a cruel man who locked up his wife and children and they died They are the ghosts that one hears Matilda ventures up into the tower where the noises come from and encounters a lady and her servant Matilda tells them the story of her life her parents died while she was an infant and she was brought up by her uncle She had a good upbringing with her servants Agatha and Albert but her uncle started to caress her and she overheard his plan to rape her so Matilda and Albert fled The lady then says that she has a sister the Marquise de Melfort in France and that Joseph knows she resides up there The lady offers Matilda to live with her sister in France The next day Matilda goes to converse with the lady of the castle again but she is gone and the room is in disorder Joseph and she find the lady s servant murdered on the bed Matilda leaves to go to France and tell the lady s sister about her kidnapping Count Wolfenbach arrives after Matilda leaves and tells Joseph that he has sold the property and Bertha and he are moving to another property of his That night Joseph wakes up to a fire in his room and escapes but Bertha does not The castle is burnt to the ground and Bertha is dead In France Matilda is staying with the Marquise de Melfort and we learn that the Lady of the Castle is the Countess of Wolfenbach Matilda tells Charlotte The Marquise of her sister s kidnapping Matilda receives a letter from Joseph telling her about the castle and Bertha s ill fate She shows the Marquise and the Marquise decides to tell her about the Countess of Wolfenbach s past Victoria was in love with a man Chevalier but their father made her marry Count Wolfenbach because he was rich and powerful The Count later sent the Marquise a letter saying that Victoria had died in childbirth along with their newly born child A few weeks after that the Marquise received a letter from Victoria saying she was alive Matilda sees the Count de Bouville and falls in love with him right away and the love is reciprocated Matilda s uncle shows up at the Hotel de Melfort to get Matilda to marry him but the Marquise sends him away and Matilda falls desperately ill after hearing this news Matilda agrees to see him under the circumstance that the Marquise is in the other room listening to their conversation Matilda and her uncle Mr Weimar meet and he explains that she misunderstood his intentions of raping her He then says that he is not her uncle but rather Agatha found her at the gate and they decided to keep her and he now wants to marry her The Marquise receives a letter from Victoria saying she is safe with a lady named Mrs Courtney in England Mr Weimar tells Matilda she has to marry him but she refuses saying she is joining a convent The Marquise and Matilda go to London where they meet up with the Countess of Wolfenbach and she tells them the story of her kidnapping The Count and a servant burst into her apartment at the Castle of Wolfenbach accusing her of breaking her oath by talking to Matilda and Joseph when she is supposed not to communicate with anyone They kill Margarite her servant so she will not tell any more secrets and take Victoria to the woods to kill her The Count s horse bucks him and the servant goes to aid him while Victoria escapes Mrs Courtney finds her and accompanies her to London Next the Countess tells the reader of her fatal marriage to the Count she was exchanging letters with her true love Chevalier but the Count intercepted one of them and killed Chevalier right in front of the Countess and locked her in a closet with his bloody corpse The Countess went into labour and delivered a son whom the Count took away from her and faked both of their deaths Her punishment for communicating with the Chevalier was having her son taken away and she was to be locked up in the Castle and he made Joseph take an oath to never tell anyone even Bertha of her occupancy there Volume 2 edit The second volume of The Castle of Wolfenbach begins immediately after The Countess of Wolfenbach reveals the story of her past Then the reader finds out that Mr Weimar is in England and has spoken to the French Ambassador in an attempt to regain control of her The reader also finds out that the Count de Bouville has travelled to England to join his friends after the wedding of his sister and the death of his mother The Marquis consults first the French Ambassador and then the German Ambassador concerning Matilda s situation It is agreed that Matilda will remain under the protection for one year during which time her parentage will be investigated If no information about her ancestry is discovered Mr Weimar will regain custody of Matilda The Count de Bouville realising he loves Matilda proposes to her Your story which the Marquis related convinced me you had every virtue which should adorn your sex joined with a courage and perseverance through difficulties which might do honor even to our s Since I have been admitted a visitor in this house I have been confirmed in the exalted opinion I entertained of your superiority to most women and under this conviction I may justly fear you will condemn my presumption in offering myself and fortune to your disposal 3 Matilda rejects the Count de Bouville s proposal not because she doesn t love him but because she comes from an obscure background Ah Sir said she involuntarily hate you Heaven is my witness that did my birth and rank equal yours it would be my glory to accept your hand but as there exists not a possibility of that I beseech you to spare me and yourself unnecessary pain from this instant determine to avoid me and I will esteem you as the most exalted of men 4 Attending the ball at night in the Lord Chamberlain s box Matilda meets Mademoiselle De Fontelle again Unbeknownst to Matilda Mademoiselle has spent her time in England spreading vicious rumours about Matilda s past and causing harm to her in the eyes of society Once Matilda learns of these rumours she decides to retire into an Ursuline convent in Boulogne France where she strikes up an intimate friendship with Mother Magdalene a nun who has lived there for ten years Meanwhile Mrs Courtney has misconstrued the niceties and pleasantries of the Count de Bouville as overtures towards a more intimate relationship she becomes convinced that the Count wishes to marry her So she writes a letter to Matilda informing her of the imagined romance and intimates that they will soon be married Matilda now under the false impression that the Count s affections for her were only cursory congratulates Mrs Courtney on the match She incorrectly assumes that the marriage has taken place and resigns herself to an austere convent life One day the Marquis receives a letter from London from the German Ambassador stating that the Count of Wolfenbach is dying and wishes to make amends to his wife The Countess travels to see her dying husband and hears his confession before his death After Matilda s friends leave the area on matters of business or pleasure Mr Weimar travels to her convent and demands that she accompany him The Mother Superior tells Matilda that she cannot legally protect Matilda Mother Magdalene advises Matilda to write a few lines explaining her situation to both the Marquis and the Countess of Wolfenbach before leaving with Mr Weimar who after a long journey embarks with Matilda on a boat to Germany A few days into their voyage the boat is attacked by Barbary Corsairs Mr Weimar thinking he is undone stabs Matilda before turning the knife on himself I am undone unfortunate girl you have been my ruin and your own but I will prevent both p 162 The pirates spare Matilda s life and at her request nurse Mr Weimar back to health While on his sickbed Mr Weimar reveals that Matilda is actually the daughter of his older brother the Count Berniti whom Mr Weimar murdered and Countess Berniti who is still living with her family in Italy The pirate captain unhappy with his promises to deliver Matilda to her newly discovered mother Meanwhile the Count de Bouville has learnt of Matilda s abduction and follows through Europe finally finding her in the company of her mother the Marquis and Marchioness Lord Delby and the Countess of Wolfenbach The novel ends with Lord Delby s marriage to the Countess of Wolfenbach and Matilda s marriage to the Count de Bouville Mr Weimar enters a Carthusian monastery and plans to spend the rest of his life in penitence for his criminal and immoral actions Historical context editThe French Revolution was a major event as Parsons was writing The Castle of Wolfenbach There are references to it throughout the book The event that began it was the burning of the prison Bastille a castle like structure This feeds the burning of the Castle of Wolfenbach in Parson s novel and displays the influence of the French Revolution on her writings as she adopts scenes ideas and politics from it in shaping the novel It marked the first effective challenge to monarchical absolutism on behalf of popular sovereignty creating a republican government in France and spreading such ideals in other European countries 5 The French Revolution urged natural rights and gave novelists enthusiasm for liberty and sovereignty of the people 6 Likewise Matilda and other Gothic novel heroines have been robbed of their birthrights and must war to reclaim them 7 Matilda has to flee and confront her uncle to recover her right to know who her true parents are The French Revolution not only impacted France but Europe as a whole including Britain As a response to fears of a lost British identity Gothic novels like The Castle of Wolfenbach reaffirm authentic cultural values culled from the past They do this first by copying the ways of the past rather than breaking sharply with it Further some Gothic novels do more than rehearse the past or figure it as a presence that haunts the present in an unwelcome manner they may alternatively or simultaneously figure the past as a lost Golden Age that can be recovered 7 The Castle of Wolfenbach is likewise set in the past and in a distant land yet deals with contemporary issues such as identity loss marriage and choices 7 The rise of supernatural fiction coincides with that of contemporary consumerism The reading public expanded through new ways to distribute and market books The Gothic novel correlates with the French Revolution as the outbreak of Terror and explosion of demand for terror fiction make clear 8 Hiding and secrecy edit The theme of hiding and remaining hidden and secrecy recurs throughout The Castle of Wolfenbach an 18th century British Critic reviewer already identifies the theme of secrecy and hiding by showing how the plot is so written as to vanish into thin air 9 Apart from the way the plot is constructed the theme of hiding and secrecy appears in characters physically hiding and evading detection or keeping their past secret This applies to several Castle of Wolfenbach characters The novel begins with Matilda and her servant Albert coming to the home of Jacqueline and Pierre as she seeks refuge from her Uncle Mr Weimar arriving as someone wholly dependent on Jacqueline and Pierre without friends family or history 10 This makes her hiding easier as there is nothing by which she can be readily identified A sick Matilda asks to stay with Jacqueline and Pierre but they have no place for her she and Albert go to the Castle of Wolfenbach which is rumoured to be haunted As Matilda seeks refuge there we meet the first example of the hiding secrecy theme Matilda arrives having no idea that the castle has secrets of its own It is rumoured to be haunted but this haunting is actually produced by the caretaker Joseph He has been instructed by the Count to keep the Count s wife Victoria locked up there and her status as an occupant a secret Joseph must even disguise this from his wife Bertha the second caretaker of the castle The Count of Wolfenbach has previously faked the death of Victoria and their son The Count has hidden Victoria so as not to arouse suspicion Not only is Joseph given the task of keeping Victoria hidden but he is also to make the castle seem haunted by rattling chains and making other haunting frightening noises that will keep others away and further reduce the chance of Victoria being found Joseph must keep the Countess s presence secret for he would be murdered if he ever betrayed her place of residence or life to any one 11 The employment of seemingly supernatural events or an invisible hand to disguise the truth is not a new strategy employed by Parsons but is consistent with other Gothic novels of the time such as The Castle of Otranto and The Mysteries of Udolpho 12 The concept of the invisible hand is evident when Matilda finds lines written in the window that detail the grief and torment of Victoria who is unknown to Matilda at the time she reads it The anonymity of the lines etched into the window provides another example of how identities are kept secret As the reader of the lines Matilda can learn only what the writer wants her to know while other aspects of the author s life are kept secret and hidden 13 A prominent story line in the novel is what the Count did with Victoria and their child after faking both their deaths and keeping her locked in his castle This is revealed later as the Count explains how Victoria s son is both alive and an officer now in the Emperor s service 11 After revealing this to Victoria the Count relates what has transpired since he faked the deaths and left them He admits he was unable to live peacefully with his deeds weighing heavily on his mind and how fearful he was that they would one day be discovered so that life became a burthen burden to me 14 Furthermore the Count details how he searched the Countess apartment found evidence of Matilda being there and soon after drugged Joseph with opium locked all the windows and doors and then set fire to the castle The Count goes on to discuss how he left the castle and waited for the news of it being burned down He then feigned distress and sadness about the loss of Joseph and his wife and was consoled by others for his loss with no one suspecting that he was the one who actually started the fire In addition the Count discusses his plans to murder both Victoria and her servant Margarite so that there would be no remaining people who could reveal his secret He was able to kill Margarite and as he took Victoria to the woods to kill her he was thrown from his horse and Victoria was able to escape as the Count and his servant were distracted Another example of secrecy is the true identity of Mr Weimar He raised Matilda as her uncle but Matilda flees his care after he began making advances attempting to seduce and even rape her On finding her he reveals to Matilda that he was never really her uncle but took charge of her when he found her abandoned on his property 15 Mr Weimar does his best to convince Matilda of this lie which would license his attempt to convince her to marry him but Matilda avoids this by entering a convent Later as Mr Weimar is close to death he again changes his story telling Matilda what he says is the truth about her past and his involvement in it notably his role in the death of her father and how he came to be her main guardian In doing so he reveals who Matilda s real parents are her father was Count Berniti Mr Weimar s brother whom Mr Weimar hated for marrying the woman that Weimar had lusted after She also learns that Mr Weimar killed her father by ambushing him in the woods and stabbing him repeatedly until he died He then made it look as if Count Berniti had been a victim of robbers by taking Count Berniti s valuables from his pockets and leaving the body He then describes the search for Count Berniti s murderer and how he could convince her of his sorrow so that he would not be a suspect in the murder He then tells how he went to Agatha s room found her child had died and asked her to substitute the dead child for the Countess s living one After those events Mr Weimar states he was unable to stay there and moved away buying property under the name Weimar and creating a new identity for himself Literary themes editFainting and weeping edit As the novel as a legitimate form emerged through the 18th century sensationalist and theatrical elements of fiction were being explored as grossly popular characteristics of the Gothic A common trope of the Gothic novel was excess sentimentality The Castle of Wolfenbach is no exception This presents itself as inability in its heroines to take control of their worldly bodies in the face of supernatural terror villainous deeds or romantic gestures Heroines swoon weep and act as if enraptured delirious or frenzied whenever confronted with something extraordinary 16 In The Castle of Wolfenbach the heroine Matilda Weimar and the secondary heroine Victoria Wolfenbach are subject to regular fits of fainting Sometimes they are saved from losing consciousness by material objects in their path as they fall It could be a chair She sunk fainting into a chair 17 smelling salts She turned sick and faint was obliged to have recourse to her salts 18 or best of all the arms of a lover down she dropped and had not the Count been attentive to her motions and caught her in his arms she must have fallen to the ground 19 More often than not however the heroines have no dashing men furniture or chemicals to protect their fall and must finish their frenzy of sentimentality on the cold merciless ground I fell senseless 20 or in a few minutes afterwards I fell senseless from my seat 21 While fainting in The Castle of Wolfenbach is excessive weeping is still more so Victoria and Matilda weep four times as often as they faint their tears are as varied in cause as copious in amount They deplore their fates What can I what ought I to do cried she shedding a torrent of tears 22 they exit a room heroically She quitted the apartment with a flood of tears 23 they express relief A friendly burst of tears relieved her beating heart 24 they show gratitude Matilda s grateful heart overflowed speech indeed was not lent her but her tears her expressive looks forcibly conveyed the language she could not utter 25 it acts as an emotional outlet I must have vent for my feelings or I shall be opprest to death She burst into tears 26 Tears also accompany mourning of dead children reunion of lost family members and hearing and telling of personal tragedies Wherever she can Parsons has characters weep In fact Matilda and Victoria spend most of their time alternately weeping and fainting as though they were favourite pastimes 27 As William Beckford satirises the nonsense of Gothic romance in Azemia and Jane Austen the dangers of subscribing to a Gothic lifestyle in Northanger Abbey the fits of fainting and weeping so common in the works of Parsons and her contemporaries are parodied in countless responses from 1807 s anonymous Men and Women to Eaton Stannard Barrett s The Heroine 28 Barrett s heroine is named Cherry and for her the model of a heroine in the Gothic sense is one who blushes to the tips of her fingers and when mere misses would laugh she faints Besides she has tears sighs and half sighs always ready The concept of the Gothic heroine as a woman who alternately faints and weeps was rooted in literary and popular culture This parodying of the heroine is not baseless As scholar Angela Wright has commented The character of a Gothic heroine is seemingly a tabula rasa which exists to be over written by emotions and overwhelming memories 29 It is as if the Gothic heroine were a blank slate and all that was needed to fill it was emotion and tragic circumstances This recipe that Parsons utilises unabashed for Victoria and Matilda It is this poor characterisation based solely on emotionalism that causes many to criticise the Gothic novelist as inferior and gives way to easy parody 30 The Castle of Wolfenbach walks a fine line between realistic and theatrical As scholar Robert Kiely has pointed out Gothic abounds in theatricality and the works of romantic novelists often seem about to turn into plays or poems 31 It is almost impossible not to parody such unrealistic sentimental plots With fainting and weeping the most theatrically ridiculous occurrence is when Matilda Weimar saves herself from fainting by a copious flood of tears 32 Furthermore the plot seems as if it could be easily given a Shakespearean format It contains heroines on a quest star crossed lovers property scheming villains bumbling servants and ghosts on top of them all Hamlet Romeo and Juliet King Lear and All s Well That Ends Well rolled into one that is if it were in the least bit realistically theatrical rather than irredeemably ridiculous in its theatricality Finding an identity edit Another theme in The Castle of Wolfenbach and often in Gothic novels as a genre is secret parentage unknown identity and questing to find oneself As the Introduction to the Valancourt Edition points out Matilda s challenge in the novel is to discover the secret of her birth find her parents and inherit her rightful property 33 Robert Miles in his genealogy of Gothic writing claims that in these novels the usurped and disposed find their rights restored the lost are found and a true genealogy reasserts itself 34 In fact these things happen to Matilda she discovers her parentage finds her mother and inherits her noble class title The Gothic and Romantic genres are obsessed with perfect unsullied aristocratic lineages It is Matilda s unwritten and unknown history that keeps her so long apart from her true love the Count de Bouville she cannot admit that she loves him until she discovers her ancestry She was of noble birth no unlawful offspring no child of poverty then she thought of the Count 35 As often the case with heroines most of her friends are convinced of her goodness and beauty even before her noble lineage comes to light Matilda s true identity is hinted sporadically Marquis de Melfort If there is a mystery in her birth time may yet bring it to light p 71 Marquis de Melfort I have no doubt but one time or other a discovery will take place to her advantage p 78 Matilda Yes I have a pre sentiment that I am no base born unworthy offspring p 83 Marquis de Melfort For my own part I have little doubt but her birth is noble her person her figure the extraordinary natural selection she possesses confirms my opinion that so many graces seldom belong to a mean birth or dishonest connexions p 72 Marchioness de Melfort You sprung not from humble or dishonest parents the virtues you possess are hereditary ones doubt it not my dear Matilda if nobleness of birth can add any lustre to qualities like your s you will one day possess that advantage p 124 Mother Magdalene tis possible you have parents still living who may one day fold you to their bosoms you have no right to dispose of your future destiny whilst there is the least probable chance you may be reclaimed p 148 Editions edit1793 London William Lane The Minerva Press 1968 London Folio Press 2003 Wildside Press ISBN 1 59224 344 4 2004 Kessinger Publishing ISBN 978 1 4191 5616 8 2006 Valancourt Books ISBN 978 0 9777841 6 5Popular culture editThis novel is the book read by Mary Shelley Elle Fanning at the beginning of the film Mary Shelley 2017 by Haifaa al Mansour Footnotes edit The Castle of Wolfenbach Retrieved 12 December 2007 via Project Gutenberg Wein Toni British Identities Heroic Nationalisms and the Gothic Novel New York 2002 Eliza Parsons The Castle of Wolfenbach 1793 Kansas City Valancourt Books 2007 p 118 Wolfenbach 119 120 John Merriman A History of Modern Europe W W Norton amp Company New York 2004 Allene Gregory The French Revolution and the English Novel Kennikat Press Port Washington NY 1915 a b c Toni Wein British Identities Heroic Nationalisms and the Gothic Novel Palgrave Macmillan New York 2002 E J Clery The Rise of Supernatural Fiction 1762 1800 Cambridge University Press New York 1995 Art 21 Castle of Wolfenbach a German Story In Two volumes British Critic 3 1794 February pp 199 200 Edward Copeland Women Writing About Money Women s Fiction in England 1790 1820 Cambridge UK Cambridge UP 1995 a b Eliza Parsons The Castle of Wolfenbach 1793 Kansas City MO Valancourt Books p 151 Stefan Andriopoulos The Invisible Hand Supernatural Agency in Political Economy and the Gothic Novel ELH Vol 66 No 3 1999 pp 739 758 Gillian Beer Our unnatural No voice The Heroic Epistle Pope and Women s Gothic The Yearbook of English Studies Vol 12 1982 pp 125 151 Eliza Parsons The Castle of Wolfenbach 1793 Kansas City MO Valancourt Books 1793 p 151 The Castle of Wolfenbach a German Story Critical Review or Annals of literature January 1794 No 10 pp 49 52 James R Foster D Arnaud Clara Reeve and The Lees History of the Pre Romantic Novel in England New York 1949 pp 190 191 Eliza Parsons The Castle of Wolfenbach 1793 Kansas City MO Valancourt Books p 27 Eliza Parsons The Castle of Wolfenbach 1793 Kansas City MO Valancourt Books p 122 Eliza Parsons The Castle of Wolfenbach 1793 Kansas City MO Valancourt Books p 60 Eliza Parsons The Castle of Wolfenbach 1793 Kansas City MO Valancourt Books p 97 Eliza Parsons The Castle of Wolfenbach 1793 Kansas City MO Valancourt Books p 49 Eliza Parsons The Castle of Wolfenbach 1793 Kansas City MO Valancourt Books p 28 Eliza Parsons The Castle of Wolfenbach 1793 Kansas City MO Valancourt Books p 32 Eliza Parsons The Castle of Wolfenbach 1793 Kansas City MO Valancourt Books p 69 Eliza Parsons The Castle of Wolfenbach 1793 Kansas City MO Valancourt Books p 79 Eliza Parsons The Castle of Wolfenbach 1793 Kansas City MO Valancourt Books p 166 Jane Austen Centre Website janeausten co uk Retrieved 3 April 2011 Winfield H Rogers The Reaction against Melodramatic Sentimentality in the English Novel 1796 1830 PMLA 49 1934 pp 103 106 Angela Wright To Live the Life of Hopeless Recollection Mourning and Melancholia in Female Gothic 1780 1800 Gothic Studies Journal 6 2004 p 22 James R Foster D Arnaud Clara Reeve and The Lees History of the Pre Romantic Novel in England New York 1949 Robert Kiely Introduction The Romantic Novel in England 1972 Cambridge p 11 Eliza Parsons The Castle of Wolfenbach 1793 Kansas City MO Valancourt Books p 14 Diane Long Hoeveler Introduction The Castle of Wolfenbach Kansas City MO Valancourt Books 2007 p xi Robert Miles Narratives of Descent Gothic Writing 1750 1820 A Genealogy New York 2002 p 100 Eliza Parsons The Castle of Wolfenbach 1793 Kansas City MO Valancourt Books 2007 p 171 References editRictor Norton ed 11 May 2000 Gothic Readings The First Wave 1764 1840 London and New York Leicester University Press ISBN 978 0 7185 0216 4 External links editFull text Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title The Castle of Wolfenbach amp oldid 1199309828, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

article

, read, download, free, free download, mp3, video, mp4, 3gp, jpg, jpeg, gif, png, picture, music, song, movie, book, game, games.