The Mysteries of Udolpho

Valancourt Summoned to Join Regiment

Shortly after Valancourt arrives at his brother’s house, he receives orders to join his brother officers. He accompanies a battalion to Paris, where a scene of novelty and gaiety opens before him—a world unlike anything he had previously imagined. His regiment’s demands remind him that he has other duties beyond those of love.

Valancourt Arrives in Paris

Upon arriving in Paris, Valancourt encounters an entirely new world of novelty and gaiety. However, this gay Parisian atmosphere disgusts rather than pleases his troubled mind, and company only fatigues him. He becomes an object of constant mockery among his companions.

Valancourt Alienated by Parisian Gaiety

Despite the surrounding gaiety and novelties of Paris, Valancourt finds himself unable to enjoy them. The entertainment and company fail to amuse his fancy, engaging only his surface attention. As a result, the habit of lamentation gradually weakens through distraction, though this very distraction simultaneously distances him from his devoted grief for Emily.

Valancourt Ridiculed by Fellow Officers

Among Valancourt’s brother officers are men who combine French military gaiety with fascinating qualities that often veil folly and soften vice. His reserved and thoughtful manners become a tacit censure of their behavior. They rally against him when present and plot against him when absent, determined to bring him down to their level. Valancourt, unfamiliar with schemes and intrigue, cannot endure their ridicule. When he resents their taunts, it only draws louder laughter. To escape, he flees into solitude where Emily’s image meets him again, reviving his pangs of love and despair. He attempts to return to his tasteful studies, but his mind has lost the necessary tranquility.

Valancourt’s Fading Memory of Emily

Weeks pass as time gradually softens Valancourt’s sorrow while habit strengthens his desire for amusement. The scenes around him take on a new character, and Valancourt appears to have fallen into Parisian society “from the clouds.” His memory of Emily begins to fade—her image no longer serves as the friend and monitor that once saved him from himself. When he recalls her now, she appears with a countenance of mild reproach that wrings his soul and calls forth tears of unmixed misery. His only escape is to forget her, and he endeavors to think of Emily as seldom as possible.

Valancourt Enters Fashionable Parisian Circles

Valancourt’s figure and address make him a welcome visitor in Paris’s most gay and fashionable circles. His brother had given him letters of introduction to relatives residing in Paris—people of some distinction. They receive him with kindness tempered by their nature hardened by prosperity, but their attention does not extend to acts of real friendship. Thus Valancourt finds himself in the midst of Paris, in the pride of youth, with an open and unsuspicious temper and ardent affections, but without a single friend to warn him of the dangers he faces. It was to lose the grief that Emily’s remembrance caused that he first sought amusement, pursuing it until habit made it an abstract interest.

Valancourt at Countess Lacleur’s Gatherings

Among Valancourt’s new acquaintances is the Countess Lacleur, a woman of eminent beauty and captivating manners. Although past her youth, her wit prolongs the triumph of her beauty, and they mutually assist each other’s fame. Her imagination is merely playful, and her wit, if such it can be called, is brilliant rather than just—it dazzles, and its fallacy escapes detection because her delivery and smile form a spell upon her auditors’ judgment. Her petits soupers are the most tasteful in Paris, frequented by many of the second class of literati. She is fond of music and holds frequent concerts. Valancourt, who passionately loves music, admires her execution but remembers with a sigh the eloquent simplicity of Emily’s songs and the natural expression of her manner that went directly to the heart. The Countess also hosts deep gambling, which she affects to restrain but secretly encourages, her establishment’s splendor supplied mainly from gaming profits. Valancourt passes his pleasantest, as well as most dangerous, hours at these gatherings.