The Mysteries of Udolpho

Sunset Thought Meetings

That evening, Emily watches the sun set over the wide Languedoc plains, facing the direction of Valancourt’s home, and feels a quiet sense of peace and connection to him that eases her grief more than anything since her aunt’s marriage to Montoni. From this point forward, her daily sunset vigils become a reliable source of comfort, letting her feel close to Valancourt even as each day of travel pulls them farther apart physically.

Sublime Alpine Scenery

After several days of travelling across the Languedoc plains, the party enters Dauphiny and begins their ascent of the Alps, where Emily is overwhelmed by the unprecedented grandeur and sublimity of the mountain landscape. The striking new scenery sometimes pushes thoughts of Valancourt from her mind, but more often makes her long for him to share the experience, and she frequently imagines him present with her as she takes in the vistas, her mind elevated by the majesty of the mountains.

Alpine Traveller’s Storied Sonnet

As the party traverses the high Alpine passes, Emily observes the dramatic mix of desolate, snow-dusted cliffs, tiny isolated mountain villages, and cultivated green valleys, including perilous rickety pine bridges spanning deep, mist-shrouded chasms where chamois and wolves are the only regular travellers. The scene inspires her to compose a sonnet telling the story of a lone, exhausted traveller who perishes after slipping off one of these bridges while trying to cross a chasm to reach a distant shepherd’s hut.

First View of Italy from Mount Cenis

After crossing the still snow-capped summit of Mount Cenis, Emily catches her first glimpse of Italy from a high, precipitous ridge overlooking the pass. Looking down through drifting cloud cover, she sees the grassy Piedmont valleys at her feet, the vast Lombard plains stretching to the far horizon, and the faint, distant towers of Turin, filled with awe at the contrast between the wild, towering, snow-covered Alps above her and the soft, receding, sunlit beauty of the Italian landscape below. When the party stops to rest on the cliff, Montoni and Cavigni argue over the route Hannibal took to cross the Alps, and Emily imagines the Roman general’s army navigating the treacherous mountain passes, picturing torch-lit night marches, battles with mountain tribes, and soldiers and elephants tumbling to their deaths in the precipices, a vision that makes her shudder with empathetic fear.

Descent into Piedmont’s Pastoral Valleys

As the party descends from the high Alps into the Piedmont lowlands, the landscape shifts dramatically from harsh, barren mountain terrain to lush, warm pastoral countryside, with fragrant flowering shrubs, verdant grazing pastures, and neat, embowered shepherd cottages dotting the valley slopes. Emily is charmed by the tranquil, idyllic beauty of the valleys, almost wishing she could be a Piedmontese peasant living a simple, carefree life there, though her delight is soured by the dread of the uncertain, restrictive future she will face under Montoni’s control.

Madame Montoni’s Venetian Reveries

While Emily is moved by the natural beauty of the Alpine and Italian landscapes, Madame Montoni daydreams of the lavish social status and aristocratic luxury she expects to enjoy as a noblewoman in Venice and the Apennine estates, planning to outdo the local Venetian nobility with extravagant parties, concerts, and grand livery, despite having no talent for the social graces she plans to display. She briefly worries that Montoni will disapprove of the frivolous, expensive display, but quickly decides his pride will be satisfied by showing off his newfound wealth to his peers in his native city.

Evening at Susa and Italian Music

After a full day of descending from the Alps, the party arrives at the small, ancient fortified town of Susa, where they stop for the night at a modest inn with little accommodation. That evening, as Emily sits at her window watching the moonlight play on the mountain slopes and remembering a similar night she spent with her father and Valancourt on a Pyrenees cliff, she hears a beautiful, plaintive violin piece played by a member of the innkeeper’s family from the courtyard below. The music perfectly matches her tender, melancholic mood, charming her deeply until she is roused from her reverie by Cavigni’s teasing and Montoni’s order to prepare the carriages for an early departure the next day, with plans to dine in Turin.