Garrett Cook's Reviews > The Mysteries of Udolpho

Gothic completists will be tempted to discover the routes of the genre, to devour with gusto the literature that led to Ingrid Pitt's bare bosom, Tim Burton's Sweeney Todd and places where it's socially acceptable to wear a bustier and cat ears. Just as you would not want to light your grill with whatever neanderthals discovered before fire, so too should you not want to assail your brain with pre Gothic. Tedious random poetry, dull prose, characterizations that make Jane Austen look clever and a mystery banal enough for Scooby and Shaggy. Feh.