Book 7: The Romance of the Forest by Ann Radcliffe

Title: The Romance of the Forest 

Author: Ann Radcliffe 

Length: 363 pages 

Year Written: 1791 

Why I chose this book: This was a birthday gift from my friend Marianna, who read this book for a gothic literature class in school. 

Wow. It's day 70 of 2014 and three weeks since I last finished a book. That definitely throws me off track, but with good reason! This book was incredibly hard to read, especially coming off of a series of rather contemporary novels. The language in this book is certainly indicative of its time, which also involves haunting abbeys and escapes by horseback. 

Important to note is that I probably never would have chosen to read this book on my own. That is the good thing about books as gifts—you are urged to explore pages that might otherwise have been forever unknown to you. The heroine of this book is named Adeline, and for a while, boy does it seem like she has the worst life ever. She is handed off to strangers by her father, who then turn around and hand her off to more strangers who are on the run from the law. She falls in love with a dude that works for a king-type of guy, and after a scuffle, he ends up injuring the head honcho and is sentenced to death. That same head honcho is relentlessly in pursuit of Adeline, who has not a penny or friend to her name. She adamantly refuses, and although the story becomes somewhat convoluted with names and flashbacks, there is a happy ending. 

This book (much like other historically based movies I've seen recently) made me think about lifestyles before technological conveniences. These were days of "meet me at sunset" scrawled on wrinkled papyrus, far before "come outside" popping up as a blue iMessage bubble. There are also strong themes of power vs. helplessness, as we see with Adeline's plight (and lack of control for her own circumstances) and the Marquis de Montalt (her pursuer) being near tyrannical with his position of authority. 

I wouldn't necessarily recommend this book to anyone, unless gothic literature was already their thing. I certainly wouldn't recommend it for someone on a tight reading schedule. But, if you've got the time and the willpower, this is a pretty unique book to add to one's reading repertoire. 

Rating: 8.1/10