mily, who
is mercilessly doomed to sleep in a deserted apartment with a
door, which, as so often in the novel of terror, bolts only on
the outside. More nerve wracking than the unburied corpse or even
than the ineffable horror concealed behind the black veil are the
imaginary, impalpable terrors that seize on Emily's tender fancy
as she crosses the hall on her way to solve the riddle of her
aunt's disappearance:

"Emily, deceived by the long shadows of the pillars and
by the catching lights between, often stopped,
imagining that she saw some person moving in the
distant obscurity...and as she passed these pillars she
feared to turn her eyes towards them, almost expecting
to see a figure start from behind their broad shaft."

Torn from the context, this passage no longer congeals us with
terror, but in its setting it conveys in a wonderfully vivid
manner the tricks of a feverish imagination. So exhaustive--and
exhausting--are the mysteries of Udolpho that it was a mistake to
introduce another haunted castle, le Blanc, as an appendix.

Mrs. Radcliffe's long deferred explanations of what is apparently
supernatural have often been adversely criticised. Her method
varies considerably. Sometimes we are enlightened almost
immediately. When the garrulous servant, Annette, is relating to
Emily what she knows of the story of Laurentina, who had once
lived in the castle, both mistress and servant are wrought up to
a state of nervous tension:

"Emily, whom now Annette had infected with her own
terrors, listened attentively, but everything was
still, and Annette proceeded... 'There again,' cried
Annette, suddenly, 'I heard it again.' 'Hush!' said
Emily, trembling. They listened and continued to sit
quite still. Emily heard a slow knocking against the
wall. It came repeatedly. Annette then screamed loudly,
and the chamber door slowly opened--It was Caterina,
come to tell Annette that her lady wanted her."

It is seldom that the rude awakening comes thus swiftly. More
often we are left wondering uneasily and fearfully for a
prolonged stretch of time. The extreme limit of human endurance
is reached in the episode of the Black Veil. Early in the second
volume, Emily, for whom the concealed picture had a fatal
fascination, determined to gaze upon it.

"Emily passed on with faltering steps and, having
paused a moment at the door before she atte