Day 2 Commonplace :Mysteries of Udolpho

 

If you are wondering why I chose this quote for today's Commonplace,  it's because the section I read today was how Radcliffe describes Emily and her father's trip along the Mediterranean for some fresh air for her father after Emily's mother died.

The only way I could describe how Radcliffe's visual of the cliffs of the Mediterranean coast was absolutely like it was a dream escape to paradise. 

Soon after mid-day, they reached the summit of one of those cliffs, which, bright with the verdure of palm-trees, adorn, like gems, the tremendous walls of the rocks...Here was shade, and the fresh water of a spring, that gliding among the turf, under the trees, thence precipitated itself from rock to rock, till its dashing murmurs were lost in the abyss, though its white foam was long seen amid the darkness of the pines below

While reading this I found myself getting lost and transported in the carriage right along with Emily and her father. Radcliffe once again inserts a small bite of a couple of lines of poetry to further paint the landscape of their trip.

Rocks on rocks piled, as if by magic spell 

 Here scorch'd by lightnings, there with ivy green 

One can almost imagine, the wheels of the carriage creaking, and looking out the window to this vivid visuals of the scenery as it passes by. On this journey, night was falling, and their guide, Michael told of a small hamlet that he knew of that they could stop for the night. M. St. Aubert begins to notice that this hamlet will not have the extravagant accommodations like he was used to, and told Michael, "I perceive you are not one of its inhabitants, sir," And Michael, responded , " No, sir, I am only a wanderer here!"

The two of them once they were off the carriage, started walking towards the hamlet, and M. St. Aubert, told Michael, "I admire your taste, and if I was a younger man, should like to pass a few weeks in your way exceedingly. I, too, am a wanderer." Although, M. St. Aubert would like to wander as a lifestyle, his traveling now is in " search of health, as much as of amusement." 

My thoughts on this section of reading, while 2020 provided many challenges. For starters, my plans for the year to visit family and amusement, did not happen the way I would have liked. And the several impromptu plans of our adventures were I would say all the while strange, I hadn't visited both Knott's Berry Farm and Newport Dunes, since I was a child, and here I was taking my daughters to both. Another trip that I'd been wanting to do was to go and chop down our Christmas tree, and believe me, when I say we wandered and we almost got lost, but the trip would go down as a memory for a life time. As for my wandering, I feel the same as St. Aubert, I would love to live a lifestyle of wandering, adventure after adventure to exotic destinations and to see wonderous scenery, to just get lost in the just the moment and enjoy all that is offered to my senses. Until then, I will continue to wander in the very vivid scenery of Anne Radcliffe's, Mysteries of Udolpho.