The Mysteries of Udolpho

In an interview on Israel and Palestine in Art

The Mysteries of Udolpho, by Ann Radcliffe. This is a gothic novel – so what this has to do with Israel and Palestine?

When I sat down to write my book after all my research, I decided I wanted my book to be gothic, which meant it would involve supernatural events, ghosts, murder in the night – all the motifs of gothic novels.

Not something you would normally identify with that part of the world.

That is exactly what my editor said to me when I told him what I wanted to do. He said, ‘But it’s always sunny there!’ But, Palestine can be gothic because it has many of the remains of old empires, like the Romans and the remains of the Jewish state 2,000 years ago. I also knew that there would be a Muslim boy in my novel whose father would be killed, and I wanted to use the plot of Hamlet. Hamlet is regarded by gothic novelists from the 18th century as the first gothic play, even though it was written centuries before. So I used the plot of Hamlet, and you can find some of the minor characters from Hamlet in my novel.

If you Google gothic you can find the name Ann Radcliffe and this is one of her most famous books. So I summarised it and made a list of the gothic motifs I would like to include in my book, like events taking place at night and a raven.