Pick Up The Midnight Bell Composed By Francis Lathom Conveyed In PDF

Alphonsus Cohenburg enters his mother's bedroom and finds her covered in blood, She tells him his uncle has murdered his father, and orders him to flee Cohenburg castle forever to save his own life!

A disconsolate exile, Alphonsus wanders the earth seeking the means of survival, first as a soldier, then a miner, and finally as sacristan of a church, where he meets the beautiful Lauretta.
They wed and establish a home together, and everything seems to promise them a happy future, But their domestic tranquillity is shattered, when a band of ruffians kidnaps the unfortunate Lauretta! Alphonsus must solve the mystery of Lauretta's disappearance and the riddle of his mother's strange conduct.
And when he hears that ghosts inhabit Cohenburg castle, tolling the great bell each night at midnight, the mystery only deepens,

One of the greatest of all Gothic novels, "The Midnight Bell"features a blend of fastpaced action and spinetingling suspence, pervaded throughout by a tone of profound melancholy.
This edition, the first in forty years, features a new introduction by David Punter, one of the world's foremost experts on Gothic literature, I amused myself by posting comments on this story as I read it and I think I'll just take all those and make my review from them, but beware they could be a bit spoilerish:

Good start to this one.
Suspicions and death, accusations of murder, Fantastic.

Much bad fortune befalls our hero, Would it be impudent to suggest the theory that all his friends seem to die soon after meeting him and he might be bad luck

Faint number one, " 'Oh, protect a suffering woman!' ere she sunk at the feet of the lady abbess"

Our hero is very trusted, so trusted in fact that he is being told a secret only the priest and the abbess know, how fortunate for him.
Seems very foolhardy of the priest though, he's known him a very short time,

And she faints again, "Exhausted with weeping, I sunk into a fainting fit, which lasted some time, "

She's fainted twice and I'm only now just figuring out who she is, Always good to introduce a character with much drama, even if it's all self inflicted,

It's a close call, "and I should have sunk senseless at my father's feet" but she refrains, at least for now,

Ha, I was right, "I uttered a violent shriek, and fainted at my aunt's feet"

Not only that but, "I wept, I sighed, fainted, and upbraided him by turns", so who knows how many times she fell senseless that time.


Really Why is it that the hero is so self centered What if the pretty girl is happy in the convent and doesn't what to be "snatched from the eternal gloom of a monastic life"
I know, she's gonna be all for it, but still, what makes him automatically assume she would rather marry him 'Cause I sure as hell wouldn't!

Oh, a different woman has fainted now.
Fat lot of good fainting is going to do her, she should stay awake to fight and scream!!

Weak, weak woman, She has fainted again after uttering a hysterical shriek, That's right, surrounded by men she knows not what they will do but nonetheless, she still faints, because that will help so much, This heroine needs some gumption,

She has sunk lifeless to the ground, which is a bit melodramatic considering she returns to her senses lying on an uncanopied bed, thus obviously not lifeless, because you know, lifeless means.
. . like dead. As in not possible to return to your senses, unless you're a vampire I suppose but that's a whole other discussion,

"almost insensible of her situation, she sunk upon the supporting arms of Kroonzer, " who I would like to say is the bad guy, that's right, bad guy, What the hell, who does that

What grand drama at the end of Volume One, what will happen, who will survive!! How will I stand the suspense.


Maybe I need to read this like a serial or something because there was no suspense, The answer was in the next paragraph, How disappointing. What a missed opportunity on the authors part,

Oh good, we're going to find out what the hero is doing, 'Cause the heroine is such a sad sack and I need a break,

Pffftt, the hero is not better, Ending up in a fever and not able to do any searching, But not to worry, the local sweet Baron is on the hunt for the heroine, but I imagine not before she bogs off somewhere and gets kidnapped again.


This makes me think of some Agatha Christie story where the girl tests all her prospective suitors by seeing if they can get her out of a kidnapping situation, maybe Lauretta should have tried that.
It might have been useful,

Noooo, stupid woman, Really A shriek How is that hiding out, just let all the bad dudes know where you are, Good plan.

Ah ha, a long lost relative, Why don't I have any long lost relatives I guess you need to be raised in a convent and your mother must be sad and then dead before you meet any.
And I just can't say that has happened to me,

It's been several chapters since anyone fainted but the men have decided it's their turn now, "the little strength I had remaining fled from me, and I fainted whilst yet bound in the chair of torture.
"
This sentence sounds much more dramatic than the story really was,

But never fear, she has fainted again, "and again she attempted to fly, but her trembling limbs could no longer support her, and she sunk on the earth in a swoon.
"
You know, this heroine isn't near as lucky as some others, She's forever falling on the ground, no one ever catches her,

Ohh, what a thrilling chapter opener, "A fervent kiss, imprinted on her cold lips, recalled Lauretta into existence,"
Though, it does sound a bit vampiric, like she was dead and now she's not.
Maybe I'm being too cruel, the gothic mood has affected me, it's really more Sleeping Beauty, just not the Disneyfied version,

Why is everyone always telling stories There is THE story and then there is someone in the story telling another story and then that story contains someone telling a story.
What is with this
Always stories about dire tragedy and miscommunications and misdeeds too, No happy stories.

"but Lauretta, who had fainted,"
I wonder how many she's at so far, it seems a lot, Though it has been a couple chapters since the last time,

But I am all done this one, thanks to a boring day at work, All ends happily ever after, money and a title for the heroes and comeuppance for all the bad guys,

I thought it was pretty good, the heroes were a little more pathetic than usual and there was really no characters with guts but it was all real, no paranormal mumbo jumbo, quite decent all told.
A fast paced gothic, with a concise story, This book I wanted to read it together with the rest of the "Horrid Novels" of sitelinkNorthanger Abbey but having the impression that it was not particularly good I left it for later.
Finally after reading it I can say it that it is an excellent example of Gothic literature of sitelinkAnn Radcliffe's School, with all the assets and weaknesses that this means.
So we have a history with a background of medieval castles and beautiful natural landscapes, with protagonists sensitive young women, brave and moral young men, robbers, monks and generally people which hide many secrets.
An adventurous story, with many twists and turns, mystery and touching revelations, All this in a book that create a mysterious and sentimental atmosphere typical for the genre, that draws you away in a romantic world, This is one of the “horrid books” referenced in Jane Austens Northanger Abbey, Actually an interesting example of the gothic novel with stories within stories like a series of Chinese boxes, Recommended. This was the first book from the Northanger Abby Horrid Novels that Ive read, I did not know what to expect but was pleasantly surprised to find this a quick and enjoyable read, I even found myself caught up in the mystery of the story, wondering how it was all going to end, You have to go into reading this knowing that it is a gothic tale written in, You cannot compare the writing style or character development to something more modern, For that matter you cannot even really compare it to other novels of the time, I think the gothic romances fall into their own little niche, For example there was a lot of convenient coincidence, Alphonsus travels all over the continent of Europe and everyone he meets is some how connected, And of course being a gothic romance there was plenty of fainting, crying, and falling at peoples knees begging for forgiveness etc etc, The elements that were supposed to instill fright and horror often had me laughing, But I could imagine the reactions of a Catherine Morland character to reading it, Overall I found the book interesting and entertaining, I would recommend that any one who is a fan of Northanger Abby by Jane Austen read it, If I can find them, I will read more of the Northanger Abby Horrid Novels series, Amongst my least favorite of the Gothic genre, Usually I love them, but this book couldn't really hold my interest, One of the books Jane Austen mentions in Northanger Abbey, This is considered a Gothic/Horrid novels and has all the the aspects of that genre.
The running theme is the dangers of being suspicious, People wrongly convicted of crimes, spouses being suspicious which led to terrible tragedies, The last chapter finally pieces everything together nicely, A nice piece of history, .