The Mysteries of Udolpho

The Mysteries of Udolpho

by

Ann Radcliffe

St. Aubert Emily’s father and Madame St. Aubert’s husband. He has a mysterious relationship to the Marchioness de Villeroi, who seems at first to be his lover but turns out to really be his sister. At the beginning of the novel, many find St. Aubert’s behavior unusual because he chooses to marry his eventual wife for her character instead of using marriage as a strategic way to increase his own fortune. St. Aubert is a major figure in Emily’s life, instilling in her a love of education and nature. He settles his family at the remote but idyllic La Vallée, a living situation that reflects his modest personality. It also later contrasts with the lavish castle of Udolpho, which reflects the crooked, greedy personality of its owner, Montoni. St. Aubert dies early in the novel. He greets his death calmly, taking it as a moment to impart some final lessons to Emily, and this shows how his peaceful and upstanding lifestyle led him to have no regrets. In the novel, St. Aubert is a model of moral behavior, demonstrating particularly how morality is related to nature and education, and his influence continues to motivate Emily’s actions even after his death.

St. Aubert Quotes in The Mysteries of Udolpho

The The Mysteries of Udolpho quotes below are all either spoken by St. Aubert or refer to St. Aubert. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Marriage, Love, and Inheritance Theme Icon
).
Volume 1, Chapter 1 Quotes

On the pleasant banks of the Garonne, in the province of Gascony, stood, in the year 1584, the chateau of Monsieur St. Aubert. From its windows were seen the pastoral landscapes of Guienne and Gascony stretching along the river, gay with luxuriant woods and vine, and plantations of olives. To the south, the view was bounded by the majestic Pyrenees, whose summits, veiled in clouds, or exhibiting awful forms, seen, and lost again, as the partial vapours rolled along, were sometimes barren, and gleamed through the blue tinge of air, and sometimes frowned with forests of gloomy pine, that swept downward to their base.

Related Characters: Emily St. Aubert, St. Aubert, Madame St. Aubert
Page Number: 1
Explanation and Analysis:
Volume 1, Chapter 2 Quotes

St. Aubert gazed earnestly and tenderly upon his portrait, put it to his lips, and then to his heart, and sighed with a convulsive force. Emily could scarcely believe what she saw to be real. She never knew till now that he had a picture of any other lady than her mother, much less that he had one which he evidently valued so highly; but having looked repeatedly, to be certain that it was not the resemblance of Madame St. Aubert, she became entirely convinced that it was designed for that of some other person.

At length St. Aubert returned the picture to its case; and Emily, recollecting that she was intruding upon his private sorrows, softly withdrew from the chamber.

Related Characters: Emily St. Aubert, St. Aubert, Madame St. Aubert, Marchioness De Villeroi
Related Symbols: Miniature
Page Number: 26
Explanation and Analysis:
Volume 1, Chapter 3 Quotes

“Do not give me the pain of knowing, sir,” said he, “that an invalid, like you, lies on hard skins, while I sleep in a bed. Besides, sir, your refusal wounds my pride; I must believe you think my offer unworthy your acceptance. Let me show you the way. I have no doubt my landlady can accommodate this young lady also.”

Related Characters: Valancourt (speaker), Emily St. Aubert, St. Aubert, Madame St. Aubert
Page Number: 33
Explanation and Analysis:
Volume 1, Chapter 6 Quotes

On searching for the book, she could find it nowhere, but in its stead perceived a volume of Petrarch’s poems, that had belonged to Valancourt, whose name was written in it, and from which he had frequently read passages to her, with all the pathetic expression, that characterised the feelings of the author. She hesitated in believing, what would have been sufficiently apparent to almost any other person, that he had purposely left this book, instead of the one she had lost, and that love had prompted the exchange; but, having opened it with impatient pleasure, and observed the lines of his pencil drawn along the various passages he had read aloud, and under others more descriptive of delicate tenderness than he had dared to trust his voice with, the conviction came, at length, to her mind.

Related Characters: Emily St. Aubert, Valancourt, St. Aubert
Page Number: 58
Explanation and Analysis:
Volume 1, Chapter 7 Quotes

“Above all, my dear Emily,” said he, “do not indulge in the pride of fine feeling, the romantic error of amiable minds. Those, who really possess sensibility, ought early to be taught, that it is a dangerous quality, which is continually extracting the excess of misery, or delight, from every surrounding circumstance. And, since, in our passage through this world, painful circumstances occur more frequently than pleasing ones, and since our sense of evil is, I fear, more acute than our sense of good, we become the victims of our feelings, unless we can in some degree command them.”

Related Characters: St. Aubert (speaker), Emily St. Aubert
Page Number: 79
Explanation and Analysis:
Volume 1, Chapter 10 Quotes

“Who is that young man?” said her aunt, in an accent which equally implied inquisitiveness and censure. “Some idle admirer of yours I suppose; but I believed niece you had a greater sense of propriety, than to have received the visits of any young man in your present unfriended situation. Let me tell you the world will observe those things, and it will talk, aye and very freely too.”

Related Characters: Madame Cheron/Madame Montoni (speaker), Emily St. Aubert, Valancourt, St. Aubert, Montoni, Cavigni
Page Number: 110
Explanation and Analysis:
Volume 1, Chapter 13 Quotes

Madame Cheron’s avarice at length yielded to her vanity. Some very splendid entertainments, which Madame Clairval had given, and the general adulation, which was paid her, made the former more anxious than before to secure an alliance, that would so much exalt her in her own opinion and in that of the world.

Related Characters: Emily St. Aubert, Valancourt, St. Aubert, Madame Cheron/Madame Montoni, Madame Clairval
Page Number: 140
Explanation and Analysis:
Volume 2, Chapter 2 Quotes

“How delightful,” said she, “to live amidst the coral bowers and crystal caverns of the ocean, with my sister nymphs, and listen to the sounding waters above, and to the soft shells of the tritons! and then, after sunset, to skim on the surface of the waves round wild rocks and along sequestered shores, where, perhaps, some pensive wanderer comes to weep! Then would I soothe his sorrows with my sweet music, and offer him from a shell some of the delicious fruit that hangs round Neptune’s palace.”

Related Characters: Emily St. Aubert (speaker), St. Aubert, Madame Cheron/Madame Montoni, Montoni
Page Number: 178
Explanation and Analysis:
Volume 2, Chapter 6 Quotes

Emily passed on with faltering steps, and having paused a moment at the door, before she attempted to open it, she then hastily entered the chamber, and went towards the picture, which appeared to be enclosed in a frame of uncommon size, that hung in a dark part of the room. She paused again, and then, with a timid hand, lifted the veil; but instantly let it fall—perceiving that what it had concealed was no picture, and, before she could leave the chamber, she dropped senseless on the floor.

When she recovered her recollection, the remembrance of what she had seen had nearly deprived her of it a second time. She had scarcely strength to remove from the room, and regain her own; and, when arrived there, wanted courage to remain alone.

Related Characters: Emily St. Aubert, St. Aubert, Signora Laurentini/Agnes
Related Symbols: Black Veil
Page Number: 248
Explanation and Analysis:
Volume 2, Chapter 12 Quotes

Emily paused to weep at this recollection. “Perhaps,” resumed she, “perhaps, those strains I heard were sent to comfort,—to encourage me! Never shall I forget those I heard, at this hour, in Languedoc! Perhaps, my father watches over me, at this moment!” She wept again in tenderness.

Related Characters: Emily St. Aubert (speaker), St. Aubert
Page Number: 340
Explanation and Analysis:
Volume 3, Chapter 3 Quotes

“Do you indeed live,” said Emily, at length, “or is this but a terrible apparition?” She received no answer, and again she snatched up the hand. “This is substance,” she exclaimed, “but it is cold—cold as marble!” She let it fall. “O, if you really live, speak!” said Emily, in a voice of desperation, “that I may not lose my senses—say you know me!”

“I do live,” replied Madame Montoni, “but—I feel that I am about to die.”

Related Characters: Emily St. Aubert (speaker), Madame Cheron/Madame Montoni (speaker), St. Aubert, Montoni
Related Symbols: Black Veil
Page Number: 364
Explanation and Analysis:
Volume 3, Chapter 5 Quotes

“How—how, ma’amselle, could you leave France, and leave Mons. Valancourt, too?” said Annette, sobbing. “I—I—am sure, if Ludovico had been in France, I would never have left it.”

“Why do you lament quitting France, then?” said Emily, trying to smile, “since, if you had remained there, you would not have found Ludovico.”

“Ah, ma’amselle! I only wish I was out of this frightful castle, serving you in France, and I would care about nothing else!”

Related Characters: Emily St. Aubert (speaker), Annette (speaker), Valancourt, St. Aubert, Madame Cheron/Madame Montoni, Ludovico
Page Number: 383
Explanation and Analysis:
Volume 4, Chapter 1 Quotes

“Let me save you from this error,” said Emily, not less agitated—“it is my determination, and, if you reflect a moment on your late conduct, you will perceive, that my future peace requires it.”

“Your future peace requires, that we should part—part for ever!” said Valancourt, “How little did I ever expect to hear you say so!”

Related Characters: Emily St. Aubert (speaker), Valancourt (speaker), St. Aubert, Count De Villefort
Page Number: 514
Explanation and Analysis:
Volume 4, Chapter 16 Quotes

“Sister! beware of the first indulgence of the passions; beware of the first! Their course, if not checked then, is rapid—their force is uncontrollable—they lead us we know not whither—they lead us perhaps to the commission of crimes, for which whole years of prayer and penitence cannot atone!—Such may be the force of even a single passion, that it overcomes every other, and sears up every other approach to the heart. Possessing us like a fiend, it leads us on to the acts of a fiend, making us insensible to pity and to conscience.”

Related Characters: Signora Laurentini/Agnes (speaker), Emily St. Aubert, St. Aubert, Marchioness De Villeroi, Marquis De Villeroi
Page Number: 646
Explanation and Analysis:
Get the entire The Mysteries of Udolpho LitChart as a printable PDF.
The Mysteries of Udolpho PDF

St. Aubert Quotes in The Mysteries of Udolpho

The The Mysteries of Udolpho quotes below are all either spoken by St. Aubert or refer to St. Aubert. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Marriage, Love, and Inheritance Theme Icon
).
Volume 1, Chapter 1 Quotes

On the pleasant banks of the Garonne, in the province of Gascony, stood, in the year 1584, the chateau of Monsieur St. Aubert. From its windows were seen the pastoral landscapes of Guienne and Gascony stretching along the river, gay with luxuriant woods and vine, and plantations of olives. To the south, the view was bounded by the majestic Pyrenees, whose summits, veiled in clouds, or exhibiting awful forms, seen, and lost again, as the partial vapours rolled along, were sometimes barren, and gleamed through the blue tinge of air, and sometimes frowned with forests of gloomy pine, that swept downward to their base.

Related Characters: Emily St. Aubert, St. Aubert, Madame St. Aubert
Page Number: 1
Explanation and Analysis:
Volume 1, Chapter 2 Quotes

St. Aubert gazed earnestly and tenderly upon his portrait, put it to his lips, and then to his heart, and sighed with a convulsive force. Emily could scarcely believe what she saw to be real. She never knew till now that he had a picture of any other lady than her mother, much less that he had one which he evidently valued so highly; but having looked repeatedly, to be certain that it was not the resemblance of Madame St. Aubert, she became entirely convinced that it was designed for that of some other person.

At length St. Aubert returned the picture to its case; and Emily, recollecting that she was intruding upon his private sorrows, softly withdrew from the chamber.

Related Characters: Emily St. Aubert, St. Aubert, Madame St. Aubert, Marchioness De Villeroi
Related Symbols: Miniature
Page Number: 26
Explanation and Analysis:
Volume 1, Chapter 3 Quotes

“Do not give me the pain of knowing, sir,” said he, “that an invalid, like you, lies on hard skins, while I sleep in a bed. Besides, sir, your refusal wounds my pride; I must believe you think my offer unworthy your acceptance. Let me show you the way. I have no doubt my landlady can accommodate this young lady also.”

Related Characters: Valancourt (speaker), Emily St. Aubert, St. Aubert, Madame St. Aubert
Page Number: 33
Explanation and Analysis:
Volume 1, Chapter 6 Quotes

On searching for the book, she could find it nowhere, but in its stead perceived a volume of Petrarch’s poems, that had belonged to Valancourt, whose name was written in it, and from which he had frequently read passages to her, with all the pathetic expression, that characterised the feelings of the author. She hesitated in believing, what would have been sufficiently apparent to almost any other person, that he had purposely left this book, instead of the one she had lost, and that love had prompted the exchange; but, having opened it with impatient pleasure, and observed the lines of his pencil drawn along the various passages he had read aloud, and under others more descriptive of delicate tenderness than he had dared to trust his voice with, the conviction came, at length, to her mind.

Related Characters: Emily St. Aubert, Valancourt, St. Aubert
Page Number: 58
Explanation and Analysis:
Volume 1, Chapter 7 Quotes

“Above all, my dear Emily,” said he, “do not indulge in the pride of fine feeling, the romantic error of amiable minds. Those, who really possess sensibility, ought early to be taught, that it is a dangerous quality, which is continually extracting the excess of misery, or delight, from every surrounding circumstance. And, since, in our passage through this world, painful circumstances occur more frequently than pleasing ones, and since our sense of evil is, I fear, more acute than our sense of good, we become the victims of our feelings, unless we can in some degree command them.”

Related Characters: St. Aubert (speaker), Emily St. Aubert
Page Number: 79
Explanation and Analysis:
Volume 1, Chapter 10 Quotes

“Who is that young man?” said her aunt, in an accent which equally implied inquisitiveness and censure. “Some idle admirer of yours I suppose; but I believed niece you had a greater sense of propriety, than to have received the visits of any young man in your present unfriended situation. Let me tell you the world will observe those things, and it will talk, aye and very freely too.”

Related Characters: Madame Cheron/Madame Montoni (speaker), Emily St. Aubert, Valancourt, St. Aubert, Montoni, Cavigni
Page Number: 110
Explanation and Analysis:
Volume 1, Chapter 13 Quotes

Madame Cheron’s avarice at length yielded to her vanity. Some very splendid entertainments, which Madame Clairval had given, and the general adulation, which was paid her, made the former more anxious than before to secure an alliance, that would so much exalt her in her own opinion and in that of the world.

Related Characters: Emily St. Aubert, Valancourt, St. Aubert, Madame Cheron/Madame Montoni, Madame Clairval
Page Number: 140
Explanation and Analysis:
Volume 2, Chapter 2 Quotes

“How delightful,” said she, “to live amidst the coral bowers and crystal caverns of the ocean, with my sister nymphs, and listen to the sounding waters above, and to the soft shells of the tritons! and then, after sunset, to skim on the surface of the waves round wild rocks and along sequestered shores, where, perhaps, some pensive wanderer comes to weep! Then would I soothe his sorrows with my sweet music, and offer him from a shell some of the delicious fruit that hangs round Neptune’s palace.”

Related Characters: Emily St. Aubert (speaker), St. Aubert, Madame Cheron/Madame Montoni, Montoni
Page Number: 178
Explanation and Analysis:
Volume 2, Chapter 6 Quotes

Emily passed on with faltering steps, and having paused a moment at the door, before she attempted to open it, she then hastily entered the chamber, and went towards the picture, which appeared to be enclosed in a frame of uncommon size, that hung in a dark part of the room. She paused again, and then, with a timid hand, lifted the veil; but instantly let it fall—perceiving that what it had concealed was no picture, and, before she could leave the chamber, she dropped senseless on the floor.

When she recovered her recollection, the remembrance of what she had seen had nearly deprived her of it a second time. She had scarcely strength to remove from the room, and regain her own; and, when arrived there, wanted courage to remain alone.

Related Characters: Emily St. Aubert, St. Aubert, Signora Laurentini/Agnes
Related Symbols: Black Veil
Page Number: 248
Explanation and Analysis:
Volume 2, Chapter 12 Quotes

Emily paused to weep at this recollection. “Perhaps,” resumed she, “perhaps, those strains I heard were sent to comfort,—to encourage me! Never shall I forget those I heard, at this hour, in Languedoc! Perhaps, my father watches over me, at this moment!” She wept again in tenderness.

Related Characters: Emily St. Aubert (speaker), St. Aubert
Page Number: 340
Explanation and Analysis:
Volume 3, Chapter 3 Quotes

“Do you indeed live,” said Emily, at length, “or is this but a terrible apparition?” She received no answer, and again she snatched up the hand. “This is substance,” she exclaimed, “but it is cold—cold as marble!” She let it fall. “O, if you really live, speak!” said Emily, in a voice of desperation, “that I may not lose my senses—say you know me!”

“I do live,” replied Madame Montoni, “but—I feel that I am about to die.”

Related Characters: Emily St. Aubert (speaker), Madame Cheron/Madame Montoni (speaker), St. Aubert, Montoni
Related Symbols: Black Veil
Page Number: 364
Explanation and Analysis:
Volume 3, Chapter 5 Quotes

“How—how, ma’amselle, could you leave France, and leave Mons. Valancourt, too?” said Annette, sobbing. “I—I—am sure, if Ludovico had been in France, I would never have left it.”

“Why do you lament quitting France, then?” said Emily, trying to smile, “since, if you had remained there, you would not have found Ludovico.”

“Ah, ma’amselle! I only wish I was out of this frightful castle, serving you in France, and I would care about nothing else!”

Related Characters: Emily St. Aubert (speaker), Annette (speaker), Valancourt, St. Aubert, Madame Cheron/Madame Montoni, Ludovico
Page Number: 383
Explanation and Analysis:
Volume 4, Chapter 1 Quotes

“Let me save you from this error,” said Emily, not less agitated—“it is my determination, and, if you reflect a moment on your late conduct, you will perceive, that my future peace requires it.”

“Your future peace requires, that we should part—part for ever!” said Valancourt, “How little did I ever expect to hear you say so!”

Related Characters: Emily St. Aubert (speaker), Valancourt (speaker), St. Aubert, Count De Villefort
Page Number: 514
Explanation and Analysis:
Volume 4, Chapter 16 Quotes

“Sister! beware of the first indulgence of the passions; beware of the first! Their course, if not checked then, is rapid—their force is uncontrollable—they lead us we know not whither—they lead us perhaps to the commission of crimes, for which whole years of prayer and penitence cannot atone!—Such may be the force of even a single passion, that it overcomes every other, and sears up every other approach to the heart. Possessing us like a fiend, it leads us on to the acts of a fiend, making us insensible to pity and to conscience.”

Related Characters: Signora Laurentini/Agnes (speaker), Emily St. Aubert, St. Aubert, Marchioness De Villeroi, Marquis De Villeroi
Page Number: 646
Explanation and Analysis: