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TEHRAN-The Persian translation of the gothic novel \u201cThe Midnight Bell\u201d written by Francis Lathom has been released in the Iranian book market.<\/p>\n
Maryam Mahdavi has translated the book and Qoqnoos Publishing House has brought it out in 346 pages, IRNA reported.<\/p>\n
The book was first published anonymously in 1798 in London and has, on occasion, been wrongly attributed to George Walker. It was one of the seven \u201chorrid novels\u201d lampooned by Jane Austen in her novel \u201cNorthanger Abbey\u201d.<\/p>\n
Subtitled \u201cA German Story, Founded on Incidents in Real Life,\u201d it concerns the quest of the hero, Alphonsus Cohenburg, to regain his estates and stolen identity after his parents are murdered by his villainous uncle. The young man becomes a soldier, then a miner, before marrying his true love Lauretta, only to see her kidnapped by bandits.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The last third of the book is set in the quintessentially gothic Cohenburg castle and features tales of ghostly apparitions, who turn out to be diabolical Roman Catholic priests, another common gothic trope. The midnight bell of the title calls the villainous monks to their dark meeting place.<\/p>\n
One of the greatest of all Gothic novels, \u201cThe Midnight Bell\u201d features a blend of fast-paced action and spine-tingling suspense, pervaded throughout by a tone of profound melancholy.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Suspicion is a significant theme in \u201cThe Midnight Bell,\u201d as Count Cohenburg\u2019s suspicion of his wife\u2019s infidelity is the direct cause of the murder that starts the book’s plot. Additionally, the novel ends with Alphonsus warning his children of the dangers of suspicion.<\/p>\n
Lathom explores ideas of inheritance, beyond any references to material wealth, as \u201cThe Midnight Bell\u201d is concerned with children’s inheritance of the sins of their parents.<\/p>\n
Francis Lathom (1774-1832) was a British gothic novelist and playwright. In 1795, he published his first novel,\u00a0\u201cThe Castle of Ollada,\u201d a Gothic romance indebted to Ann Radcliffe\u2019s\u00a0\u201cThe Mysteries of Udolpho\u201d\u00a0(1794) and \u201cWalpole\u2019s\u00a0The Castle of Otranto\u201d\u00a0(1764).
Lathom would go on to publish many more Gothic novels, all with sensational titles such as \u201cAstonishment!!!,\u201d \u201cThe Fatal Vow,\u201d \u201cThe Unknown,\u201d and \u201cThe Impenetrable Secret, Find it Out!\u201d.<\/p>\n
But Lathom was not only a Gothic novelist: about half his works are works of contemporary satire or attempts at fiction in the mode of Walter Scott.<\/p>\n
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