I do like Catherine’s obsession with Udolpho. I think we’ve all had that experience of becoming obsessed while reading and not being able to be distracted by anything else.

Much of her conversation with Isabella in the Pump Room is done at cross-purposes, with Catherine constantly referring to Udolpho and what is behind the black veil. Why, even the delightful Henry Tilney takes a back seat to it!

”I do not pretend to say that I was not very much pleased with him; but while I have Udolpho to read, I feel as if nobody could make me miserable.”

Even a dressmaker crisis and the prospect of already being engaged for the evening in dancing cannot distract her more than “one minute in sixty” from reading Udolpho. Her excitement and eagerness is quite charming. I fear I am not as endearing when I get obsessed about a book…