YMMV / The Mysteries of Udolpho

• Genre Popularizer: While Ann Radcliffe didn't write the first Gothic Horror novel (that honour belongs to The Castle of Otranto), this novel is arguably what helped launch the genre.
• Girl-Show Ghetto: Older Than Radio. Ann Radcliffe was a bestselling author who popularized the Gothic Horror genre, but she made the mistake of publishing emotional and dramatically written stories to a large female reader base under a female pen name (not a male pen name like Mary Shelley, the Bronte sisters, or George Eliot), so her work was derided as "hysterical, sensationalist female nonsense." Even Jane Austen took a crack at this book with Northanger Abbey. Even to this day, Ann Radcliffe is largely forgotten and rarely credited for basically defining and popularizing the beloved Gothic Horror genre.
• Magnificent Bastard: Signor Montoni is a ruthless Iitalian bandit seeking to gain the heroine Emily's inherited fortune. Using a scheme to pose as an Italian noble, Montinu seduces and marries Emily's aunt, kidnapping the two to bring them to Udolpho where he attempts to trick and force Emily into signing over her inheritance to him. Despite his ruthlessness, he keeps Emily safe, even wounding his own ally for attempting to force himself upon her and sends Emily away when a siege comes. When his end comes, Emily finds she could mourn him if not for the crimes he has committed.