1794
2 books
- Paine argues with the Bible the way he argued with kings, blunt and funny and completely unafraid, part of it written while he was expecting arrest in revolutionary France. If you like watching someone reason out loud with total conviction, this crackles; if religious polemic wears on you, skip it.
- You follow Emily St Aubert from sunlit France into the oppressive corridors of Udolpho, where music, shadows, and a black veil keep your nerves pleasantly busy. It’s long, ornate, and sometimes dramatically overwrought, but the atmosphere is so carefully sustained that the castle starts haunting you too.