Romance of the Forest Pt.2

The second half of Romance of the Forest Adeline finds herself back at the abbey with La’Motte, whom she deeply distrusts now and her love Theodore has been wounded and arrested.  The upset Marquis tells La’Motte to kill Adeline, and he intends too but suddenly feels pity and sends her off with his trusty servant Peter.  

She falls ill again, since that is one of her many talents and she wakes up in a nice place near the lake. She has been taken in by La Luc who has a daughter that can heal people. Clara, La Luc’s daughter, and Adeline become quick friends and Adeline begins to mesh into their family.  Upon a rather grim diagnosis, La Luc’s doctor advises him to vacation. Upon their travels, they run into Louis La’Motte (La’Motte’s son) who tells Adeline that he has been sent to tell Theodore’s father that he has been sentenced to death.

As it turns out La Luc is Theodore’s father and whole family goes to visit Theodore in prison.  After a high drama trial occurs and many secrets are reveales, Theodore is pardoned from his sentence, the Marquis’s reputation has been destroyed as we find that he is actually Adeline’s Uncle and that he had killed Adeline’s father,  La Luc recovers fully, and La’Motte is exiled.  The Marquis kills himself and leaves his money to Adeline. Then her and Clara get married in a double wedding and everyone ends up happily ever after.

I found it strange that the love interest in both Castle of Otranto and Romance of the Forest had the name of Theodore. So, I did a little bit of research on the name. The name Theodore is of Greek origin and it has two roots, theos (meaning god) and doron (meaning gift). Theodore literally means God's Gift, which may be the reason that both Walpole and Radcliffe used that name for the hero character. Although Romance of the Forest is a bit wordy overall, this book was much better than Castle of Otranto.