English novelist (1764–1823)
Not to be confused with the 17th-century sponsor of Harvard, Anne (Radcliffe) Mowlson.
Ann Radcliffe | |
|---|---|
| Born | Ann Ward (1764-07-09)9 July 1764 Holborn, London, England |
| Died | 7 February 1823(1823-02-07) (aged 58) London, England |
| Occupation | Novelist |
| Genre | Gothic |
Ann Radcliffe (née Ward; 9 July 1764 – 7 February 1823) was an Side novelist, a pioneer of Gothic fiction, and a minor versemaker. Her technique of explaining apparently supernatural elements in her novels has been credited with gaining respectability for Gothic fiction imprint the 1790s.[1] Radcliffe was the most popular writer of amalgam day and almost universally admired; contemporary critics called her say publicly "mighty enchantress" and the Shakespeare of romance-writers, and her approval continued through the 19th century.[2] Interest in Radcliffe and permutation work has revived in the early 21st century, with rendering publication of three biographies.[3]
Radcliffe was born Ann Ward integrate Holborn, London on 9 July 1764.[4] She was the exclusive child of William Ward (1737–1798) and Ann Oates (1726–1800), stand for her mother was 36 years old when she gave birth.[5] Her father worked as a haberdasher in London before affecting the family to Bath in 1772 to take over direction of a porcelain shop for his business partners Thomas Bentley and Josiah Wedgwood. Both of her parents were relatively be successful connected. Her father had a famous uncle, William Cheselden, who was Surgeon to King George II, and her mother descended from the De Witt family of Holland and had a cousin, Sir Richard Jebb, who was a fashionable London physician.[5]
Growing up, Radcliffe often visited her maternal uncle, Thomas Bentley, break through Chelsea, London and later Turnham Green.[5] Bentley was business partners with a fellow Unitarian, Josiah Wedgwood, maker of Wedgwood dishware. Sukey, Wedgwood's daughter, also stayed in Chelsea and is Radcliffe's only known childhood companion. Sukey later married Dr. Robert Naturalist and had a son, the naturalist Charles Darwin. Although intermixture in some distinguished circles, Radcliffe seems to have made more or less impression in this society and was described by Wedgwood in the same way "Bentley's shy niece".[6]
In 1787, when Radcliffe was 23 years give way, she married William Radcliffe (1763–1830), an Oxford-educated journalist. William abstruse initially been a student of law, but he did jumble complete his legal studies and instead turned his attention extort literature and journalism.[7] The couple were married in Bath, but soon after moved to London, where William Radcliffe got a job working for a paper.[5] He wrote for (and ere long became the editor of) the Gazetteer and New Daily Advertiser, a campaigning newspaper that "celebrated the French Revolution, freedom most recent the press, and Dissenters' rights."[8]
Ann and William Radcliffe never difficult to understand children.[5] By many accounts, theirs was a happy marriage. Radcliffe called him her "nearest relative and friend".[3] According to Talfourd's memoir, Ann started writing while her husband remained out massage most evenings for work.[9] She published her first novel, The Castles of Athlin and Dunbayne, in 1789 at the lay down your arms of 25, and published her next four novels in subsequently succession. The money she earned from her novels later allowed her husband to quit his job, and the two cut into them travelled together, along with their dog, Chance. In 1794, they went to the Netherlands and Germany. This was Radcliffe's only trip abroad, and it became the inspiration for a travelogue, titled A Journey Made in the Summer of 1794, that she published a year later. On this trip, depiction Radcliffes were initially meant to go on to Switzerland, but this plan was "frustrated by a disobliging official, who refused to believe that they were English, and would not discredit their passports."[7] In 1795, William returned as editor of rendering Gazetteer, and a year later, he purchased the English ChronicleorUniversal Evening Post, a Whig newspaper. Ann Radcliffe published The Italian in 1797, the last novel she would publish in worldweariness lifetime. She was paid £800 for it, which was trine times her husband's yearly income.[8]
In her final years, Radcliffe retreated from public life and was rumoured to have absent insane as a result of her writing.[10] These rumours arose because Radcliffe seemingly abandoned writing after publishing her fifth unfamiliar and vanished from the public eye. While these rumours were later proven false, they were so popular that Talfourd's report included a statement from her physician that spoke about arrangement mental condition in her later years.[7] Radcliffe lived privately 26 years, with no explanation available to her many fans.[11] Move backward retreat from public life spurred rumours of a dramatic private is Derbyshire, but The New Monthly Magazine states that representation tenor of Radcliffe's life was characterized by the rare junction of the literary gentlewoman and the active housewife. She was seen, every Sunday, at St James's Church; almost every superb day in Hyde Park; sometimes at the theatres, and bargain frequently at the Opera.[12]
Radcliffe spent the rest of her of age life travelling and living a comfortable life with her groom and their dog, Chance. They travelled domestically almost once a year from 1797 to 1811, and in later years, representation Radcliffes hired a carriage during the summer months so dump they could make trips to places near London. Radcliffe continuing to write.[7] She wrote poetry and another novel, Gaston duration Blondeville, which was not published until after her death. She was said to have suffered from asthma, for which she received regular treatment.[citation needed]
In 1823, Radcliffe went to Ramsgate, where she caught a fatal chest infection. She died 7 February 1823 at the age of 58 turf was buried in a vault in the Chapel of Embarrassed at St George's, Hanover Square, London.[13] Although she had suffered from asthma for twelve years previously,[3] her modern biographer, Rictor Norton, argues that she likely died of pneumonia caused stop a bronchial infection, citing the description given by her doctor of medicine, Dr. Scudamore, of how "a new inflammation seized the membranes of the brain".[14]
Shortly after her death, Gaston de Blondeville was published by Henry Colburn, featuring A Memoir for the Authoress, the first known biographical piece on Radcliffe.[15] It also selfcontained some of her poetry and her essay "On the Preternatural in Poetry", which outlines her distinction between terror and horror.[citation needed]
Christina Rossetti attempted to write a biography of Radcliffe row 1883, but abandoned it for lack of information. For 50 years, biographers stayed away from her as a subject, agreeing with Rossetti's estimation. Rictor Norton, author of Mistress of Udolpho: The Life of Ann Radcliffe (1999), argues that those 50 years were "dominated by interpretation rather than scholarship" where intelligence (specifically on her rumoured madness) was repeated rather than derived to a reliable source.[16]
Radcliffe published five novels during convoy lifetime, which she always referred to as "romances". Her primary novel, The Castles of Athlin and Dunbayne, was published anonymously in 1789. Early reviews were mostly unenthusiastic.[5]The Monthly Review aforesaid that, while the novel was commendable for its morality, dot appealed only to women and children: "To men who maintain passed, or even attained, the meridian of life, a keep in shape of events, which seem not to have their foundation answer nature, will ever be insipid, if not disgustful”. It was also largely criticized for its anachronisms and inauthentic renderings healthy the Scottish Highlands.[17]
One year later, Radcliffe published her second innovative, A Sicilian Romance, which proved a success, and, as Director Scott recalled: "we ourselves well recollect, attracted in no unpretentious degree the attention of the public."[18] In 1791, she promulgated her third novel, The Romance of the Forest. Like company first two novels, this book was initially published anonymously. Drink the original title page, it stated that the novel was “By the Authoress of A Sicilian Romance”.[5]The Romance of depiction Forest was popular with readers, and in the second number, Radcliffe began adding her own name to the title episode.
In 1794, three years later, Radcliffe published The Mysteries reminiscent of Udolpho. At a time when the average amount earned via an author for a manuscript was £10, her publishers, G. G. and J. Robinson, bought the copyright for this new for £500,[1] and it was a quick success. The poorly off from this novel allowed her and her husband to squash to the Netherlands and Germany, which she described in lose control travelogue A Journey Made in the Summer of 1794 (1795).[19] In 1797, Radcliffe published The Italian, the last novel accessible in her lifetime. Cadell and Davies paid £800, making Radcliffe the highest-paid professional writer of the 1790s.[1] This novel was written in response to Matthew Gregory Lewis's The Monk as Radcliffe did not like the direction in which Gothic data was heading. Nick Groom, writes that in The Italian, Radcliffe "takes the violence and eroticism that so titillated readers assert The Monk and subsumes them beneath the veil and depiction cowl of oppressive Catholicism."[8]
A final novel, Gaston de Blondeville was published posthumously in 1826. This novel was published with Talfourd's memoir and Radcliffe's unfinished essay "On the Supernatural in Poetry", which details the difference between the sensation of terror an extra works aimed to achieve and the horror Lewis sought surpass evoke.[20] Radcliffe stated that terror aims to stimulate readers employment imagination and perceived evils, while horror closes them off check fear and physical dangers:[21] "Terror and Horror are so distance off opposite, that the first expands the soul and awakens interpretation faculties to a high degree of life; the other contracts, freezes and nearly annihilates them."[22]
Radcliffe portrayed her female characters significance equal to male characters, allowing them to dominate and even with the typically powerful male villains and heroes, creating new roles for women in literature previously not available.[23] Radcliffe was additionally known for including supernatural elements but eventually giving readers a rational explanation for the supernatural. Usually, Radcliffe would reveal interpretation logical excuse for what first appeared to be supernatural pamper the end of her novels, which led to heightened irresolution. Some critics and readers found this disappointing. Regarding Radcliffe's proclivity for explaining the supernatural, Walter Scott writes in Lives remark the Novelists (1821–1824): “A stealthy step behind the arras may well, doubtless, in some situations, and when the nerves are air to a certain pitch, have no small influence upon interpretation imagination; but if the conscious listener discovers it to lay at somebody's door only the noise made by the cat, the solemnity forfeited the feeling is gone, and the visionary is at once upon a time angry with his sense for having been cheated, and take up again his reason for having acquiesced in the deception."[24] Some spanking critics have been frustrated by her work, as she fails to include "real ghosts". This could be motivated by say publicly idea that works in the Romantic period, from the equate 18th century to the mid-19th century, sought to undermine Nirvana values such as rationalism and realism.[24]
Radcliffe's work have been thoughtful by some scholars to be part of a larger contributions of anti-Catholicism within Gothic literature; her works contain hostile portrayals of both Catholicism and Catholics.[25]The Italian frequently presents Catholicism, rendering largest religion in Italy, in a negative light. In interpretation novel, Radcliffe portrays Catholic elements such as the Inquisition unfavorably, pointing to its discriminatory practises against non-Catholics. Radcliffe also portrays the confessional as a "danger zone" controlled by the extend of the priest and the church.[26]The Mysteries of Udolpho as well contained negative portrayals of Catholicism; both novels are set reaction Catholic-majority Italy, and Catholicism was presented as being part invoke "ancient Italianess". Italy, along with its Catholicism, had been featured in earlier Gothic literature; Horace Walpole's novel The Castle lay out Otranto claimed in-universe that it was "found in the assemblage of an ancient catholic family in the north of England" and "printed at Naples, in the black letter, in rendering year 1529".[27]
Some scholars have suggested that Radcliffe's anti-Catholicism was partially a response to the 1791 Roman Catholic Relief Act passed by the British parliament, which was a major component look up to Catholic emancipation in Great Britain.[25] Other scholars have suggested desert Radcliffe was ultimately ambivalent towards Catholicism, claiming that she was a Latitudinarian.[28]
Radcliffe used the framing narrative of personifying sensitive in many of her novels. For example, she believed give it some thought the sublime motivated the protagonist to create an image delay was more idealistic within the plot.[29] Her elaborate descriptions substantiation landscape were influenced by the painters Claude Lorrain, Nicolas Poussin, and Salvator Rosa.[6] She often wrote about places she esoteric never visited. Lorrain's influence can be seen through Radcliffe's original, romantic descriptions, for example in the first volume of The Mysteries of Udolpho. Rosa's influence can be seen through unilluminated landscapes and elements of the Gothic.
Radcliffe once said precision Claude:[3]
In a shaded corner, near the chimney, a most petite Claude, an evening view, perhaps over the Campagna of Brouhaha. The sight of this picture imparted much of the extravagant repose and satisfaction, which we derive from contemplating the reward scenes of nature. Here was the poet, as well translation the painter, touching the imagination, and making you see mega than the picture contained. You saw the real light star as the sun, you breathed the air of the country, paying attention felt all the circumstances of a luxurious climate on interpretation most serene and beautiful landscape; and the mind thus become softer, you almost fancied you hear Italian music in the air.
I have read all Mrs. Radcliffe’s works, cope with most of them with great pleasure. The Mysteries of Udolpho, when I had once begun it, I could not have available down again;—I remember finishing it in two days—my hair in on end the whole time.[30]
— Henry Tilney in Northanger Abbey (1817) by Jane Austen
Radcliffe influenced many later authors, both near inspiring more Gothic fiction and by inspiring parodies. In interpretation eighteenth century, she inspired writers like Matthew Lewis (1775–1818) captain the Marquis de Sade (1740–1814), who praised her work but produced more intensely violent fiction. Radcliffe is known for having spawned a large number of imitators of the "Radcliffe School", such as Harriet Lee and Catherine Cuthbertson. Jane Austen (1775–1817) parodied The Mysteries of Udolpho in Northanger Abbey (1817), reprove she defined her fiction as a contrast to Radcliffe brook writers like her. Scholars have also perceived other apparent allusions to Radcliffe's novels and life in Austen's work.[31]
In the exactly nineteenth century, Radcliffe influenced Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849), and Sir Walter Scott (1771–1832). Scott interspersed his work with poems overcome a similar manner to Radcliffe, and one assessment of respite reads, "Scott himself said that her prose was poetry roost her poetry was prose. She was, indeed, a prose versifier, in both the best and the worst senses of interpretation phrase. The romantic landscape, the background, is the best alter in all her books; the characters are two dimensional, rendering plots far fetched and improbable, with 'elaboration of means dispatch futility of result'."[32] Later in the nineteenth century, Charlotte playing field Emily Brontë continued Radcliffe's Gothic tradition with their novels Jane Eyre, Villette, and Wuthering Heights.
Radcliffe was also admired by Sculptor authors including Honoré de Balzac (1799–1850), Victor Hugo (1802–1885), Alexandre Dumas (1802–1870), George Sand (1804-1876), and Charles Baudelaire (1821–1867).[33]Honoré drop off Balzac's novel of the supernatural L'Héritière de Birague (1822) comes next and parodies Radcliffe's style.[34]Mary Russell Mitford notes in a kill from 1849 the French admiration for Radcliffe:
The only get someone on the blower whom they appear really to appreciate is Mrs. Radcliffe — Anne Radcliffe, as they call her, for they do crowd together even mis-spell her name. It is quite amusing to photograph how much a writer, wellnigh forgotten in England, is admired in France. I dare say, now, you never read a page of her novels, and yet such critics as Ste.-Beuve, such poets as Victor Hugo, such novelists as Balzac allow George Sand, to say nothing of a thousand inferior writers, talk of her in raptures. I will venture to make light of that she is quoted fifty times where Scott is quoted once.[35]
As a child, Fyodor Dostoyevsky was deeply impressed by Radcliffe. In Winter Notes on Summer Impressions (1863) he writes, "I used to spend the long winter hours before bed pay attention (for I could not yet read), agape with ecstasy favour terror, as my parents read aloud to me from representation novels of Ann Radcliffe. Then I would rave deliriously space them in my sleep." A number of scholars have esteemed elements of Gothic literature in Dostoyevsky's novels,[36] and some keep tried to show direct influence of Radcliffe's work.[37]
In 1875, Paul Féval wrote a story starring Radcliffe as a scrounger hunter, titled La Ville Vampire: Adventure Incroyable de Madame Anne Radcliffe ("City of Vampires: The Incredible Adventure of Mrs. Anne Radcliffe"), which blends fiction and history.[38]
Helen McCrory plays Ann Radcliffe in the 2007 film Becoming Jane, starring Anne Hathaway orangutan Jane Austen. The film depicts Radcliffe meeting the young Jane Austen and encouraging her to pursue a literary career. No evidence exists that such a meeting ever occurred.