the mysteries of udolpho by ann radcliffe

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. Both of her parents were relatively well connected. Her father worked as a haberdasher in London before moving the family to Bath in 1772 to take over management of a porcelain shop for his business partners Thomas Bentley and Josiah Wedgwood. She was the only child to William Ward (1737–1798) and Ann Oates (1726–1800), and her mother was 36 years old when she gave birth. Radcliffe was born Ann Ward in Holborn, London on 9 July 1764. Interest has revived in the early 21st century, with the publication of three biographies. Radcliffe was the most popular writer of her day and almost universally admired contemporary critics called her the mighty enchantress and the Shakespeare of romance-writers, and her popularity continued through the 19th century. Her technique of explaining apparently supernatural elements in her novels has been credited with gaining respectability for Gothic fiction in the 1790s. Many critics have called the work 'dreamlike' and 'suggestive of the cinematic technique of slow-motion.Ann Radcliffe (née Ward 9 July 1764 – 7 February 1823) was an English novelist and a pioneer of Gothic fiction.

Radcliffe's strengths in writing were in describing scenery as well as suspense and terror. The mysterious happenings in the story always have a natural and probable explanation because Radcliffe was a very rational person and did not believe in the supernatural. Inside the castle, she must cope with an unwanted suitor, Montoni's threats, and the wild imaginings and terrors that threaten to overwhelm her. Aubert, who finds herself separated from the man she loves and confined within the medieval castle of her aunt's new husband, Montoni, after being forced to travel through France and Italy. The Mysteries of Udolpho, set in Europe in the year 1584, is the story of orphan Emily St. In The Mysteries of Udolpho, one of the most famous and popular gothic novels of the eighteenth century, Ann Radcliffe took a new tack from her predecessors and portrayed her heroine's inner life, creating an atmosphere thick with fear, and providing a gripping plot that continues to thrill readers today. Download cover art Download CD case insert The Mysteries of UdolphoĬonsidered a change agent in early Gothic romance oft-referenced in later literary works or paid homage to by such authors as Jane Austen (influential novel ready by her heroine, Catherine Morland, in Northanger Abbey) Edgar Allen Poe (borrowed plot elements for the short story The Oval Portrait) and Sir Walter Scott.

The mysteries of udolpho by ann radcliffe