Ann Radcliffe
Personal Information
Description
Ann Radcliffe (born Ann Ward, 9 July 1764 – 7 February 1823) was an English author and pioneer of Gothic fiction. Her technique of explaining apparently supernatural elements in her novels has been credited with gaining Gothic fiction respectability in the 1790s. 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. Interest has revived in the early 21st century, with the publication of paperback reprints and three biographies. Source: [Ann Radcliffe]( on Wikipedia.
Books
A journey made in the summer of 1794, through Holland and the western frontier of Germany, with a return down the Rhine
The Italian
Napoleon has fallen and the Austrian Empire sweeps the continent. Dashing revolutionaries, traitors and spies lurk in every quarter in the turbulent Italy of the 1820s. Italian patriot Angelo Bartolini is a man of many faces: a devoted son and brother, a noble friend and a stalwart nationalist. As a member of the Carbonari, a secret society dedicated to freeing Italy from Austrian rule, Angelo is a wanted man. But as with all great men, Angelo has a tender side, and his spirit awakens the passion of the brilliant but shy English painter, Beatrice Fairweather, who now makes her home in the Tuscan countryside. The Italian is a compelling story of two people who fall in love at the wrong time for all the right reasons. It is a haunting tale of families and war, of missed opportunities, betrayal, tragedy and of a love that knows no end.
The Italian, or the Confessional of the Black Penitents
Vincentio di Vivaldi was the only son of the Marchese di Vivaldi, a nobleman of one of the most ancient families of the kingdom of Naples, a favourite possessing an uncommon share of influence at Court, and a man still higher in power than in rank. His pride of birth was equal to either, but it was mingled with the justifiable pride of a principled mind; it governed his conduct in morals as well as in the jealousy of ceremonial distinctions, and elevated his practice as well as his claims. His pride was at once his vice and his virtue, his safeguard and his weakness.
The Italian (Oxford English Novels)
The story is rather simple in the beginning. It tells of a romantic love of young dashing nobleman Vivaldi in Naples, who falls in love with a girl Ellena. But his plan of marriage is soon interrupted by the vicious monk Schedoni. Then ensue abduction, murder (attempted or not), and the Inquisition. There are lot of suspense, terror, and thrill that come from the fluent narrative of Radcliffe... --Tsuyoshi at Amazon.com.
The Mysteries of Udolpho
The Mysteries of Udolpho (1794) is the archetypal Gothic novel. A young woman, Emily St. Aubert, suffers the death of her father, followed by worsening physical and psychological death, mirrored in a landscape of crumbling castles and emotive Alps.