www.tropicalgothic.ciberarte.com.br (legacy site) 25/09/2008
When The Italian (1797) first came out, it soon achieved a huge popular success. Its publication contributed to consolidate Ann Radcliffe's celebrity, but previous glory was already conferred to the lady known as 'Queen of Romance'. For this novel, considered by some the roof and crown of her work, Mrs. Radcliffe received the sum of 800 pounds, a substantial amount for the time and significantly more than any other novelist was being paid. 'The Great Enchantress', as she was also known, rejoiced then in a comfortable position. She was an established affluent writer, acclaimed by the public and famous for her captivating books.
Following her first novel, The Castles of Athlin and Dunbayne (1789), Ann Radcliffe published A Sicilian Romance (1790), which was regarded by Sir Walter Scott as the first English poetical novel. This was succeeded by The Romance of the Forest (1791). Then came The Mysteries of Udolpho (1794), upon which her literary reputation greatly rests; it is regarded as a masterpiece of the genre.
Ann Radcliffe seemed to be a rare case of pleasing both public and critics. She often received favourable attention from the reviewers who approved her 'correctness of sentiment', her 'elegance of style' and 'proper characterisation'. This reverence towards her work was due to a postulation of conventional ideals amidst an uproar of new ones. This stand was much valued by traditional parties of that English society. Mrs. Radcliffe was quite conservative in her views, she was not a writer who aimed at questioning the established order, and by the end of her stories she would have conveyed a message of bourgeois moral, value and domesticity, according to the 18th century historical understanding.
However, this mannerly veneration of her novels was not an unanimous practice. Some aspects of her style disappointed the critical reception and were severely scrutinised by the faultfinders. Instead of praising, they alluded to the fact her latter literary production was inferior to the former. Opposing criticism pointed out her formulas of 'explained supernatural' were growing tiring and predictable from overuse. Essays published in literary magazines stated her 'suspense technique' aroused the reader so high that, in the outcome, it could not fulfil expectations. It was also noted in these reviews her talent for description was 'exhaustive' and 'excessive'. Fred Botting points out the ambivalence concerning this matter: "These criticisms of the novel's excess point to a contradiction between style and project of the novel which as to warn against the danger of excess". Nevertheless, in the turn of the18th century Mrs. Radcliffe's books were indisputable best sellers. She had become the most read author of her time, positively excelling at landscaping painting and at portraying villainies.
She was born Ann Ward in 1764, the very year Sir Horace Walpole was publishing The Castle of Otranto. Her father, William Ward, was a haberdasher in London, though he and his wife had contacts in artistic circles. When her family moved to Bath (1772), she may have attended a school run by Sophia and Harriet Lee and been influenced to write gothic fiction. In 1787, she married the lawyer William Radcliffe, who later in life became proprietor of English Chronicleand who is believed to have encouraged her in writing ventures. From 1789 to 1797 she wrote the works that made her a respected novelist and poet. However, Ann Radcliffe interrupted her career at this point and never, herself, published a book again. She withdrew from the literary scene and lived a secluded life.
Her literary production include more titles, still, they made little success when compared to the novels previously mentioned. Mrs. Radcliffe was a travel enthusiast and wrote a book of her tour through Holland and Germany, A Journey Made in the Summer of 1794…, published in 1795. Gaston de Blondeville was written in 1801, but only published posthumously in 1826. Earlier on, Ode to Terror (1810) was published, in which it was declared that Ann Radcliffe had gone insane and died of the 'terrors'. In 1816, she was assumed dead, and a compilation of her verse came out, The Poems of Ann Radcliffe. In later life Ann Radcliffe suffered from asthma and died on 7th February 1823. It was claimed in the Monthly Review that 'she died in a state of mental desolation not to be described'.
Roger Lonsdale offers an explanation for Mrs. Radcliffe's early retirement. Based on an 1802 report by Charlotte Smith, Lonsdale sustains her husband restrained her from calling anymore'spirits from the vastly deep' of her imagination . She was also said to have inherited property from her parents in 1798 and 1800, so she may have had less financial motivation, furthermore, she suffered from an old -fashioned uneasiness about being a professional author. From a different perspective J.M.S. Tompkins demonstrates she retired mainly due to disapprobation of the ways gothic writing had trodden. A trend of gothic fiction based on the German type of novel, Schauerroman (horror-romance), introduced blunt terror and heavy handed violence, contrasting with the subtle thrills of the English mode. In order to disassociate herself from the extravagant mob gothic novels had become, she dropped the pen. Nonetheless, the actual reason why Mrs. Radcliffe, having reached such a high degree of success, retired from the writing business, remains more mysterious than any of her mysteries.
