The Complete Works of Ann Radcliffe: The Castles of Athlin and Dunbayne, A Sicilian Romance, The Romance of the Forest, The Italian and More

by Ann Radcliffe

This collection gathers together the works by Ann Radcliffe in a single, convenient, high quality, and extremely low priced Kindle volume!

Ann Radcliffe was an English author and a pioneer of the Gothic novel. Her style is romantic in its vivid descriptions of landscapes and long travel scenes, yet the Gothic element is obvious through her use of the supernatural. It was her technique of explained Gothicism, the final revelation of inexplicable phenomena, that helped the Gothic novel achieve respectability in the 1790s.

List of Works:

The Complete Novels:

A Sicilian Romance
Gaston De Blondeville
The Castles Of Athlin And Dunbayne: A Highland Story
The Italian, Or The Confessional Of The Black Penitents: A Romance
The Mysteries Of Udolpho
The Romance Of The Forest: Interspersed With Some Pieces Of Poetry

The Complete Poetry

Miscellaneous Poems
St. Alban’s Abbey: With Some Poetical Pieces

The Complete Non-Fiction

Journey Made In The Summer Of 1794
The Female Advocate, Or An Attempt To Recover The Rights Of Women From Male Usurpation.

Genres: Classics, Fiction, Gothic, Horror, Literature, Ebooks, Poetry

2543 pages, Kindle Edition

First published February 28, 2012

About the author

Ann Ward Radcliffe of Britain wrote Gothic novels, including The Mysteries of Udolpho (1794).

This English author pioneered.

William Radcliffe, her father and a haberdasher, moved the family to Bath to manage a china shop in 1772. Radcliffe occasionally lived with her uncle, Thomas Bentley, in Chelsea in partnership with a fellow Unitarian, Josiah Wedgwood. Although mixing in some distinguished circles, Radcliffe seemingly made little impression in this society, and Wedgwood described her as "Bentley's shy niece."

In 1787, she married William Radcliffe, the Oxford graduate and journalist. He often came home late, and to occupy her time, she began to write and read her work when he returned. They enjoyed a childless but seemingly happy marriage. Radcliffe called him her "nearest relative and friend". The money she earned from her novels later allowed them to travel together, along with their dog, Chance.

She published The Castles of Athlin and Dunbayne in 1789. It set the tone for the majority of her work, which tended to involve innocent, but heroic young women who find themselves in gloomy, mysterious castles ruled by even more mysterious barons with dark pasts.

Her works were extremely popular among the upper class and the growing middle class, especially among young women. Her works included A Sicilian Romance (1790), The Romance of the Forest (1791), The Mysteries of Udolpho (1794), and The Italian (1796). She published a travelogue, A Journey Through Holland and the Western Frontier of Germany in 1795.

The success of The Romance of the Forest established Radcliffe as the leading exponent of the historical Gothic romance. Her later novels met with even greater attention, and produced many imitators, and famously, Jane Austen's burlesque of The Mysteries of Udolpho in Northanger Abbey, as well as influencing the works of Sir Walter Scott.

Stylistically, Radcliffe was noted for her vivid descriptions of exotic and sinister locales, though in reality the author had rarely or never visited the actual locations. Shy by nature, she did not encourage her fame and abandoned literature as a pursuit.

She died on February 7, 1823 and was buried in Saint George's Church, Hanover Square, London.

Reviews

[Classic reverie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read "The Italian", see the novel for that 5 star review. I read the story on iBook about 5 years ago and remember there being typos but can't recall how many. I read only on my Kindle now so I generally buy Delphi classics because I like a collection and generally Delphi has errors but this works had a good amount which I submitted all the ones I noticed and hopefully they will correct them. Even though this was a downside, I was still able to enjoy the story. Navigation is also better in other Delphi. This had a table of contents but you had to go back to that page to get to another chapter. In other Delphi the Kindle has the next chapters listed on the "go to" page. Luckily my Kindles synced and I knew the chapters were long so I just read and did not concern myself how much more until the chapter ended. I prefer better navigation.

Gaston de Blondeville had some errors but many were archaic spellings.

[Janeite2LOTR · Rating 5 out of 5]

Anne Radcliffe is one of my favorite authors of all time! I only read her 6 fiction/prose works as that's what I am interested in. The Mysteries of Udolpho is one of my all time fave books. The Italian, The Romance of The Forest, & A Sicilian Romance are great too. She is a perfect balance of genius, romance, suspense, & a bit of horror.

[Jeremy · Rating 5 out of 5]

The kindle edition had quite a few typos, but the stories and poems are really wonderful.

[Mrs K K Ash · Rating 3 out of 5]

Got a bit fed up with all the fainting etc, but did enjoy some parts.

[JDS · Rating 2 out of 5]

Rating is for the quality of the publication and not so much the novel itself. It's a gothic of the old school and has interest value for that: overblown in all aspects. Fine. The transcription to kindle had errors on almost every page. S and f commonly mistransposed, for example. The thing only cost 49p so I shouldn't complain. But I am.

[Eva Rocha · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lamentablemente Goodreads no tiene todos los títulos, pero tuve que usar éste para darle calificación "Cuento Provenzal" porque ufff, está buenísimo. Me encantó.
Principalmente trata de la persuasión, el hostigamiento y la MANIPULACIÓN.

[Vanessa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Finished The Mysteries of Udolpho 27 December 2018.
Finished A Sicilian Romance 24 July 2019.