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Article: ANN RADCLIFFE'S GOTHIC NARRATIVE AND THE READERS AT HOME.(Critical Essay)
- Article from:
- Studies in the Novel
- Article date:
- December 22, 1999
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1999 University of North Texas. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Many trips to Scotland are undoubtedly projected and executed, and many unfortunate connections formed, from the influence which novels gain over the mind.
-- Catherine MacAulay, Letters on Education
I. The Scene of Reading
During much the same period that the French Revolution horrified the public imagination of England, the Gothic novels of Ann Radcliffe terrified English private imaginations. As Edmund Burke and others fought Jacobin sentiments (and lack of sentiment) in the political theater, Radcliffe claimed an altogether easier conquest of the hearth. Her novels are Gothic-really the apogee of the form's early ascendancy-but they are ...