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Sophia Lee and the Gothic of female community.

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From: Studies in the Novel
Date: 19960622
Author:Isaac, Megan Lynn

Gothic novelist Sophia Lee may have been one of the first writers to examine the place of female community in 18th century British patriarchal society. Lee uses her gothic mystery, 'The Recess,' to tell the life stories of its female characters through their eyes. She decries secrecy, and shows women through examples how to work the patriarchal system. Lee lived from 1750 until 1824 and influenced such British writers as Ann Radcliffe and Byron.

The Recess, claimed Montague Summers in 1938, "is a work of considerable note, and exercised upon the novel of the day an influence which yet ...

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