Literature Network » Ann Radcliffe

Heroes to swoon over; Mistress of Udolpho: The Life of Ann Radcliffe. By Rictor Norton (Leicester University Press, pounds 17.99). Reviewed by Christine Barker.(News)

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From: The Birmingham Post (England)
Date: 19990403
Author:Barker, Christine

As the 18th century melded gently into the 19th in an England on the verge of an industrial revolution and both a political and religious explosion, young ladies of the town had a new subject for gossip.

With their reading skills honed by an army of governesses, they had discovered the novel. But not any old romance.

The sagas that had them huddled in chattering groups in fashionable drawing-rooms and kept their bedside candles burning through half the night were the outpourings of a certain Mrs Radcliffe.

But who was Mrs Radcliffe whose 1794 publication The Mysteries ...

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