The Mysteries of Udolpho
The Mysteries of Udolpho

Author: Ann Radcliffe

Publisher: Courier Corporation

Published: 2014-03-05

Total Pages: 626

ISBN-13: 0486166368

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Trapped in a gloomy medieval fortress, an orphaned heroine battles the devious schemes of her guardians as well as her own pensive visions and melancholy fancies.

Tales of the Troubled Dead
Tales of the Troubled Dead

Author: Catherine Belsey

Publisher: Edinburgh University Press

Published: 2019-09-01

Total Pages: 288

ISBN-13: 1474417388

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Considers the ways ghost stories appeal to our uneasy relationship with conventional good senseWhat do they want, the ghosts that, even in the age of science, still haunt our storytelling? Catherine Belsey's answer to the question traces Gothic writing and tales of the uncanny from the ancient past to the present - from Homer and the Icelandic sagas to Lincoln in the Bardo. Taking Shakespeare's Ghost in Hamlet as a turning point in the history of the genre, she uncovers the old stories the play relies on, as well as its influence on later writing. This ghostly trail is vividly charted through accredited records of apparitions and fiction by such writers as Ann Radcliffe, Washington Irving, Emily Bront Nathaniel Hawthorne, Henry James, M. R. James and Susan Hill. In recent blockbusting movies, too, ghost stories bring us fragments of news from the unknown. Traces examples of ghost stories from Homer to the present dayDescribes the aspects of storytelling designed to involve readersIncludes stories of attested apparitions, as well as fiction by a wide range of both canonical and popular authors

Mistress of Udolpho
Mistress of Udolpho

Author: Rictor Norton

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 1999-05-01

Total Pages: 329

ISBN-13: 1847142699

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This is the biography of the Gothic novelist, Ann Radcliffe (1764-1823), author of "The Mysteries of Udolpho", the world's first "best seller". The text clarifies Radcliffe's emergence from a Dissenting Unitarian, rather than a conventional Anglican, background. This places Radcliffe within the circle of other women writers nurtured in radical Dissenting backgrounds (such as Wollstonecraft, Hays, Inchbauld and Barbauld). Radcliffe's childhood and family background are documented and the rumours of her madness and reclusiveness investigated leading to an evaluation of the resons for her probable mental breakdown. The text constitutes a "cultural history" of a writing woman, demonstrating her place within radical culture, literary tradition and aesthetic discourse, and examining her role in the rise of the professional woman writer. Her novels are analyzed mainly in the context of her biography and sources.