英文簡介
Ann Radcliffe (1764-1823), novelist andpoet, was born inLondonthe daughter of atradesman. Through his and his wife's connections she had contacts in artistic circles. When she and her family moved to Bath (1772), she may have attended a school run by Sophia and Harriet Lee and been influenced to write Gothic fiction. Her novel The Mysteries of Udolpho was one of the first Gothic novels and a masterpiece of the genre.
Following her first novel, The Castles of Athlin and Dunbayne (1789), Ann Radcliffe published A Sicilian Romance (1790) which was regarded by Sir Walter Scott as the first Englishpoeticalnovel. This was followed by The Romance of the Forest (1791), dramatised by John Boaden (d 1839). For The Mysteries of Udolpho (1794), upon which her reputation rests, Ann Radcliffe was offered theunheardof sum of £500 by her publisher. The Mysteries of Udolpho was a huge success, and for her next novel, The Italian (1797), she was offered £800. Gaston de Blondeville (written 1801, published 1826), published posthumously, achieved little success.
After writing a travel book of her trip through Holland and Germany, A Journey Made in the Summer of 1794 (1795), Ann Radcliffe retired from the literary scene. In 1816, she was assumed dead, and a compilation published of her verse, The Poems of Ann Radcliffe. Earlier, in 1810, 'Ode to Terror' was published, in which it was claimed that Ann Radcliffe had gone mad and died of the 'terrors'.
In later life Ann Radcliffe suffered from asthma and died of an attack (7 February 1823). It was claimed in the Monthly Review that 'she died in a state of mental desolation not to be described'.
