Born: 9 July 1764, United Kingdom
Died: 7 February 1823
Country most active: United Kingdom
Also known as: Ann Ward
From Famous Women: An Outline of Feminine Achievement Through the Ages With Life Stories of Five Hundred Noted Women. Written by Joseph Adelman, published 1926 by Ellis M Lonow Company:
Ann Radcliffe, an English romantic novelist, born in London. Her maiden name was Ward, and at twenty-three she married Wm. Radcliffe, who later became proprietor of the weekly English Chronicle.
Her three most famous stories, The Romance of the Forest, The Mysteries of Odolpho, and The Italian, appeared between 1791 and 1797, and from this time she published no more novels – “like an actress in full possession of her applauded powers,” says Scott, “she chose to retreat from the stage in the full blaze of her fame.”
In the history of the English novel, Mrs. Radcliffe holds an interesting place. She is too often confounded with her imitators, who vulgarized her favorite “properties” of rambling and ruinous old castles, dark, desperate an cadaverous villains, secret passages, faults, trapdoors, evidences of deeds of monstrous crime, sights and sounds of mysterious horror. She deserves at least the credit of originating a school of which she was the most distinguished exponent.
While her figures are mere shadows, without touch of reality, and her pages unrelieved by wit or humor, she was dear to the readers of her time, and so sagacious a writer as Dunlop said: “Life has few better things than sitting at the chimney-corner in a winter evening, and reading such absurdities.”
The following is excerpted from the Dictionary of National Biography, originally published between 1885 and 1900, by Smith, Elder & Co. It was written by Richard Garnett.
RADCLIFFE, ANN (1764–1823), novelist, the only daughter of William and Ann Ward, was born in London on 9 July 1764. Her father was in trade, but she was connected on his side with the family of William Cheselden [q. v.], the famous surgeon, and more remotely with the Dutch family of De Witt. Her mother, whose maiden name was Oates, was niece of Dr. Samuel Jebb [q. v.], and first cousin of Sir Richard Jebb [q. v.], physician to George III. Great part of her youth was passed in the society of relatives in easy circumstances; she was particularly noticed by Bentley, the partner of Josiah Wedgwood [q. v.], and she met at his house, among others, Mrs. Piozzi, Mrs. Montagu, and ‘Athenian Stuart.’ At the age of twenty-three she married, at Bath, William Radcliffe, an Oxonian, and a student of law, who abandoned his intention of being called to the bar, and subsequently became proprietor and editor of the ‘English Chronicle.’
Her first novel, ‘The Castles of Athlin and Dunbayne,’ a short story of little merit, appeared in 1789, and was followed in the ensuing year by ‘A Sicilian Romance,’ which Scott considers the first modern English example of the poetical novel, and of which several Italian versions have appeared. The interest, however, depended entirely upon incident and description, to which in its successor, ‘The Romance of the Forest’ (London, 1791, 12mo), something like a study of the effect of circumstance upon character was added. ‘The Romance of the Forest’ reached a fourth edition by 1795, and was translated into French and Italian, while a dramatised version, by John Boaden, entitled ‘Fountainville Forest,’ appeared in 1794. Its success paved the way for ‘The Mysteries of Udolpho, a Romance interspersed with some pieces of Poetry’ (London, 1794, 4 vols. 12mo), for which the publisher offered what was then the unprecedented sum of 500l. Conscious of her strength, Mrs. Radcliffe had adopted a broader and more ambitious style of treatment. ‘The Mysteries of Udolpho’ was translated into French by Chastenay, and proved the most popular of novels. Its success was such that she obtained 800l. for her next novel, ‘The Italian, or the Confessional of the Black Penitents’ (London, 1797, 3 vols. 12mo), a romance of the inquisition, usually regarded as her best work. It was received with enthusiasm at home. Badly dramatised by John Boaden as the ‘Italian Monk,’ it was produced at the Haymarket on 15 Aug. 1797 (Genest, vii. 323); it was, moreover, immediately translated into French by the Abbé Morellet. From this time Mrs. Radcliffe wrote no more, except the little-known novel of ‘Gaston de Blondeville, or the Court of Henry III keeping Festival in Ardenne’ (London, 1826, 4 vols. 8vo), composed in 1802, but not published until after her death, whence it may perhaps be inferred that she considered it unworthy of her powers. It was, however, translated into French by Defauconpret, the translator of Scott, in 1826, and it is interesting because in it the author has recourse not to the supernatural naturally explained, but to the actual supernatural, a method which Scott regretted that she had not followed, unaware that she had actually attempted it.
After her retirement from the world of letters Mrs. Radcliffe lived almost unknown to her literary contemporaries, amusing herself with the occasional composition of poetry, and delighting in the long carriage excursions she was accustomed to make with her husband in the summer months. She had already (1795) published an account of ‘A Journey made in the Summer of 1794 through Holland and the Western Frontier of Germany,’ which is rich in pictorial description, and also in political and economical observations, probably contributed by her husband. She also made copious notes of her English excursions, specimens of which, admirable as pieces of description, were incorporated in the memoir prefixed to ‘Gaston de Blondeville.’ With them also appeared ‘St. Alban’s Abbey,’ a long metrical romance, the date of which is not given, but which must have been written after Scott and Southey had begun to publish. A little volume of poems which appeared under her name in 1816, and was reissued in 1834 and 1845, is merely a collection of the verses inserted in her novels, made by an anonymous compiler, who seems to have thought that she was dead, and who took the liberty to add poems of his own. Her retirement from society also accredited a report of her insanity, which was distinctly asserted in a book entitled ‘A Tour through England,’ and was made the subject of ‘An Ode to Terror,’ published in 1810. There was not the slightest foundation for it. Mrs. Radcliffe appears to have possessed a cheerful and equable temper, and to have manifested no peculiarity except the sensitive aversion to notice which she shared with many other authoresses. For the last twelve years of her life she suffered from spasmodic asthma, and succumbed to a sudden attack on 7 Feb. 1823. She was interred at the chapel-of-ease in the Bayswater Road (the resting-place of Laurence Sterne and of Paul Sandby) belonging to St. George’s, Hanover Square. Her posthumous works appeared in 1826, along with a slight but interesting memoir, apparently from the pen of her husband, whose testimony to her amiable qualities, personal attractions, and musical accomplishments bears the impress of strict truth. The memoir also contains some very discriminating criticism, which may be read with pleasure, even after the accurate but cordial estimate of her genius which Sir Walter Scott had already given in his preface to the edition of her novels published in 1824.
Mrs. Radcliffe’s novels may not be much read, either now or in the future, but she will always retain in English literature the important position due to the founder of a school who was also its most eminent representative. In her peculiar art of exciting terror and impatient curiosity by the invention of incidents apparently supernatural, but eventually receiving a natural explanation, she has been surpassed by two Americans, Brockden Brown and Poe, but it is doubtful whether many English writers have rivalled her. The construction of her tales is exceedingly ingenious, and great art is evinced in the contrivances by which the action is from time to time interrupted and the reader’s suspense prolonged. The spell which she exerts, however, arises no less from the manifestation of a higher artistic faculty, the creation of an environment for her personages in which their actions and adventures appear not violently improbable, and almost natural. No stories are more completely imbued with a romantic atmosphere, or are more evidently the creations of a mind instinctively turned to the picturesque side of things. To this day she has had few superiors in the art of poetical landscape, which she may almost be said to have introduced into the modern novel, and in the practice of which, as Scott remarks, she showed herself as competent to copy nature as to indulge imagination. Except, indeed, for the ingenuity of her plots, she is rather to be ranked among prose poets than among storytellers, and is especially interesting as a precursor of that general movement towards the delineation and comprehension of external nature which was to characterise the nineteenth century. Her weak side is the want of human interest, to which, however, the character of Schedoni, in ‘The Italian,’ is a marked exception. If the general conventionality of her personages disentitles her to rank among great novelists, she cannot be excluded from a place among great romancers. Her letters and journals abound with beautiful natural descriptions in the style of her novels. Her poems, mainly from imperfection of expression, are the least poetical portion of her writings. In her romances, says Leigh Hunt, she was, in the words of Mathias, ‘the mighty magician of Udolpho;’ ‘in her verses she is a tinselled nymph in a pantomime, calling up commonplaces with a wand’ (Men, Women, and Books, 1878, p. 278).
The following is excerpted from A Cyclopædia of Female Biography, published 1857 by Groomsbridge and Sons and edited by Henry Gardiner Adams.
A celebrated romance writer, whose genius and amiability adds lustre to the glory of her sex, was born in London, July 9th., 1764. She was the only child of respectable parents, William and Ann Wood; and in her twenty-third year married Mr. William Radcliffe, who was brought up to the bar, but subsequently became proprietor and editor of the English Chronicle. The peculiar bent of the genius of Mrs. Radcliffe was not manifested till after her marriage; though she had, from childhood, displayed extraordinary powers of mind. That her husband encouraged and promoted her literary pursuits is probable, indeed certain; with her love of home and delicacy of moral sentiment, she would never have pressed onward In a career of public authorship which he did not approve. Her first work, “The Castles of Athliu and Dunbayne,” was published in 1789, two years after her marriage. This romance did not indicate very high talent; but “The Sicilian Romance,” published the following year, showed a decided development of intellectual power. It excited deep interest, attracting by its romantic and numerous adventures, and its beautiful descriptions of scenery. “The Romance of the Forest” appeared in 1791; and “The Mysteries of Udolpho” in 1794. This was the most popular of her performances, and is generally considered her best. “The Italian” was published in 1797.
In examining these varied productions, all written in the course of ten years, we are struck with the evident progress of her mind, and the gradual mastery her will obtained over the resources of her imagination. She had invented a new style of romance, equally distinct from the old tales of chivalry and magic, and from modern representations of credible incidents and living manners. Her works exhibit, in part, the charms of each species of composition, interweaving the miraculous with the probable in consistent narrative, and breathing a tenderness and beauty peculiarly her own. She occupies that middle region between the mighty dreams of the heroic ages and the realities of her own, which remained to be possessed, filled it with glorious imagery, and raised it to the sublimity of Fancy’s creative power by the awe of the supernatural, which she, beyond any writer of romances, knew how to inspire.
One of her biographers had well observed, that “her works, in order to produce their greatest impression, should be read first, not in childhood, for which they are too substantial; nor at mature age, for which they may seem too visionary; but at that delightful period of youth, when the soft twilight of the imagination harmonizes with the luxurious and uncertain light cast on their wonders. By those who come at such an age to their perusal, they will never be forgotten.”
In the summer of 1794, she made a tour, in company with her husband, through Holland and the western frontier of Germany, returning down the Rhine. This was the first and only occasion on which she quitted England, though the vividness of her descriptions of Italy, Switzerland, and the south of France, in which her scenes are principally laid, induced a general belief that she had visited those countries. After their return from the continent, she made a tour to the English lakes, and published her notes in a quarto volume, which met with a favourable reception.
The great and almost universal popularity of her writings, never inflated the vanity of Mrs. Radcliffe; her private* life seems to have been particularly calm and sequestered. Declining the personal notoriety that usually attaches in the society of London to literary merit, she sought her chief pleasures and occupation in the bosom of her family. After the publication of her last novel, “The Italian,” in 1797, she retired from the world of letters, and for the remainder of her life persisted in refusing to write, or at any rate to publish another. The report that she was deranged, in consequence of an excited imagination, was founded simply on her love of home and quietude. She was beautiful in her person, and much beloved by those who were favoured by her intimacy. Educated in the principles of the Church of England, she was pious and sincere in her attachment the services of religion. During the last twelve years of her life, she suffered much from a spasmodic asthma, which gradually undermined her health. She died February 7th., 1823, aged fifty-eight.