Castles of Athlin and Dunbayne: A Highland Story [Hardcover]

Ann Ward Radcliffe (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1971 | ISBN-10: 0384494102 | ISBN-13: 978-0384494107

Ann Radcliffe, nèe Ward (1764-1823) was an English author and a pioneer of the gothic novel. She married William Radcliffe, an editor for the English Chronicle, at Bath in 1788. The couple were childless. To amuse herself, she began to write fiction, which her husband encouraged. Her works were extremely popular among the upper class and the growing middle class, especially among young women. Her works included The Sicilian Romance (1790), The Romance of the Forest (1791), The Mysteries of Udolpho (1794) and The Italian; or, The Confessional of the Black Penitents (1796). The success of The Romance of the Forest established Radcliffe as the leading exponent of the historical Gothic romance. Her later novels met with even greater attention, and produced many imitators, and famously, Jane Austen's burlesque of The Mysteries of Udolpho in Northanger Abbey, as well as influencing the works of Sir Walter Scott and Mary Wollstonecraft.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Ann Radcliffe was born Ann Ward. She married William Radcliffe. They had no children, and with her husband's encouragement, she wrote fiction to amuse herself. Her Gothic novels, which were extremely popular, tend to involve innocent but heroic young women who find themselves in gloomy, mysterious castles at the mercy of complicated men. They influenced Sir Walter Scott and were parodied by Jane Austen. Radcliffe died in 1823 pneumonia. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover
• Publisher: Johnson Reprint Corp (June 1971)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0384494102
• ISBN-13: 978-0384494107
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #10,925,983 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars terrfic, January 6, 2009

By 

Luca Graziuso (NYC) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Castles of Athlin and Dunbayne: A Highland Story (Dodo Press) (Paperback)

The Castles of Athlin and Dunbayne was published in 1989, that fatidic year, and it marked the arrival of Ann Radcliffe upon the English literary stage. Here we find the orgy of gothic drama, such as family-inherited feuds, cases of mistaken identity, aborted fantasies and a mood of passionate abandon. However this specific short novel, (roughly more than 100 pages) differs in its setting from later writings of the queen of Goth. Here we are ensconced in the melancholy beauty of the Scottish Highlands. The castle itself manages to become the focal point of romantic sublimity. In this novella Radcliffe also disavows the use of marvelous supernatural effect, without however dismissing the mysterious flush that is pervasive in all her works.
It is a critical convention today to deem the explosion of popularity of gothic literature as a reaction to the French Revolution. The maligned aristocrats, the proud passions, persecuted maidens, moldering castles, the bleak irruption of terror, all seems to be related to the French Revolution. Hence the particular place of this short read, since it was published prior to the events that led to the Days of Terror in France, and the unease across Europe.
Ann Radcliffe influenced every aspect of 18th century literature, including the drama of romantic jostling of Jane Austen and the heroic rakish verse of Lord Byron. Perhaps it may well be staked that no one, save for Walter Scott, has played such a determining role in English lit and the evolution of the novel.
Scholars, gothic enthusiasts, those seeking an absorbing good story, should do well to grab a copy, since it is shorter than Udolpho but just as representative, influential and enchanting.