Radcliffe, Anne

(1764-1823)

   Ann Ward was born in London, where her father was a prosperous tradesman, and in 1787 she married William Radcliffe, editor and proprietor of the English Chronicle, who encouraged her in her writ324 ing. She published The Castles of Athlin and Dunbayne in 1789. It set the tone for the majority of her work, which tended to involve innocent but heroic young women who find themselves in gloomy, mysterious castles ruled by even more mysterious barons with dark pasts (Gothic fiction). Her 1794 novel, The Mysteries of Udolpho-a romance interspersed with some pieces of poetry-became a best-seller. She never visited the countries where the fearful happenings in her novels took place; her only journey abroad was to Holland and Germany. Sir Walter Scott considered her A Sicilian Romance to be the first modern English example of the poetical novel, and her work inspired many later writers. She was interred at the chapel of ease in Bayswater Road, London. Most taken from her novels, here are some of her poems: "A Sea View," "Night," "Rondeau," "Song of a Spirit," "The Mysteries of Udolpho," "To the Visions of Fancy."

   Sources: A Century of Sonnets: The Romantic-Era Revival 1750-1850. Paula R. Feldman and Daniel Robinson, eds. Oxford University Press, 1999. Dictionary of National Biography. Electronic Edition 1.1. Oxford University Press, 1997. Encyclopædia Britannica Ultimate Reference Suite DVD, 2006. English Poetry: Author Search. ChadwyckHealey Ltd., 1995 (http://www.lib.utexas.edu:8080/ search/epoetry/author.html). Romantic Women Poets: An Antholog y. Duncan Wu, ed. Blackwell Publishers, 1997. Romanticism. Duncan Wu, ed. Blackwell, 1994. The Columbia Granger's Index to Poetry. 11th ed. The Columbia Granger's World of Poetry, Columbia University Press, 2005 (http://www.columbiagrangers.org). The Oxford Companion to English Literature. 6th edition. Margaret Drabble, ed. Oxford University Press, 2000. The Women Poets in English: An Antholog y. Ann Stanford, ed. McGraw-Hill, 1972. Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia).