Ann Radcliffe - The Italian

[dem bones]

Ann Radcliffe - The Italian: or, The Confessional Of The Black Penitents (Wordsworth Editions, January 15th 2011)

Blurb:
With an Introduction by Kathryn White.

Ann Radcliffe, author of The Romance of the Forest and The Mysteries of Udolpho, is the high priestess of the gothic novel. In The Italian, first published in 1797, she creates a chilling, atmospheric concoction of thwarted lovers, ruined abbeys, imprisonment and dark passages, with an undercurrent of seething sexuality and presents us with a cunning villain in the sinister monk, Schedoni. A contemporary review commented on, ‘Radcliffe’s uncommon talent for exhibiting, with picturesque touches of genius, the vague and horrid shapes which imagination bodies forth...’

Radcliffe’s work was hugely influential and H.P. Lovecraft, early twentieth century master of the uncanny, was impressed by the, ‘eerie touch of setting and action contributing artistically to the impression of illimitable frightfulness which she wished to convey.’

The novel remains a fascinating, engrossing and unnerving masterpiece of gothic fiction.

The first, it is to be hoped, of several additions to the splendid 'Mystery & the Supernatural' series over the new decade. i must admit from the outset that, purely on the strength of The Mysteries Of Udolpho, i'm not big on Ann Radcliffe, being more of a Monk Lewis, mindless violence and proper supernatural terror man myself. Consequently, i'm wary of even attempting this unless somebody i trust in such matters first reassures me that the entire enterprise isn't sabotaged by interminable poetry breaks, the "sinister monk" Schedoni has at least a touch of the de Sade's about him, the Nuns are dead cruel to the heroine, and, finally, that reading it isn't akin to wading through Evo-stik.

[julieh]

The thing that's put me off Radcliffe for many years (I'm pretty sure it's her I'm thinking of) was that when I was doing an overview of gothic novels (following a reading of Northanger Abbey, of course), someone mentioned that Radcliffe had that Scooby-Doo tendency to close every story with "oh it wasn't really supernatural" and explain away everything.

So I always kind of assumed Schedoni would say something equivalent to "I would have got away with it - If it weren't for that meddling heroine!"

Might still have to take a crack at it someday, though.

[dem bones]

your friend was right, Julie, and that's why Ann Radcliffe could never replace Lewis in my affections. You know where you stand with him. There's never any worry that he'll explain away his seductive demons, spectres of bleeding nuns and what have you. And, of course, his horrors are truly horrible. Haven't got the Wordsworth The Italian yet, but i dug out an OUP World Classic edition, 400+ pages of very small print, not cruelly long by Gothic standards but, "an undercurrent of seething sexuality" notwithstanding, i'd need to fortify myself for a .... rematch? (i'm sure i read it during earlier goth incarnation, but if that's the case, must've ploughed through it as its not registering and normally i'm partial to a bit of sadistic nun action). Schedoni sounds like an amusing fellow, mind.

[julieh]

Hmm.... I might have to do something in a long form adaptation.... That could be suitably overwrought and hilariously painful.