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RESEARCH PRODUCT

Ann Radcliffe’s Gothic Romances and the Sea

subject

description

Biographical materials and the writer’s journals show that Ann Radcliffe had some personal knowledge of the sea and to some extent of sailing. She was also a lover of nature, an enthusiast of 17th -century landscapists, a connoisseur of Pre-Romantic poetry, who was also familiar with contemporary esthetic tastes and theories. In this context, the article analyzes seascapes, maritime and nautical references, motifs of storm and shipwreck in Radcliffe’s Gothic romances, including some poetical lines inspired by the sea with which The Mysteries of Udolpho is interspersed. The writer’s descriptions of the sea and her use of this element in her works are discussed in relation to her fictional characters and plots.