Ann Radcliffe

Ann Radcliffe (née Ward; 9 July 1764 – 7 February 1823) was an English novelist who pioneered the Gothic novel, and a minor poet. Her fourth and most popular novel, The Mysteries of Udolpho, was published in 1794. She is also remembered for her third novel, The Romance of the Forest (1791) and her fifth novel, The Italian (1797). Her novels combine suspenseful narratives, exotic historical settings, and apparently-supernatural events which turn out to have rational explanations.

Radcliffe was famously shy and reclusive, leaving little record of the details of her life. She was born in London to a middle-class family, and was raised between Bath, Somerset and the estate of her uncle Thomas Bentley. In 1787, she married William Radcliffe, a journalist, and moved to London. She published five novels between 1789 and 1797 to increasing acclaim and financial success, becoming one of the highest-paid authors of the eighteenth century. She then lived entirely privately for twenty-six years, travelling frequently with her husband. She died in 1823, aged 58, and her final works were published posthumously in 1826.

In total, she wrote six novels, a travelogue, and numerous poems. Radcliffe was the most popular writer of her day and almost universally admired; contemporary critics called her a "mighty enchantress" and the Shakespeare of romance-writers. During her lifetime, Gothic novels were known as the "Radcliffe school" of fiction, and she inspired numerous later authors, including Jane Austen, Mary Shelley, and Walter Scott.

Radcliffe was born Ann Ward in Holborn, London on 9 July 1764. She was the only child of William Ward (1737–1798) and Ann Oates (1726–1800). At the time of her birth, her father owned a haberdashery shop in London. Her mother came from a family of leadmakers and glaziers. Her father had a famous uncle, William Cheselden, who was Surgeon to King George II; her mother descended from the De Witt family of Holland, with well-connected cousins including Sir Richard Jebb, a fashionable London physician, and Samuel Hallifax, a bishop.

In 1772, Radcliffe's father moved to Bath to manage a shop owned by Thomas Bentley and Josiah Wedgwood, makers of Wedgwood porcelain. The shop was intended to sell second-rate goods to the less-discerning tourists of Bath, and her father avidly promoted the business. He also supplemented his income by renting rooms to lodgers. Bentley was Radcliffe's maternal uncle, and more respectable as a land-owning member of the gentry. She often paid extended visits to his home in Chelsea, London and later Turnham Green. Wedgwood's daughter Susannah, known by the nickname Sukey, also stayed in Chelsea and is Radcliffe's only known childhood companion. Although mixing in some distinguished circles, Radcliffe seems to have made little impression in this society and was described by Wedgwood as "Bentley's shy little niece". Bentley and Wedgwood were both Unitarians, as was Radcliffe's grand-uncle Dr. John Jebb. Radcliffe herself regularly attended Anglican church services, but her biographer Rictor Norton suggests that she remained sympathetic to Unitarians and Dissenters.

In 1787, when Radcliffe was 23 years old, she married William Radcliffe (1763–1830). William was, like Radcliffe, the child of a haberdasher. He attended Cambridge briefly in 1780, and finished a B.A. at Oxford in 1785. He spent some time as a student of law, but he did not complete his legal studies and instead turned his attention to literature and journalism. The couple were married in Bath, but soon after moved to London. William published several translations from Latin and French to support them, and in 1790 began working for the Gazetteer and New Daily Advertiser. According to the literary historian Nick Groom, this was "a fiercely radical paper that celebrated the French Revolution, freedom of the press, and Dissenters' rights." By many accounts, theirs was a happy marriage. Radcliffe called him her "nearest relative and friend".

According to a posthumous biography, Radcliffe started writing for amusement while her husband remained out late most evenings for work. She published her first novel, The Castles of Athlin and Dunbayne, in 1789 at the age of 25, and published her next three novels in short succession to increasing acclaim. At the height of her popularity, she was one of the highest-paid authors of the eighteenth century. Even as her works became famous, Radcliffe avoided the public eye, causing one eighteenth-century reviewer to comment that "nothing was known of her but her name on the title page". Biographers describe her as reserved and extremely shy. The money she earned from her novels eventually allowed her husband to quit his job in 1793, and paid for their vacation travel. She also provided some financial support to her mother-in-law, Deborah Radcliffe. In 1794, the Radcliffes made their only trip abroad, visiting Holland and Germany. In 1795, William returned as editor of the Gazetteer, and a year later, he purchased the English Chronicle or Universal Evening Post, a Whig newspaper. Ann Radcliffe published The Italian in 1797, the last of her works which was published in her lifetime.

After The Italian in 1797, Radcliffe ceased publishing and lived privately for the next 26 years. Her father died in 1798, leaving her some property near Leicester. Her mother died in 1800, leaving her the rest of the family's accumulated property; the rental income from her inheritance removed any financial need for Radcliffe to continue publishing. Radcliffe and her husband lived comfortably, travelling domestically almost once a year from 1797 to 1811. Some evidence suggests that the Radcliffes lived separately from 1812 to 1815, though the reason is unknown. As they aged in later years, the Radcliffes hired a carriage during the summer months to make trips to places near London. Although she did not publish, Radcliffe continued to write. She wrote poetry and another novel, Gaston de Blondeville, which was published after her death. She suffered from asthma, for which she received regular treatment.