Radcliffe, Ann, n�e Ward 1764-1823
English romantic novelist

She was born in London, and in 1789 published the first of her Gothic romances, The Castles of Athlin and Dunbayne, followed by A Sicilian Romance (1790), The Romance of the Forest (1791), The Mysteries of Udolpho (1794) and The Italian (1797). She travelled widely, and her journal reveals a keen eye for natural scenery and ruins. A sixth romance, Gaston de Blondeville, with a metrical tale, 'St Alban's Abbey', and a short Life, was published in 1826. Her reputation among her contemporaries was considerable. She was praised by Sir Walter Scott, and influenced writers such as Byron, Shelley and Charlotte Bront�. Her particular brand of writing found many imitators, most of them inferior to herself, and it prompted Jane Austen's satire Northanger Abbey.

Bibliography: C F MacIntyre, Ann Radcliffe in Relation to her Time (1920)