Ann Radcliffe in Relation to Her Time (Yale studies in English)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1920 Excerpt: ...new style of writing, and that she was 1 Critical Review, N. Ar. 16. 222. 'Critical Review, N. Ar. 43.329. Monthly Review 67. 320. not responsible for the abuse which it received at the hands of lesser authors. This attitude is expressed in a passage in one of Miss Seward's letters, August 3, 17941: I read not, neither doubtless do you, the Novel trash of the day. Hours are too precious for such frivolous waste, where the mind has in itself any valuable resources; yet are there a few pens which possess the power so to inspirit those fond fancies of the brain, as to render them gratifying to an imagination which demands more to please it than amorous story. Mrs. Radcliffe's pen is of.this number. Though she aims not at the highly important morality of the great Richardson, nor possesses scarce a portion of his ample, his matchless ability, in discriminating characters, 'Yet does she mount, and keep her distant way Above the limits of the vulgar page.' A book entitled Literary Memoirs of Living Authors of Great Britain, published in 1798, speaks of Mrs. Radcliffe as 'a lady of great distinction in the literary world as a Novelwriter.... Her powers of pleasing, in this line of composition, are very singularly great; and the happy combination of various talents which her pieces display, entitles their author to rank among the first novel-writers of her age.' Two French biographical works, published shortly after her death, have extended notices of her:--the Biographic Universelle,2 and the Biographie Nouvelle des Contemporains.3 This discussion of Mrs. Radcliffe as estimated by her contemporaries has, of necessity, presented many anonymous judgments, for the reviews in magazines of the time were, for the most part, unsigned. They are important, however, since t...