Ann Radcliffe and Romantic Culture

In the final decade of the eighteenth century, Ann Radcliffe (1764-1823) revolutionized the British novel, creating a new psychological fiction of suspense that would come to be called “the Radcliffe school.” Blending travel and terror, poetry and adventure, her writing was more than merely popular; it made her a sensation across media. Radcliffe novels were adapted by dramatists for the stage; her poems were set to music by composers; and her most famous scenes reimagined visually by artists. Jane Austen and John Keats loved her works; Walter Scott and Charles Dickens found early inspiration in her scenes of terror and dread.

Join Professor Michael Gamer to learn more about Radcliffe's life, writing, and the astounding influence she had on Romantic writing and culture.

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Generously funded by the AHRC as part of the ongoing Ann Radcliffe, Then and Now project based at the University of Sheffield. Followed by a drinks reception.

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Professor Michael Gamer, of the University of Pennsylvania, is an internationally acclaimed scholar and editor of Romantic and Gothic writing, having produced editions of William Wordsworth, Charlotte Smith and Horace Walpole. He is one of two general editors of the forthcoming Cambridge edition of the complete works of Ann Radcliffe, and has now completed his volume of Radcliffe's The Italian.

Host or Publisher Ann Radcliffe, Then and Now