Editing Ann Radcliffe (section)

===Publishing history===
Radcliffe wrote six novels, which she always referred to as "[[Romance (prose fiction)|romances]]". Her first novel, ''[[The Castles of Athlin and Dunbayne]]'', was published in 1789.{{sfn|Rogers|1996|p=8}} Early reviews were mostly unenthusiastic.{{sfn|Rogers|1996|p=8}} ''[[Monthly Review (London)|The Monthly Review]]'' said that, while the novel was commendable for its morality, it appealed only to women and children because of its implausible plot. It was also criticised for its anachronisms regarding the [[Scottish Highlands]].{{sfn|Rogers|1996|p=8}} The next year, Radcliffe published her second novel, ''[[A Sicilian Romance]]'', which received more praise but relatively little attention.{{sfn|Rogers|1996|p=8}} Radcliffe's major success came with her third novel, ''[[The Romance of the Forest]]'', in 1791.{{sfn|Rogers|1996|p=8}} It garnered substantial praise, and sold well, establishing her reputation as a writer and creating anticipation for her future works.{{sfn|Rogers|1996|pp=8–9}}

In 1794, three years later, Radcliffe published ''[[The Mysteries of Udolpho]],'' the source of much of her fame''.'' At a time when the average amount earned by an author for a manuscript was £10, her publishers, G. G. and J. Robinson, bought the copyright for this novel for £500.<ref name="British Library">{{Cite web |last=Townshend |first=Dale |title=An Introduction to Ann Radcliffe |url=https://www.bl.uk/romantics-and-victorians/articles/an-introduction-to-ann-radcliffe |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220411145257/https://www.bl.uk/romantics-and-victorians/articles/an-introduction-to-ann-radcliffe |archive-date=2022-04-11 |access-date=2025-05-15 |website=The British Library |language=en}}</ref> The money allowed her and her husband to travel abroad for the first time, which she described in her travelogue ''[[A Journey Made in the Summer of 1794]]'' (1795).<ref>{{Cite web |title=Ann Radcliffe: English author |url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Ann-Radcliffe-English-author |access-date=8 May 2019 |website=Encyclopedia Britannica |language=en}}</ref> In 1797, Radcliffe published ''[[The Italian (Radcliffe novel)|The Italian]]''. This novel is typically understood as a rebuttal to [[Matthew Gregory Lewis]]'s ''[[The Monk]]'', rejecting the increased violence and eroticism which he was bringing to the genre of [[Gothic literature]].{{Sfn|Groom|2007|pp=xi–xii}} Her publishers Cadell and Davies bought the copyright for £800, making Radcliffe the highest-paid professional writer of the 1790s.<ref name="British Library" /> This payment was three times her husband's yearly income.{{Sfn|Groom|2007|pp=xi–xii}}

The vast majority of novels in this period were published anonymously.{{sfn|Raven|2000|p=41}} Radcliffe only began to include her name after the success of her third novel.{{sfn|Rogers|1996|p=8}} ''The Castles of Athlin and Dunbayne'' was published with no author information on the title page,{{sfn|Forster|Raven|Bending|2000|p=483}} while ''A Sicilian Romance'' listed the attribution "by the authoress of ''The Castles of Athlin and Dunbayne''".{{sfn|Forster|Raven|Bending|2000|p=514}} The first edition of ''The Romance of the Forest'' similarly stated that it was "by the authoress of ''A Sicilian Romance'' &c".{{sfn|Forster|Raven|Bending|2000|p=543}} The second edition included her name for the first time, which continued to appear on subsequent novels and reprints.{{sfn|Rogers|1996|pp=8–9}}

Three years after her death, [[Henry Colburn]] published a collection of Radcliffe's unpublished works. It included her final novel ''[[Gaston de Blondeville]]'', the long poem ''[[St. Alban's Abbey, A Metrical Tale]]'', and a short biography written by [[Thomas Noon Talfourd]] with assistance from her widower.{{Sfn|Radcliffe|1833}} It also contained some shorter poems and her essay "On the Supernatural in Poetry", which outlines her distinction between "terror" and "horror".{{Sfn|Miles|2005}} The distinction allows her to defend novels of the "Radcliffe School" (hers and her imitators) while criticizing the "Lewis School" of more-explicit horror influenced by [[Matthew Lewis (writer)|Matthew Lewis]]'s novel [[The Monk|''The Monk'']] (1786).<ref name=":0" /> Aligning the Radcliffe School with the [[Sublime (literary)|sublime]] and the Lewis School with the obscene, she writes: "Terror and Horror are so far opposite, that the first expands the soul and awakens the faculties to a high degree of life; the other contracts, freezes and nearly annihilates them."<ref name=":0">{{Cite web| last= Norton |first= Rictor |title=On the Supernatural in Poetry (c. 1802/1826) |url=http://rictornorton.co.uk/gothic/radclif3.htm |access-date=2025-05-15 |website=Gothic Readings 1764&ndash;1840: An Anthology Compiled by Rictor Norton}}</ref>