Editing Ann Radcliffe (section)

=== Common literary themes ===

==== The "explained supernatural" ====
Radcliffe was known for including [[supernatural]] elements but eventually giving readers a rational explanation for the supernatural. Usually, Radcliffe would reveal the logical excuse for what first appeared to be supernatural towards the end of her novels, which led to heightened suspense. Some critics and readers found this disappointing. Regarding Radcliffe's penchant for explaining the supernatural, [[Walter Scott]] writes in ''Lives of the Novelists'' (1821–1824): "A stealthy step behind the arras may, doubtless, in some situations, and when the nerves are tuned to a certain pitch, have no small influence upon the imagination; but if the conscious listener discovers it to be only the noise made by the cat, the solemnity of the feeling is gone, and the visionary is at once angry with his sense for having been cheated, and with his reason for having acquiesced in the deception."<ref name="Miller 2016">{{Cite journal |last=Miller |first=Adam |date=2016 |title=Ann Radcliffe's Scientific Romance |journal=Eighteenth-Century Fiction |volume=28 |issue=3 |pages=527–545 |doi=10.3138/ecf.28.3.527 |s2cid=170625158 |issn=0840-6286}}</ref> Some modern critics have been frustrated by her work, as she fails to include "real ghosts". This disappointment could be motivated by the idea that works in the [[Romanticism|Romantic period]] ought to critique or undermine [[Age of Enlightenment|Enlightenment]] values such as [[rationalism]] and [[Realism (arts)|realism]].<ref name="Miller 2016" />

==== Gothic landscapes ====
[[File:Bandits on a Rocky Coast MET DP323412 (cropped).jpg|alt=Gloomy painting of coastal cliffs, with small figures in the bottom-left who are gesticulating and armed with swords|thumb|upright=1.2|[[Salvator Rosa]]'s "Bandits on a Rocky Coast", painted between 1655 and 1660. Rosa's landscapes influenced Radcliffe's novels.]]
[[File:'Landscape with a Piping Shepherd' by Claude Lorrain, c. 1629-32, Norton Simon Museum.JPG|alt=Hazy and serene landscape, primarily of trees and hills in the distance, with a small shepherd figure.|thumb|upright=1.2|[[Claude Lorrain]]'s "Landscape with a Piping Shepherd", painted between 1629 and 1632. Lorrain was also a visual influence on Radcliffe's novels.]]
Radcliffe's novels often used landscape descriptions to reinforce the emotional impact of the story.{{sfn|Brabon|2006}} These descriptions are typically hazy and atmospheric, rather than topologically accurate to the novel's setting.<ref name=":8">{{Cite journal |last=Lewis |first=Jayne Elizabeth |date=2006 |title="No Colour of Language": Radcliffe's Aesthetic Unbound |url=https://muse.jhu.edu/article/195946 |journal=Eighteenth-Century Studies |volume=39 |issue=3 |pages=377–390 |doi=10.1353/ecs.2006.0009 |issn=1086-315X}}</ref> Her descriptions of landscape were particularly influenced by the painters [[Claude Lorrain]], [[Nicolas Poussin]], and [[Salvator Rosa]].<ref name=":8" /> Her contemporary [[Nathan Drake (artist)|Nathan Drake]] said that her novels combined "the softer graces of a Claude" with "the wild landscape of Salvator Rosa".<ref name=":8" /> Radcliffe's uncle had an extensive collection of landscape paintings and illustrations, chiefly focused on ruins and picturesque views, which would have been familiar to her.{{Sfn|Norton|1999|pp=23–24}} 

One assessment emphasised these landscapes as key to Radcliffe's literary success: "She was, indeed, a [[Prose poetry|prose poet]], in both the best and the worst senses of the phrase. The romantic landscape, the background, is the best thing in all her books; the characters are two dimensional, the plots far fetched and improbable, with 'elaboration of means and futility of result'."{{Sfn|Kunitz|Haycraft|1952|p=427}} Her literary landscapes also formed part of her legacy, as some literary historians credit her with popularising "the convention of atmospheric 'scene'" which became prominent in nineteenth-century fiction.<ref name=":8" />

==== Anti-Catholicism ====
Radcliffe's work have been considered by some scholars to be part of a larger tradition of [[anti-Catholicism]] within Gothic literature; her works contain hostile portrayals of both [[Catholic Church|Catholicism]] and Catholics.{{Sfn|Mulvey-Roberts|2016|pp=14–51}} ''The Italian'' frequently presents Catholicism, the largest religion in Italy, in a negative light. The [[Inquisition]] is a major villain of the novel, and Radcliffe portrays the [[confessional]] as a "danger zone" controlled by the power of the priest and the church.{{Sfn|Hoeveler|2014|pp=15&ndash;50}} ''The Mysteries of Udolpho'' also contained negative portrayals of Catholicism, which was presented as part of the "ancient Italianess" of their dangerous Italian settings. Italy, along with its Catholicism, had been featured in earlier Gothic literature; the preface to [[Horace Walpole]]'s novel ''[[The Castle of Otranto]]'' (1764) claimed that the novel was "found in the library of an ancient catholic family in the north of England" and "printed at [[Naples]], in the black letter, in the year 1529".<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Schmitt |first=Cannon |date=1994 |title=Techniques of Terror, Technologies of Nationality: Ann Radcliffe's the Italian |journal=ELH |volume=61 |issue=4 |pages=853–876 |doi=10.1353/elh.1994.0040 |jstor=2873361 |s2cid=161155282}}</ref> Some scholars have suggested that Radcliffe's anti-Catholicism was partly a response to the [[Roman Catholic Relief Act 1791|1791 Roman Catholic Relief Act]] passed by the [[Parliament of Great Britain|British parliament]], which was a major component of [[Catholic emancipation]] in Great Britain.{{Sfn|Mulvey-Roberts|2016|pp=14–51}} Other scholars have suggested that Radcliffe was ultimately ambivalent towards Catholicism, interpreting her views as [[Latitudinarian]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Mayhew |first=Robert J. |date=2002 |title=Latitudinarianism and the Novels of Ann Radcliffe |journal=Texas Studies in Literature and Language |volume=44 |issue=3 |pages=273–301 |doi=10.1353/tsl.2002.0015 |jstor=40755365 |s2cid=161768388}}</ref>