Editing Ann Radcliffe (section)

==== 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" />