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Ann Radcliffe (Critical Survey of Mystery and Detective Fiction)

Contribution

Ann Radcliffe, who created a readership for moralizing tales of terror and horror, influenced not only a host of forgotten imitators but also several great writers of the Romantic period and a number of later nineteenth century novelists. Radcliffe refined the crude sensationalism of the gothic novel so that it became a vehicle for sensibility, the sublime, and the picturesque. In place of fast-paced and blood-spattered action, Radcliffean gothic characteristically created psychological tension and suspense, while avoiding the incredible. Though retaining many...

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