Italian

'Among his associates no one loved him, many disliked him, and more feared him.'

Father Schedoni is enlisted by the imperious Marchesa di Vivaldi to prevent her son from marrying the beautiful Ellena. Schedoni has no scruples in kidnapping Ellena and in undertaking whatever villainy will further his own ends. His menacing presence dominates a gripping tale of love and betrayal, abduction and assassination, and incarceration in the dreadful dungeons of the Inquisition. Uncertainty and doubt lie everywhere, in Radcliffe's last and most unnerving novel.

Ann Radcliffe defined the 'terror' genre of writing and helped to establish the Gothic novel, thrilling readers with her mysterious plots and eerie effects. In The Italian she rejects the rational certainties of the Enlightenment for a more ambiguous and unsettling account of what it is to be an individual - particularly a woman - in a culture haunted by history and dominated by institutional power. This new edition includes Radcliffe's important essay 'On the Supernatural in Poetry', in which she distinguishes terror writing from horror.

List of contents

• Introduction


• Note on the Text


• Select Bibliography


• Chronology


• The Italian


• Explanatory Notes

About the author

Ann Radcliffe (1764-1823) ist die "Grande Dame" der Gothic Novel, der unheimlichen Schauerliteratur des 18. und 19. Jahrhunderts. Sie hat sechs Romane verfasst.

Summary

The Italian (1797) is a gripping tale of love and betrayal, abduction and assassination, and incarceration by the Inquisition. Radcliffe's last and most unnerving novel exemplifies her definition of 'terror' writing, combining Romantic and Gothic elements and influencing countless later writers.

Product details

• Authors: Ann Radcliffe, Ann Ward Radcliffe
• Assisted by: Nick Groom (Editor), Nick (University of Exeter) Groom (Editor), Groom Nick (Editor)
• Publisher: Oxford University Press Trade
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback
• Released: 16.03.2017
• EAN: 9780198704430
• ISBN: 978-0-19-870443-0
• Series: World's classics; Oxford World's Classics; World's classics; Oxford World's Classics; World's classics
• Subjects: Fiction > Narrative literature; FICTION / Romance / General, Historical fiction, FICTION / Classics, Classic fiction (pre c 1945), FICTION / Horror, Italy, 18th century, c 1700 to c 1799, Literary studies: c 1500 to c 1800, Literary studies: fiction, novelists & prose writers, Literary studies: fiction, novelists and prose writers, Literary studies: c 1600 to c 1800, Religious and spiritual fiction, Religious & Spiritual Fiction, C 1700 To C 1800, Classic fiction: general and literary