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Les Mystères d'Udolphe est le quatrième roman, et aussi le plus populaire, d'Ann Radcliffe. Il retrace les aventures d'Émilie Saint-Aubert qui, parmi beaucoup d'autres péripéties, va perdre son père, va devoir faire face à la peur et au surnaturel dans un château lugubre, et être confrontée aux machinations d'un brigand italien. Le roman, souvent cité comme l'archétype du roman gothique, joue un rôle important dans Northanger Abbey, écrit par Jane Austen, roman dans lequel une jeune femme impressionnable, après avoir lu le roman d'Ann Radcliffe, en vient à considérer ses amis et connaissances comme des méchants ou des victimes, ce qui donne des résultats amusants.
About the author
Ann Radcliffe (née Ward, 1764 - 1823) was an English author and pioneer of the Gothic novel. Radcliffe's technique of explaining the supernatural elements of her novels has been credited with enabling Gothic fiction to achieve respectability in the 1790s. In 1787, she married the Oxford graduate and journalist William Radcliffe (1763-1830), part-owner and editor of the English Chronicle. He often came home late and to occupy her time she began to write and read her work to him when he returned. Theirs was a childless, but seemingly happy marriage. Radcliffe called him her "nearest relative and friend". The money she earned from her novels later allowed them to travel together, along with their dog, Chance. In her final years, Radcliffe retreated from public life.
