Ann Radcliffe’s Legitimization of Romance in The Mysteries of Udolpho

Abstract

This article examines the various ways that Ann Radcliffe used to legitimize the genre of romance through her masterpiece, The Mysteries of Udolpho. With the prominence of the novel from the mid-eighteenth century onwards, romance was increasingly regarded as written merely to pander to the popular taste for the marvelous and the spectacular, and hence of little moral and literary value. To elevate the status of romance, Radcliffe connected her work to the aesthetic and artistic tastes of the time. Her narrative incorporates higher forms of writing such as poetry. While the story is set against the remote past, Radcliffe’s heroine conforms to the contemporary concepts of female sensibility and virtue. In The Mysteries of Udolpho, Radcliffe, above all, instructed her readers to use reason and rationality, rather than imagination and emotion, in reading and judging an event. Though some parts are potentially subversive, they are rendered in such an implicit manner that many critics tended to overlook them. A pleasurable and legitimate reading, The Mysteries of Udolpho proved to be a phenomenally successful romance with both critics and readers.