[T]he anguish and horror of her mind defied all control’
The Fragmented Manuscript and Representations of the Past in Ann Radcliffe's The Romance of the Forest (1791)
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 13008431 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Jonathan Dent (corresponding author) |
| Year | 2012 |
| Volume | 2 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 15-30 |
| Publication date | 2012-04-23 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Victoriographies (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 2044-2416 • E-ISSN: 2044-2424 |
| Publisher | Edinburgh University Press (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.3366/vic.2012.0057 |
| OpenAlex | W2073826690 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 7 |
Focusing on the Gothic trope of the discovered manuscript, this essay examines Ann Radcliffe's representations of the past in The Romance of the Forest ( 1791 ). Radcliffe's third Gothic novel is set in seventeenth-century Roman Catholic France, but was published in the immediate aftermath of the French Revolution. The narrative follows the plight of its orphan heroine, Adeline, who finds herself taking refuge in a ruined abbey located in a gloomy French forest under the protection of Pierre de la Motte (a Frenchman fleeing Paris with his family). During her stay, Adeline enters a secret room and unearths a decaying manuscript. From this point onwards, the narrative is interspersed with fragments of the script, which records the harrowing experiences of someone who was murdered there many years ago. Concentrating on the manuscript and Radcliffe's utilisation of the Burkean sublime for historical purposes, this paper contends that The Romance of the Forest can be read as a complex response to shifting notions of history engendered by the outbreak of the French Revolution. What does Radcliffe's representation of the script reveal about the past and to what extent are her historical attitudes shaped by the culturally chaotic events of the early 1790s
Anguish · Art · Art history · French revolution · Literature · Narrative · Plot (graphics · Politics · Representation (politics · Romance · Romanticism · Sublime · Trope (literature · Folklore, Mythology, and Literature Studies · Gothic Literature and Media Analysis · History · Law · Literature: history, themes, analysis · Philosophy
| Highly cited | No |
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