1 00:00:01,320 --> 00:00:04,280 Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class, a production 2 00:00:04,400 --> 00:00:14,000 Speaker 1: of iHeartRadio. Hello, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Holly 3 00:00:14,080 --> 00:00:18,160 Speaker 1: Frye and I'm Tracy D. Wilson. It's Accidental Anne Radcliffe 4 00:00:18,200 --> 00:00:21,759 Speaker 1: Week YEP. Today is part two of the life of 5 00:00:21,760 --> 00:00:25,720 Speaker 1: Anne Radcliffe, who is considered in many ways one of 6 00:00:25,760 --> 00:00:29,240 Speaker 1: the pioneers of gothic fiction. You'll see that phrase thrown 7 00:00:29,240 --> 00:00:32,800 Speaker 1: about a lot. In part one, we talked about Anne's 8 00:00:32,840 --> 00:00:36,240 Speaker 1: early life and her marriage, and her literary career, which 9 00:00:36,280 --> 00:00:39,360 Speaker 1: she abruptly stepped away from after publishing her fifth novel, 10 00:00:39,400 --> 00:00:43,400 Speaker 1: The Italian. Today, we will pick up right there, starting 11 00:00:43,440 --> 00:00:46,000 Speaker 1: with the many theories that people started to come up 12 00:00:46,040 --> 00:00:48,960 Speaker 1: with about why she stopped publishing her work. Some of 13 00:00:49,000 --> 00:00:51,559 Speaker 1: these are ones that happened right then, and others have 14 00:00:51,680 --> 00:00:57,280 Speaker 1: developed over time via literary historians. So yeah, as we 15 00:00:57,360 --> 00:01:02,000 Speaker 1: mentioned last time, Radcliffe had a brief but also extremely successful, 16 00:01:02,720 --> 00:01:05,320 Speaker 1: few year career of publishing novels, and there were a 17 00:01:05,360 --> 00:01:09,880 Speaker 1: lot of theories about why she stopped. One was that 18 00:01:09,959 --> 00:01:13,000 Speaker 1: she wanted to step away from writing fiction, and gothic 19 00:01:13,040 --> 00:01:17,680 Speaker 1: fiction in particular, because it was a problematic genre. Well 20 00:01:17,720 --> 00:01:22,160 Speaker 1: before Anne, this genre had sort of a seedy reputation 21 00:01:22,360 --> 00:01:26,480 Speaker 1: at the worst status as more of a pulpy, trash 22 00:01:26,680 --> 00:01:30,080 Speaker 1: kind of fiction at best. I feel like this is 23 00:01:30,160 --> 00:01:35,000 Speaker 1: not a surprising perception to anyone who has read horror 24 00:01:35,160 --> 00:01:40,160 Speaker 1: or other genre fiction today. Anne was really the standout, though, 25 00:01:40,360 --> 00:01:44,479 Speaker 1: and her insistence that she was writing romances may have 26 00:01:44,520 --> 00:01:46,800 Speaker 1: been an effort on her part to try to align 27 00:01:46,920 --> 00:01:50,680 Speaker 1: her work with another genre, one that was not gothic 28 00:01:50,840 --> 00:01:55,320 Speaker 1: or horror. And during her again very successful, the very 29 00:01:55,360 --> 00:02:00,320 Speaker 1: brief career, she was lauded for elevating gothic writing, other 30 00:02:00,400 --> 00:02:04,720 Speaker 1: writers were perceived as going in the opposite direction. For example, 31 00:02:04,800 --> 00:02:09,080 Speaker 1: Matthew Lewis released The Monk in seventeen ninety six, and 32 00:02:09,160 --> 00:02:13,520 Speaker 1: it featured a monk named Ambrosio and his struggle with 33 00:02:13,600 --> 00:02:17,400 Speaker 1: the temptation of lustful desires. It also had a number 34 00:02:17,400 --> 00:02:21,680 Speaker 1: of other salacious elements and created a total scandal when 35 00:02:21,680 --> 00:02:25,040 Speaker 1: it hit the market, particularly as it featured women also 36 00:02:25,200 --> 00:02:29,919 Speaker 1: being tempted by sexual desire and there were comparisons made 37 00:02:30,040 --> 00:02:34,720 Speaker 1: between her work and his, and she did not like that, 38 00:02:35,639 --> 00:02:38,320 Speaker 1: So this may have been another reason that she stepped 39 00:02:38,320 --> 00:02:42,040 Speaker 1: away from a successful career. That was a theory that 40 00:02:42,080 --> 00:02:45,640 Speaker 1: Sir Walter Scott publicly supported Yeah, it's kind of like 41 00:02:45,680 --> 00:02:47,799 Speaker 1: one of those things where again we mentioned in the 42 00:02:47,880 --> 00:02:51,000 Speaker 1: last episode that she made what was for the time 43 00:02:51,120 --> 00:02:54,480 Speaker 1: a lot of money on her last two books, and 44 00:02:54,520 --> 00:02:56,840 Speaker 1: other people immediately kind of do that thing where they 45 00:02:56,919 --> 00:02:59,120 Speaker 1: try to run to where the lightning struck last and 46 00:02:59,120 --> 00:03:00,799 Speaker 1: see if they can get in on that same kind 47 00:03:00,840 --> 00:03:03,720 Speaker 1: of success. And so a lot of people started churning 48 00:03:03,720 --> 00:03:08,760 Speaker 1: out their versions of Gothic romances, which were often very, 49 00:03:10,120 --> 00:03:13,000 Speaker 1: very trashy by the standards of the day. If we 50 00:03:13,120 --> 00:03:15,200 Speaker 1: read them today, we'd be like, this is really tame. 51 00:03:15,240 --> 00:03:18,760 Speaker 1: But at the time, the idea that a woman was 52 00:03:18,800 --> 00:03:22,800 Speaker 1: grappling with sexual attraction and whether or not to act 53 00:03:22,840 --> 00:03:26,600 Speaker 1: on it was like pornography to them in many ways. 54 00:03:27,200 --> 00:03:30,320 Speaker 1: So another aspect of her experience as an author that 55 00:03:30,400 --> 00:03:32,680 Speaker 1: may have made her no longer wish to publish was 56 00:03:32,720 --> 00:03:35,360 Speaker 1: a barrage of attacks in literary circles. There were a 57 00:03:35,400 --> 00:03:38,760 Speaker 1: few different kinds of these, but there's one example which 58 00:03:38,800 --> 00:03:42,000 Speaker 1: seems to have been particularly painful for Radcliffe, although it 59 00:03:42,040 --> 00:03:44,080 Speaker 1: happened after she had retired, but it may have kept 60 00:03:44,080 --> 00:03:48,120 Speaker 1: her from going back to publishing. In this case, confusion 61 00:03:48,320 --> 00:03:51,440 Speaker 1: had arisen when a work titled Plays on the Passions 62 00:03:51,560 --> 00:03:55,920 Speaker 1: was published anonymously in seventeen ninety eight. Anne and William 63 00:03:55,920 --> 00:03:58,520 Speaker 1: were visiting the country for William's health at the time. 64 00:03:59,320 --> 00:04:01,280 Speaker 1: They didn't know any about it, but there was a 65 00:04:01,360 --> 00:04:04,640 Speaker 1: lot of speculation going around London about whether the plays 66 00:04:04,680 --> 00:04:08,520 Speaker 1: were actually Anne Radcliffe's work. They were not. They were 67 00:04:08,520 --> 00:04:11,560 Speaker 1: the work of dramatist Joanna Bailey. That was revealed in 68 00:04:11,600 --> 00:04:15,080 Speaker 1: eighteen hundred when Bailey acquiesced to include her name on 69 00:04:15,120 --> 00:04:19,640 Speaker 1: the third printing. The way this story and Radcliffe's dismay 70 00:04:19,680 --> 00:04:22,280 Speaker 1: about it all plays out is a bit of a 71 00:04:22,320 --> 00:04:25,200 Speaker 1: social and timeline tangle. So we're going to work through 72 00:04:25,200 --> 00:04:27,880 Speaker 1: it pretty carefully. I hope I even got it right. 73 00:04:28,000 --> 00:04:30,599 Speaker 1: I read several different accounts of it, like several different 74 00:04:30,640 --> 00:04:34,799 Speaker 1: layouts of it. It's very confusing, so we're we're going 75 00:04:34,839 --> 00:04:38,799 Speaker 1: slow for my benefit more than anyone's. This particular drama 76 00:04:38,880 --> 00:04:43,400 Speaker 1: that happened did not get to Radcliffe until years after 77 00:04:43,480 --> 00:04:46,400 Speaker 1: the fact, when she was already retired, and at that 78 00:04:46,560 --> 00:04:49,240 Speaker 1: point one of the key players had already died. But 79 00:04:49,320 --> 00:04:53,039 Speaker 1: it still was very upsetting. So first we have to 80 00:04:53,080 --> 00:04:56,239 Speaker 1: introduce Anna Seward, who was a poet and a woman 81 00:04:56,279 --> 00:05:00,240 Speaker 1: of letters. Born in seventeen forty two, her nickname was 82 00:05:00,279 --> 00:05:04,680 Speaker 1: the Swan of Litchfield. She was really connected to sort 83 00:05:04,760 --> 00:05:08,800 Speaker 1: of everyone of social and intellectual standing in England in 84 00:05:08,839 --> 00:05:12,440 Speaker 1: the late eighteenth century. She died in eighteen oh nine, 85 00:05:12,760 --> 00:05:15,920 Speaker 1: more than a decade after Plays on the Passions came 86 00:05:15,960 --> 00:05:20,760 Speaker 1: out in eighteen eleven. Seward's letters were published posthumously as 87 00:05:21,320 --> 00:05:24,400 Speaker 1: Letters of Anna Seward, written between the year seventeen eighty 88 00:05:24,440 --> 00:05:28,760 Speaker 1: four and eighteen oh seven. Whereas Anne Radcliffe left behind 89 00:05:28,800 --> 00:05:32,839 Speaker 1: almost no examples of personal correspondence when she died, Anna 90 00:05:32,920 --> 00:05:37,599 Speaker 1: Seward left behind a lot her letters filled six volumes, 91 00:05:38,200 --> 00:05:40,560 Speaker 1: and a letter that was included in the fifth volume 92 00:05:40,640 --> 00:05:44,440 Speaker 1: from May seventeen ninety nine, written to Sarah ponsonby, who 93 00:05:44,440 --> 00:05:47,360 Speaker 1: he talked about in Our Ladies of lang Coffin episode, 94 00:05:47,800 --> 00:05:52,479 Speaker 1: Anne Radcliffe's name comes up specifically. Anna Seward is relaying 95 00:05:52,560 --> 00:05:56,559 Speaker 1: to Sarah Ponsonby the impression that another woman named only 96 00:05:56,600 --> 00:05:59,960 Speaker 1: as Missus Jackson had of the Plays on the Passion 97 00:06:00,160 --> 00:06:03,359 Speaker 1: and why she thought Anne Radcliffe was the anonymous author. 98 00:06:04,480 --> 00:06:09,680 Speaker 1: This opinion is not kind so and what's attributed to 99 00:06:09,720 --> 00:06:14,159 Speaker 1: this Missus Jackson? The description is as follows quote before 100 00:06:14,160 --> 00:06:17,000 Speaker 1: the author was known. I observed so much of the 101 00:06:17,080 --> 00:06:21,360 Speaker 1: power and defects of Missus Radcliffe's composition in these dramas 102 00:06:21,640 --> 00:06:24,920 Speaker 1: as to believe them hers, and I hear she owns them. 103 00:06:25,440 --> 00:06:29,120 Speaker 1: Missus Radcliffe, in whatever she writes, attentive solely to the end, 104 00:06:29,560 --> 00:06:33,480 Speaker 1: is not sufficiently attentive to observe probability in the means 105 00:06:33,480 --> 00:06:37,160 Speaker 1: she uses to attain it. She bends her plan, or 106 00:06:37,200 --> 00:06:39,400 Speaker 1: if it will not bend, she breaks it to her 107 00:06:39,440 --> 00:06:44,440 Speaker 1: catastrophe by making it grow out of preceding events. Still, 108 00:06:44,520 --> 00:06:47,600 Speaker 1: she always takes hold of the reader's feelings and affects 109 00:06:47,600 --> 00:06:52,720 Speaker 1: her purpose boldly, if not regularly. Her descriptive talent used 110 00:06:52,760 --> 00:06:55,960 Speaker 1: to satiety in her novels, is here employed with more 111 00:06:56,000 --> 00:07:01,120 Speaker 1: temperance and consequently to better purpose. This an interesting setup 112 00:07:01,120 --> 00:07:03,080 Speaker 1: in and of itself, because it's like, we already know 113 00:07:03,200 --> 00:07:05,760 Speaker 1: who the who the true writer is at this point, 114 00:07:06,240 --> 00:07:09,120 Speaker 1: because it opens with before the writer was known. But 115 00:07:09,200 --> 00:07:11,600 Speaker 1: then it also says I think she owns them, and 116 00:07:11,640 --> 00:07:15,760 Speaker 1: I'm like, I don't. It's what's going on here, gossip. 117 00:07:16,400 --> 00:07:20,600 Speaker 1: So at the point when all of this correspondence was published, 118 00:07:20,680 --> 00:07:24,080 Speaker 1: it was known to absolutely everyone that Joanna Bailey had 119 00:07:24,080 --> 00:07:26,480 Speaker 1: written the plays on the Passions, but it is also 120 00:07:26,560 --> 00:07:30,720 Speaker 1: apparent that Seward and her friends continued to gossip about 121 00:07:30,720 --> 00:07:33,559 Speaker 1: whether Anne had written them for a while after that letter, 122 00:07:34,320 --> 00:07:39,120 Speaker 1: and Seward also accused Radcliffe of basically plagiarizing another writer, 123 00:07:39,280 --> 00:07:42,160 Speaker 1: William Godwin, when it came to the plot of the plays, 124 00:07:42,600 --> 00:07:46,320 Speaker 1: which she had not written. Seward also wrote to another 125 00:07:46,400 --> 00:07:49,800 Speaker 1: person a month after the Sarah Ponsenbee letter, this time 126 00:07:49,840 --> 00:07:52,960 Speaker 1: to a Reverend Wally, that quote in all Missus Radcliffe's 127 00:07:52,960 --> 00:07:57,160 Speaker 1: writings attentive only to terrific effects, She bestows no care 128 00:07:57,280 --> 00:08:00,920 Speaker 1: upon their causes, and rashly cuts the knot of probability, 129 00:08:00,960 --> 00:08:04,640 Speaker 1: which she seems to want patients to untie. One has 130 00:08:04,680 --> 00:08:07,760 Speaker 1: heard of a laboring mountain bringing forth a mouse. In 131 00:08:07,840 --> 00:08:12,800 Speaker 1: missus Ours writings, mice bring forth mountains. Even once the 132 00:08:12,840 --> 00:08:16,480 Speaker 1: confusion over who exactly had written Plays on the Passions 133 00:08:16,480 --> 00:08:19,880 Speaker 1: had been cleared up, Anna Seward still wrote some barbs 134 00:08:19,880 --> 00:08:23,680 Speaker 1: about Radcliffe in her correspondence, noting in one letter that 135 00:08:23,800 --> 00:08:26,280 Speaker 1: even though the plays have some of the same problems 136 00:08:26,280 --> 00:08:30,360 Speaker 1: that Radcliffe's work has, she did always think some sections 137 00:08:30,360 --> 00:08:33,959 Speaker 1: were just too good to have been her work. Biographer 138 00:08:34,040 --> 00:08:36,760 Speaker 1: Richter Norton noted in his nineteen ninety nine book that 139 00:08:36,800 --> 00:08:39,840 Speaker 1: the missus Jackson who started this rumor that Radcliffe had 140 00:08:39,840 --> 00:08:42,920 Speaker 1: written the plays was Eliza E. Jackson, who was a 141 00:08:43,040 --> 00:08:46,319 Speaker 1: very smart woman who, along with Seward and several other 142 00:08:46,440 --> 00:08:50,360 Speaker 1: ladies of England's Salon Society, seemed to like to just 143 00:08:50,520 --> 00:08:53,800 Speaker 1: talk trash about Anne Radcliffe in their letters. Just in 144 00:08:53,840 --> 00:08:56,480 Speaker 1: case you thought people hating on successful creatives was a 145 00:08:56,480 --> 00:08:59,600 Speaker 1: brand new thing. Yeah, this reads like so many drama 146 00:08:59,640 --> 00:09:03,920 Speaker 1: spols within the worlds of like authors and publishing. Yes, 147 00:09:03,960 --> 00:09:08,280 Speaker 1: that I've seen play out on social media. Yeah, we're 148 00:09:08,320 --> 00:09:10,079 Speaker 1: just doing the same thing over and over. None of 149 00:09:10,160 --> 00:09:16,040 Speaker 1: us are. Originally, when Seward's Letters were published in eighteen eleven, 150 00:09:16,160 --> 00:09:20,319 Speaker 1: all of this was hugely upsetting to Anne. She tried 151 00:09:20,320 --> 00:09:23,240 Speaker 1: to track down Missus Jackson, first hearing that she was 152 00:09:23,240 --> 00:09:26,400 Speaker 1: in Bath and then in Edinburgh to set the record straight. 153 00:09:27,360 --> 00:09:30,920 Speaker 1: Missus Jackson knew Sir Walter Scott, and Radcliffe was worried 154 00:09:31,000 --> 00:09:33,880 Speaker 1: that he might believe the rumors that made her look 155 00:09:33,920 --> 00:09:37,080 Speaker 1: like she would let other people think she wrote something 156 00:09:37,120 --> 00:09:40,400 Speaker 1: that she had not written. The reality was she didn't 157 00:09:40,400 --> 00:09:44,360 Speaker 1: know anything about anyone attributing Bailey's work to her until 158 00:09:44,480 --> 00:09:49,720 Speaker 1: just way later. So to outsiders, her silence on this 159 00:09:49,840 --> 00:09:52,760 Speaker 1: whole matter may have looked like she was like enjoying 160 00:09:52,800 --> 00:09:57,760 Speaker 1: all of this attention. She wasn't. She had no idea 161 00:09:57,800 --> 00:10:00,520 Speaker 1: any of this was going on for a decad which 162 00:10:00,559 --> 00:10:03,360 Speaker 1: also reminds me of the many times I have seen 163 00:10:03,440 --> 00:10:07,199 Speaker 1: someone on whatever social media saying so and so has 164 00:10:07,280 --> 00:10:11,040 Speaker 1: not even acknowledged this. It's exactly what it is. Yeah, 165 00:10:11,160 --> 00:10:15,320 Speaker 1: because they were not online at the moment. Yeah. She 166 00:10:15,440 --> 00:10:17,520 Speaker 1: and William were both very upset about all of this 167 00:10:17,640 --> 00:10:19,200 Speaker 1: and how it was going to make her look and 168 00:10:19,200 --> 00:10:21,520 Speaker 1: that people might think ill of her for something she 169 00:10:21,640 --> 00:10:25,360 Speaker 1: wasn't even aware of. But she didn't manage to find 170 00:10:25,400 --> 00:10:27,240 Speaker 1: missus Jackson by the time she looked her up in 171 00:10:27,360 --> 00:10:30,240 Speaker 1: Edinburgh I believe through one of her lawyers, she was 172 00:10:30,280 --> 00:10:32,760 Speaker 1: not living there any longer, so she could not source 173 00:10:32,800 --> 00:10:36,080 Speaker 1: the origin point of this rumor. So she didn't feel 174 00:10:36,080 --> 00:10:40,040 Speaker 1: comfortable reaching out to Joanna Bailey, although she wanted to 175 00:10:40,040 --> 00:10:42,320 Speaker 1: to assure her that she would never let a rumor 176 00:10:42,400 --> 00:10:47,320 Speaker 1: continue that suggested anyone else's work was her own. Because 177 00:10:47,360 --> 00:10:50,040 Speaker 1: there was no resolution to this whole thing. It really 178 00:10:50,120 --> 00:10:53,960 Speaker 1: weighed on her for a long time. In a biography 179 00:10:54,000 --> 00:10:57,480 Speaker 1: written shortly after her death, the writer states, quote the subject, 180 00:10:57,520 --> 00:11:00,920 Speaker 1: which was always painful to her, is rather now alluded 181 00:11:00,920 --> 00:11:04,079 Speaker 1: to as an instance of the singular apprehensiveness of her 182 00:11:04,160 --> 00:11:07,240 Speaker 1: moral sense than as at all required for the vindication 183 00:11:07,360 --> 00:11:11,000 Speaker 1: of her character. So one of the aspects of her 184 00:11:11,040 --> 00:11:14,240 Speaker 1: having a pretty small social circle in her life that 185 00:11:14,440 --> 00:11:17,880 Speaker 1: probably wound up causing her some grief was that in 186 00:11:17,960 --> 00:11:21,720 Speaker 1: these instances where other people said something about her that 187 00:11:21,840 --> 00:11:26,120 Speaker 1: caused her to feel hurt or wronged, those things seemed 188 00:11:26,320 --> 00:11:29,360 Speaker 1: even larger than they might have if she had had 189 00:11:29,520 --> 00:11:33,480 Speaker 1: like a bigger, wider social circle as a backdrop to 190 00:11:33,559 --> 00:11:36,280 Speaker 1: kind of dilute the impact of all of it. It 191 00:11:36,360 --> 00:11:39,320 Speaker 1: really seems like Anne was subjected to the barbs of 192 00:11:39,400 --> 00:11:43,120 Speaker 1: fame without really indulging in any of its luxuries. And 193 00:11:43,160 --> 00:11:48,040 Speaker 1: to her these comments never seemed offhanded. They always felt 194 00:11:48,080 --> 00:11:53,080 Speaker 1: like or seemed to be very pointed attacks. Yeah, you know, 195 00:11:54,559 --> 00:11:56,840 Speaker 1: when you're not talking to everybody and you're not in 196 00:11:56,880 --> 00:12:00,320 Speaker 1: the noise of like a bigger social sphere, it's seems 197 00:12:00,320 --> 00:12:02,680 Speaker 1: like everyone is talking about me and saying that I 198 00:12:02,960 --> 00:12:05,319 Speaker 1: let someone think I wrote some something that I didn't 199 00:12:05,360 --> 00:12:09,080 Speaker 1: and I never would. But like to those people, probably 200 00:12:09,120 --> 00:12:11,440 Speaker 1: anyone who was part of that or had moved on 201 00:12:11,480 --> 00:12:13,600 Speaker 1: from it didn't even remember it. But to Anne it 202 00:12:13,640 --> 00:12:17,559 Speaker 1: was very, very heartbreaking. Coming up, we're going to talk 203 00:12:17,600 --> 00:12:21,840 Speaker 1: about the weird rumors that circulated about Anne, including the 204 00:12:21,920 --> 00:12:24,480 Speaker 1: time that she was reported as dead when she was 205 00:12:24,520 --> 00:12:27,640 Speaker 1: still very much alive. But before that, we will take 206 00:12:27,679 --> 00:12:41,080 Speaker 1: a quick sponsor break. Anne Radcliffe's low profile life also 207 00:12:41,280 --> 00:12:43,520 Speaker 1: led at one point to the false rumor that she 208 00:12:43,640 --> 00:12:47,640 Speaker 1: had died well before her time came. In eighteen ten, 209 00:12:47,800 --> 00:12:51,360 Speaker 1: a poem called Ode to Terror was published and that 210 00:12:51,559 --> 00:12:55,720 Speaker 1: stated rather confidently that the author had died a deranged woman. 211 00:12:56,679 --> 00:13:00,280 Speaker 1: She was still very much alive. There were also some additional, 212 00:13:00,400 --> 00:13:04,160 Speaker 1: extraordinarily outlandish claims about her life. There was one that 213 00:13:04,200 --> 00:13:06,839 Speaker 1: went around that she ate raw meat before bed to 214 00:13:06,960 --> 00:13:09,920 Speaker 1: fuel nightmares to give her inspiration so she could get 215 00:13:09,920 --> 00:13:14,320 Speaker 1: back to writing her terror novels. She chose not to 216 00:13:14,360 --> 00:13:18,040 Speaker 1: address any such rumors publicly. Now there is to me 217 00:13:18,360 --> 00:13:21,080 Speaker 1: a bit of coincidence in all of this, because Radcliff's 218 00:13:21,080 --> 00:13:23,680 Speaker 1: own writings were full of things that seemed terrifying or 219 00:13:23,720 --> 00:13:26,920 Speaker 1: fantastic but then turned out to be mundane, and if 220 00:13:26,920 --> 00:13:30,480 Speaker 1: her speculating fans or public had learned anything from her novels, 221 00:13:31,040 --> 00:13:34,160 Speaker 1: they may have come to the boring but truthful conclusion 222 00:13:34,200 --> 00:13:38,200 Speaker 1: that her retirement was just that it was the understandable 223 00:13:38,200 --> 00:13:40,600 Speaker 1: and mundane desire of a woman who just wanted to 224 00:13:40,640 --> 00:13:44,959 Speaker 1: retire from work. As Anne and William got older, their 225 00:13:45,040 --> 00:13:49,160 Speaker 1: twice yearly travels became less frequent and shorter in distance, 226 00:13:49,200 --> 00:13:53,200 Speaker 1: although they did keep spending summers traveling by carriage around 227 00:13:53,240 --> 00:13:56,360 Speaker 1: London and the surrounding area and just stopping wherever their 228 00:13:56,360 --> 00:14:01,200 Speaker 1: hearts desired. Sometime around eighteen ten or eighteen eleven, And 229 00:14:01,400 --> 00:14:06,319 Speaker 1: began having serious issues with asthma, and her health generally declined. 230 00:14:07,040 --> 00:14:09,720 Speaker 1: In the autumn of eighteen twenty two, she visited the 231 00:14:09,720 --> 00:14:13,000 Speaker 1: seaside town of Ramsgate in the hopes of improving her health, 232 00:14:13,200 --> 00:14:17,640 Speaker 1: and she was refreshed by it temporarily. In early January, 233 00:14:17,679 --> 00:14:20,600 Speaker 1: she had what one biographer called end quote attack of 234 00:14:20,640 --> 00:14:23,680 Speaker 1: her disease. Per that account, which we're going to talk 235 00:14:23,680 --> 00:14:25,480 Speaker 1: about in a little more depth in a moment, A 236 00:14:25,560 --> 00:14:29,160 Speaker 1: doctor was called two days after her issues began, arriving 237 00:14:29,160 --> 00:14:33,800 Speaker 1: on January eleventh, eighteen twenty three. In an odd detail 238 00:14:34,000 --> 00:14:36,880 Speaker 1: in that account, it stated that she read about a 239 00:14:37,000 --> 00:14:40,920 Speaker 1: recent murder a couple of weeks later, and that due 240 00:14:40,920 --> 00:14:44,120 Speaker 1: to her weekend state and the shock of this information 241 00:14:44,280 --> 00:14:48,240 Speaker 1: that she read, which the biographer says happened accidentally, she 242 00:14:48,440 --> 00:14:52,680 Speaker 1: experienced a temporary delirium. But though that passed and she 243 00:14:52,760 --> 00:14:55,600 Speaker 1: was doing well the first week of February, Anne Radcliffe 244 00:14:55,640 --> 00:14:58,720 Speaker 1: died in her sleep on February seventh, eighteen twenty three. 245 00:14:59,600 --> 00:15:03,000 Speaker 1: Perhaps more unsettling than anything Radcliffe ever wrote in her 246 00:15:03,080 --> 00:15:06,760 Speaker 1: work was her biographer's claim that quote her countenance after 247 00:15:06,840 --> 00:15:11,000 Speaker 1: death was delightfully placid, and continued so for some days. 248 00:15:11,840 --> 00:15:14,520 Speaker 1: She was interred at Saint George's at Hanover Square in 249 00:15:14,560 --> 00:15:21,320 Speaker 1: the Chapel of Ease. Yeah, I'm like you just watched 250 00:15:21,320 --> 00:15:26,640 Speaker 1: her look peaceful for several days, okay. Perhaps indicative of 251 00:15:26,680 --> 00:15:29,200 Speaker 1: the quiet style of her life. There were not a 252 00:15:29,280 --> 00:15:32,000 Speaker 1: ton of obituaries in the papers, the way that you 253 00:15:32,000 --> 00:15:35,120 Speaker 1: would normally expect to see for a famous person. The 254 00:15:35,160 --> 00:15:38,280 Speaker 1: ones that do appear are brief. One from the Yorkshire 255 00:15:38,320 --> 00:15:41,880 Speaker 1: Harold Reads in its entirety quote on Friday week Missus 256 00:15:41,920 --> 00:15:46,359 Speaker 1: Anne Radcliffe. The wife of William Radcliffe, Esquire of Stafford Place, Pimlico. 257 00:15:47,440 --> 00:15:50,080 Speaker 1: This is like, that's the whole sentence, because it's like 258 00:15:50,120 --> 00:15:53,760 Speaker 1: a list of obituaries. So when you're like, that doesn't 259 00:15:53,760 --> 00:15:56,840 Speaker 1: make sense. That's why. She had been indisposed for some 260 00:15:57,000 --> 00:16:00,760 Speaker 1: time with a violent cold, which terminated in inflammation and 261 00:16:00,840 --> 00:16:03,360 Speaker 1: took from this life. The much admired author of the 262 00:16:03,400 --> 00:16:07,640 Speaker 1: Mysteries of Udolpho and other works of imagination and genius, 263 00:16:07,680 --> 00:16:12,480 Speaker 1: almost equally popular among the female ornaments of English literature, 264 00:16:12,560 --> 00:16:15,920 Speaker 1: she will long hold one of the highest places. Missus 265 00:16:16,040 --> 00:16:19,320 Speaker 1: r was we believe, between fifty and sixty years of age. 266 00:16:19,760 --> 00:16:22,880 Speaker 1: She was a lady of the most amiable and interesting character, 267 00:16:23,120 --> 00:16:26,200 Speaker 1: possessed not only of all the accomplishments, but all the 268 00:16:26,280 --> 00:16:29,880 Speaker 1: virtues that could adorn her sex. She had lived long 269 00:16:29,960 --> 00:16:33,760 Speaker 1: enough to see her own work satirized. Shortly after Jane 270 00:16:33,760 --> 00:16:38,040 Speaker 1: Austen's death in eighteen seventeen, her novel Northanger Abbey was published. 271 00:16:38,640 --> 00:16:43,280 Speaker 1: This story is a satire of Gothic novels, and one 272 00:16:43,280 --> 00:16:47,480 Speaker 1: of the characters is given a copy of Mysteries of Udolpho. 273 00:16:48,440 --> 00:16:50,720 Speaker 1: Austin is said to have completed this book in eighteen 274 00:16:50,760 --> 00:16:53,440 Speaker 1: oh three, so it would have been a fairly fresh 275 00:16:53,520 --> 00:16:57,400 Speaker 1: response to Radcliffe's famous works, being part of the zeitgeist 276 00:16:57,440 --> 00:17:01,400 Speaker 1: of the time. In eighteen twenty six, Radcliffe's last work 277 00:17:01,400 --> 00:17:05,200 Speaker 1: of fiction was published, titled Gaston de BLANDVILLEU. She probably 278 00:17:05,240 --> 00:17:08,160 Speaker 1: called it Gaston de Blondeville. We don't know. She had 279 00:17:08,200 --> 00:17:11,040 Speaker 1: actually written this book well before her death in eighteen 280 00:17:11,080 --> 00:17:14,720 Speaker 1: oh two, after being inspired by a visit to Kenilworth Castle, 281 00:17:15,160 --> 00:17:18,000 Speaker 1: but she chose not to publish it. The book is 282 00:17:18,080 --> 00:17:20,800 Speaker 1: set in Anne's contemporary time, but the bulk of it 283 00:17:20,880 --> 00:17:22,919 Speaker 1: was a story within a story that's set in the 284 00:17:22,960 --> 00:17:27,040 Speaker 1: thirteenth century, and it was, according to the accompanying text, 285 00:17:27,119 --> 00:17:30,960 Speaker 1: that it got with publication. Never intended to be published, 286 00:17:30,960 --> 00:17:33,680 Speaker 1: but it was written merely as an amusement for Anne 287 00:17:33,720 --> 00:17:37,639 Speaker 1: and William. Preceding the release of this book, in October 288 00:17:37,680 --> 00:17:40,879 Speaker 1: eighteen twenty five, the Sunday Dispatch of London ran a 289 00:17:40,920 --> 00:17:45,040 Speaker 1: blurb that read, mister Radcliffe, husband of the great enchantress 290 00:17:45,080 --> 00:17:48,800 Speaker 1: Anne Radcliffe, author of the Mysteries of Udolpho the Italian, 291 00:17:49,040 --> 00:17:51,920 Speaker 1: The Romance of the Forest, etc. And who died about 292 00:17:51,920 --> 00:17:55,400 Speaker 1: the year eighteen twenty three, has at length though very 293 00:17:55,440 --> 00:17:59,760 Speaker 1: reluctantly consented to publish a romance which this celebrated lady 294 00:17:59,840 --> 00:18:04,000 Speaker 1: left behind her. The plot of Gaston de Blainville is 295 00:18:04,200 --> 00:18:07,720 Speaker 1: very much in line with Radcliffe's other books. The thirteenth 296 00:18:07,800 --> 00:18:11,359 Speaker 1: century story unfold at his wedding, which is held in 297 00:18:11,400 --> 00:18:14,720 Speaker 1: the court of King Henry the Third, when Gaston is 298 00:18:14,760 --> 00:18:17,760 Speaker 1: accused of murder by a merchant. At the event, the 299 00:18:17,840 --> 00:18:20,840 Speaker 1: king holds a trial to uncover all of the evidence. 300 00:18:21,800 --> 00:18:24,320 Speaker 1: There is a biography of her at the beginning of 301 00:18:24,320 --> 00:18:27,520 Speaker 1: the book, written by Sir Thomas Nuon Talford, with information 302 00:18:27,760 --> 00:18:30,840 Speaker 1: supplied in part by William This is the biography we 303 00:18:30,920 --> 00:18:36,200 Speaker 1: mentioned earlier. I originally was calling it a brief biography, 304 00:18:36,200 --> 00:18:38,000 Speaker 1: but then I realized it takes up a full one 305 00:18:38,119 --> 00:18:41,320 Speaker 1: third of the book, and the rest of her work 306 00:18:41,640 --> 00:18:46,040 Speaker 1: is the next two thirds. This book begins with the 307 00:18:46,080 --> 00:18:50,359 Speaker 1: following rather charming and quaint description. And when I say quaint, 308 00:18:50,440 --> 00:18:53,359 Speaker 1: I mean I mean that in a way that is 309 00:18:53,400 --> 00:18:58,360 Speaker 1: maybe not the kindest quote. The life of Missus Radcliffe 310 00:18:58,560 --> 00:19:01,800 Speaker 1: is a pleasing phenomenon in the literature of her time, 311 00:19:02,440 --> 00:19:05,320 Speaker 1: during a period in which the spirit of personality has 312 00:19:05,359 --> 00:19:08,639 Speaker 1: extended its influence till it has rendered the habits and 313 00:19:08,720 --> 00:19:12,720 Speaker 1: conversation of authors almost as public as their compositions. She 314 00:19:12,880 --> 00:19:17,440 Speaker 1: confines herself with delicate apprehensiveness to the circle of domestic 315 00:19:17,560 --> 00:19:21,680 Speaker 1: duties and pleasures known only by her works. Her name 316 00:19:21,800 --> 00:19:25,320 Speaker 1: was felt as a spell by her readers. We'll talk 317 00:19:25,359 --> 00:19:29,200 Speaker 1: more about this biography, but Telford's biography, which is written 318 00:19:29,320 --> 00:19:33,600 Speaker 1: it's described as a biographical memoir, suggested that Radcliffe retired 319 00:19:33,600 --> 00:19:36,560 Speaker 1: from publishing when she did because she didn't see a 320 00:19:36,560 --> 00:19:39,240 Speaker 1: way to surpass her last two novels and thought it 321 00:19:39,320 --> 00:19:43,040 Speaker 1: better to retire on top. This opening also goes on 322 00:19:43,200 --> 00:19:46,439 Speaker 1: to mention that once she'd retired from her fiction career, 323 00:19:47,000 --> 00:19:50,440 Speaker 1: the supernatural tone of her writing led her devoted fan 324 00:19:50,520 --> 00:19:53,560 Speaker 1: base to come up with all kinds of wild stories 325 00:19:54,000 --> 00:19:57,720 Speaker 1: about what had happened to her and why she stopped publishing. 326 00:19:58,280 --> 00:20:01,320 Speaker 1: There were rumors that she had died or that she 327 00:20:01,359 --> 00:20:04,560 Speaker 1: had a mental illness, but the reality was most likely 328 00:20:04,600 --> 00:20:06,960 Speaker 1: that she had made enough money from her work she 329 00:20:07,000 --> 00:20:10,600 Speaker 1: didn't need to work anymore unless she wanted to, and 330 00:20:10,680 --> 00:20:14,200 Speaker 1: at that point she wrote mostly for herself. This eighteen 331 00:20:14,240 --> 00:20:17,920 Speaker 1: twenty six biography states that she was quote thankfully enjoying 332 00:20:18,000 --> 00:20:21,720 Speaker 1: the choicest blessings of life with a cheerfulness as equable 333 00:20:21,760 --> 00:20:26,040 Speaker 1: as if she had never touched the secret springs of horror. Now, 334 00:20:26,080 --> 00:20:30,920 Speaker 1: that mention of horror would have probably irked Anne Radcliffe, 335 00:20:32,160 --> 00:20:35,720 Speaker 1: while she was considered the grand d'aume of Gothic fiction. 336 00:20:36,240 --> 00:20:40,080 Speaker 1: To her, there was a very important distinction between terror 337 00:20:40,160 --> 00:20:43,520 Speaker 1: and horror, and she wrote about that in an unfinished 338 00:20:43,640 --> 00:20:47,600 Speaker 1: essay that was included with the publication of Gaston de Blanville, 339 00:20:47,880 --> 00:20:50,760 Speaker 1: titled on the Supernatural in Poetry, which means it was 340 00:20:50,800 --> 00:20:54,760 Speaker 1: published right alongside this memoir. She wrote in it, terror 341 00:20:54,840 --> 00:20:58,200 Speaker 1: and horror are so far opposite that the first expands 342 00:20:58,240 --> 00:21:01,520 Speaker 1: the soul and awakens the faculty to a high degree 343 00:21:01,560 --> 00:21:06,360 Speaker 1: of life. The other contracts, freezes, and nearly annihilates them. 344 00:21:07,240 --> 00:21:11,000 Speaker 1: I apprehend that neither Shakespeare nor Milton, by their fictions, 345 00:21:11,320 --> 00:21:15,040 Speaker 1: nor mister Burke, by his reasoning anywhere, looked to positive 346 00:21:15,119 --> 00:21:18,120 Speaker 1: horror as a source of the sublime, though they all 347 00:21:18,200 --> 00:21:22,120 Speaker 1: agree that terror is a very high one. That mister Burke, 348 00:21:22,200 --> 00:21:24,800 Speaker 1: she referenced there was Edmund Burke. She was making a 349 00:21:24,840 --> 00:21:28,680 Speaker 1: callback to his essay, A philosophical inquiry into the origin 350 00:21:28,760 --> 00:21:31,880 Speaker 1: of our ideas of the sublime and beautiful, in which 351 00:21:31,920 --> 00:21:34,879 Speaker 1: he suggested that terror was a source of the sublime 352 00:21:35,240 --> 00:21:37,560 Speaker 1: and that it could be used to produce the strongest 353 00:21:37,600 --> 00:21:41,280 Speaker 1: of human emotions. And in a move that seems sort 354 00:21:41,280 --> 00:21:44,439 Speaker 1: of weird, there's a statement from Anne's doctor in the 355 00:21:44,480 --> 00:21:48,159 Speaker 1: introductory biography. It's intended to put to rest all the 356 00:21:48,240 --> 00:21:53,480 Speaker 1: various rumors of madness. Doctor Scudmore's statement reads quote. Missus 357 00:21:53,560 --> 00:21:57,560 Speaker 1: Radcliffe had been for several years subject to severe catarrhal coughs, 358 00:21:58,119 --> 00:22:02,240 Speaker 1: and also was occasionally afflict with asthma. In March eighteen 359 00:22:02,280 --> 00:22:05,360 Speaker 1: twenty two, she was ill with inflammation of the lungs 360 00:22:05,400 --> 00:22:09,719 Speaker 1: and for a considerable time remained much indisposed. With the 361 00:22:09,760 --> 00:22:12,959 Speaker 1: summer season and change of air, she regained a tolerable 362 00:22:12,960 --> 00:22:15,879 Speaker 1: state of health. In the early part of January eighteen 363 00:22:15,920 --> 00:22:18,960 Speaker 1: twenty three, in consequence of exposure to the cold, she 364 00:22:19,080 --> 00:22:22,400 Speaker 1: was again attacked with inflammation of the lungs, and much 365 00:22:22,440 --> 00:22:27,280 Speaker 1: more severely than before. Active treatment was immediately adopted, but 366 00:22:27,400 --> 00:22:31,119 Speaker 1: without the desired relief, and the symptoms soon assumed a 367 00:22:31,200 --> 00:22:34,919 Speaker 1: most dangerous character. At the end of three weeks, However, 368 00:22:35,000 --> 00:22:38,360 Speaker 1: and contrary to all expectation, the inflammation of the lungs 369 00:22:38,440 --> 00:22:41,960 Speaker 1: was overcome, and the amendment was so decided as to 370 00:22:42,000 --> 00:22:47,200 Speaker 1: present a slight prospect of recovery. Alas, our hopes were 371 00:22:47,240 --> 00:22:51,159 Speaker 1: soon disappointed. Suddenly, in the very moment of seeming calm 372 00:22:51,200 --> 00:22:55,160 Speaker 1: from the previous violence of disease, a new inflammation seized 373 00:22:55,200 --> 00:22:58,679 Speaker 1: the membranes of the brain. The enfeebled frame could not 374 00:22:58,800 --> 00:23:02,280 Speaker 1: resist this freshness. So rapid in their course were the 375 00:23:02,400 --> 00:23:06,879 Speaker 1: violent symptoms that medical treatment proved wholly unavailing. In the 376 00:23:06,880 --> 00:23:11,679 Speaker 1: space of three days, death closed the melancholy scene. The 377 00:23:11,760 --> 00:23:14,720 Speaker 1: doctor's statement goes on to say that other than the 378 00:23:14,920 --> 00:23:18,280 Speaker 1: end when she had a brain infection, Missus Radcliffe's mind 379 00:23:18,359 --> 00:23:24,080 Speaker 1: quote was perfect in its reasoning powers. All of this information, 380 00:23:25,000 --> 00:23:28,720 Speaker 1: which is odd to have a doctor's statement of biography, 381 00:23:29,240 --> 00:23:32,160 Speaker 1: was included, though, according to Telford, because in the wake 382 00:23:32,200 --> 00:23:35,760 Speaker 1: of Anne's death the rumors of mental illness had begun again. 383 00:23:36,560 --> 00:23:38,639 Speaker 1: But the rest of the memoir of Anne Radcliffe that 384 00:23:38,680 --> 00:23:41,640 Speaker 1: he wrote reads so flowery in its praise of her 385 00:23:41,720 --> 00:23:43,560 Speaker 1: that there have been a lot of questions over the 386 00:23:43,680 --> 00:23:45,680 Speaker 1: years as to whether this was kind of a very 387 00:23:45,720 --> 00:23:50,080 Speaker 1: carefully developed piece of writing intended to establish the most 388 00:23:50,160 --> 00:23:53,800 Speaker 1: perfect version of her on the public record. And when 389 00:23:53,800 --> 00:23:57,440 Speaker 1: we say flowery praise, here's the kind of thing we're 390 00:23:57,480 --> 00:24:01,320 Speaker 1: talking about. It described her in terms like inquisitely proportioned 391 00:24:01,400 --> 00:24:05,199 Speaker 1: and perfectly well bred. So it kind of feels like 392 00:24:05,240 --> 00:24:08,119 Speaker 1: he's going beyond what you might normally write about someone, 393 00:24:08,240 --> 00:24:11,560 Speaker 1: even if you deeply admire them. So is this a 394 00:24:11,600 --> 00:24:15,639 Speaker 1: scenario where the biographer was simply prone to flowery wording 395 00:24:15,800 --> 00:24:17,600 Speaker 1: or is it one where there is a clear intention 396 00:24:17,760 --> 00:24:21,320 Speaker 1: to really puff up the subject's image. We don't really know. 397 00:24:23,160 --> 00:24:26,280 Speaker 1: One bit of insight that comes from Telford's analysis of 398 00:24:26,359 --> 00:24:29,679 Speaker 1: Radcliffe's work, because that's also included here, is that she 399 00:24:29,840 --> 00:24:33,359 Speaker 1: always explained the scary components in her books as simply 400 00:24:33,440 --> 00:24:37,520 Speaker 1: following the rules and conventions of Gothic novels. She felt 401 00:24:37,600 --> 00:24:40,480 Speaker 1: that she did not have the leeway as a creator 402 00:24:40,560 --> 00:24:44,119 Speaker 1: to claim that something supernatural was real. That's something that 403 00:24:44,119 --> 00:24:46,240 Speaker 1: she was often criticized for, like, oh, why do you 404 00:24:46,280 --> 00:24:48,679 Speaker 1: dial it back at the end, But that is the 405 00:24:48,720 --> 00:24:52,440 Speaker 1: explanation that Talford gave. Whether that's true or not, it's 406 00:24:52,480 --> 00:24:56,680 Speaker 1: certainly an interesting take. Next, we'll talk about the volume 407 00:24:56,760 --> 00:25:00,639 Speaker 1: of poetry that was published after Anne Radcliffe's death, and 408 00:25:00,680 --> 00:25:03,800 Speaker 1: we'll get to that. And it's less than enthusiastic reviews 409 00:25:04,080 --> 00:25:06,800 Speaker 1: after we hear from the sponsors. That keeps stuffymus in 410 00:25:06,920 --> 00:25:20,720 Speaker 1: history class going. Radcliffe's epic poem Saint Alban's Abbey was 411 00:25:20,800 --> 00:25:26,680 Speaker 1: also published posthumously. It was not well received. Biographer Ruth 412 00:25:26,720 --> 00:25:29,360 Speaker 1: Facer wrote of it, quote, it does her no justice. 413 00:25:29,440 --> 00:25:34,720 Speaker 1: It is long, rambling and tedious. I will give you 414 00:25:34,800 --> 00:25:37,480 Speaker 1: the poem's opening stanza, which will give you a pretty 415 00:25:37,480 --> 00:25:41,320 Speaker 1: clear indication of what the whole thing is like. No, Ye, 416 00:25:41,320 --> 00:25:44,680 Speaker 1: that pale and ancient choir, whose Norman tower lifts its 417 00:25:44,720 --> 00:25:48,840 Speaker 1: pinnacled spire, where the long abbey aisle extends and battled 418 00:25:48,920 --> 00:25:53,760 Speaker 1: roof or rufe ascends, cornered with buttresses shapely and small, 419 00:25:53,920 --> 00:25:57,400 Speaker 1: that sheltered the saint in a canopied stall, and enlightened 420 00:25:57,400 --> 00:26:00,919 Speaker 1: with hanging turret's fair that's so proudly they're mental coronals 421 00:26:00,960 --> 00:26:04,920 Speaker 1: wear they blend with a holy, a warlike air, while 422 00:26:04,920 --> 00:26:08,760 Speaker 1: they guard the murder's tomb beneath and patient warriors laid 423 00:26:08,840 --> 00:26:12,160 Speaker 1: in death. This wasn't the first time her poetry had 424 00:26:12,160 --> 00:26:15,280 Speaker 1: been published, but it was the first time An authorized 425 00:26:15,359 --> 00:26:19,560 Speaker 1: book of her poetry was released in eighteen sixteen. An 426 00:26:19,640 --> 00:26:23,320 Speaker 1: unauthorized book was assembled from various pieces of poetry that 427 00:26:23,400 --> 00:26:28,240 Speaker 1: she had included in the narratives of her prose. Christina Rosetti, 428 00:26:28,400 --> 00:26:31,800 Speaker 1: the mid nineteenth century writer famous for Goblin Market and 429 00:26:31,840 --> 00:26:35,959 Speaker 1: other poems, attempted a biography of Radcliffe during her career, 430 00:26:36,119 --> 00:26:39,040 Speaker 1: but found that there just was not enough material available 431 00:26:39,080 --> 00:26:42,040 Speaker 1: to her to complete it. That project was intended to 432 00:26:42,080 --> 00:26:45,240 Speaker 1: be part of a series initiated by John Ingram titled 433 00:26:45,240 --> 00:26:49,760 Speaker 1: Eminent Women. But aside from a handful of brief biographies 434 00:26:49,800 --> 00:26:52,240 Speaker 1: that did not hold a lot of information, there's the 435 00:26:52,280 --> 00:26:54,920 Speaker 1: one from Talford we talked about, and one from Sir 436 00:26:54,960 --> 00:26:58,080 Speaker 1: Walter Scott Rossetti was only able to turn up a 437 00:26:58,119 --> 00:27:01,200 Speaker 1: short letter and a small amount of journal material, which 438 00:27:01,240 --> 00:27:04,920 Speaker 1: was about travel details. For example, the kinds of things 439 00:27:04,960 --> 00:27:07,960 Speaker 1: that Anne wrote in her travel journals were things like quote, 440 00:27:08,000 --> 00:27:10,080 Speaker 1: made our way in the gig through the long, narrow 441 00:27:10,119 --> 00:27:13,040 Speaker 1: streets and then leaving Chatham on the left, mounted a 442 00:27:13,119 --> 00:27:16,479 Speaker 1: very steep road, having wide views of Chatham, the docks, 443 00:27:16,480 --> 00:27:19,919 Speaker 1: the shipping, the new barracks, a town themselves rising up 444 00:27:19,920 --> 00:27:22,919 Speaker 1: a hill with cannon and two small artificial hills with 445 00:27:23,000 --> 00:27:26,560 Speaker 1: flags a great prospect, but too broken and full of 446 00:27:26,560 --> 00:27:30,200 Speaker 1: scars and angles of fortifications and other buildings and excavations 447 00:27:30,560 --> 00:27:34,280 Speaker 1: to be quite pleasing. So it's an interesting example of 448 00:27:34,320 --> 00:27:37,439 Speaker 1: writing about surroundings and the details she included, but it 449 00:27:37,480 --> 00:27:41,200 Speaker 1: doesn't really offer insights into the author's personal story and 450 00:27:41,280 --> 00:27:44,399 Speaker 1: probably wouldn't help a biography much beyond lake she was 451 00:27:44,440 --> 00:27:47,680 Speaker 1: in this place at this time. Anne Radcliffe had not, 452 00:27:47,960 --> 00:27:50,959 Speaker 1: to the best of anyone's knowledge, kept a personal journal 453 00:27:51,080 --> 00:27:54,720 Speaker 1: or written friends or family about her private thoughts and feelings. 454 00:27:55,240 --> 00:27:58,760 Speaker 1: Her descriptions of places often read like little stories, but 455 00:27:58,880 --> 00:28:02,399 Speaker 1: there about the things she saw and her imagined life 456 00:28:02,440 --> 00:28:05,520 Speaker 1: for them. When visiting Noll House in the town of 457 00:28:05,520 --> 00:28:09,119 Speaker 1: Seven Oaks, southeast of London in eighteen oh seven, she 458 00:28:09,200 --> 00:28:13,159 Speaker 1: wrote of this Holme's impressive portrait gallery quote and the 459 00:28:13,160 --> 00:28:17,040 Speaker 1: little closet of entrance. The countenance of Guardini, the composer, 460 00:28:17,160 --> 00:28:19,760 Speaker 1: gives you the idea that he is listening to the 461 00:28:19,840 --> 00:28:24,000 Speaker 1: long drawn notes of his own violin Holbeinn's Erasmus, and 462 00:28:24,040 --> 00:28:28,640 Speaker 1: the gallery must be truth itself. There are some exceptions, 463 00:28:28,720 --> 00:28:32,320 Speaker 1: but they're kind of few and fleeting. For example, in 464 00:28:32,359 --> 00:28:34,960 Speaker 1: one entry. While she and William were visiting Seaford in 465 00:28:34,960 --> 00:28:38,440 Speaker 1: the late seventeen nineties, and who really loved that visit 466 00:28:38,920 --> 00:28:41,920 Speaker 1: wrote an entry that gives insight into her religious views 467 00:28:42,040 --> 00:28:46,400 Speaker 1: and her feelings on having lost her parents. Quote. Saw 468 00:28:46,440 --> 00:28:50,000 Speaker 1: the sunset behind one of the vast hills. The silent 469 00:28:50,080 --> 00:28:54,960 Speaker 1: course over this great scene awful, the departure melancholy. Oh God, 470 00:28:55,120 --> 00:28:57,640 Speaker 1: Thy great laws will one day be more fully known 471 00:28:57,680 --> 00:29:02,040 Speaker 1: by thy creatures. We shall more full understand thee and ourselves. 472 00:29:02,720 --> 00:29:04,800 Speaker 1: The God of order and of all this, and of 473 00:29:04,880 --> 00:29:08,200 Speaker 1: far greater grandeur. The creator of that glorious sun, which 474 00:29:08,240 --> 00:29:11,840 Speaker 1: never fails in its course, will not neglect us. His intelligent, 475 00:29:11,880 --> 00:29:15,240 Speaker 1: though frail creatures, not suffer us to perish. Who have 476 00:29:15,320 --> 00:29:18,840 Speaker 1: the consciousness of our mortal fate long before it arrives, 477 00:29:18,880 --> 00:29:22,400 Speaker 1: And of him, He who called us from nothing, can 478 00:29:22,440 --> 00:29:25,960 Speaker 1: again call us from death into life. In this month, 479 00:29:26,000 --> 00:29:28,440 Speaker 1: on the twenty fourth of July, my dear father died. 480 00:29:28,480 --> 00:29:31,720 Speaker 1: Two years since on the fourteenth of last March, my 481 00:29:31,760 --> 00:29:35,080 Speaker 1: poor mother followed him. I am the last leaf on 482 00:29:35,160 --> 00:29:39,080 Speaker 1: the tree. The melancholy greatness with which I was surrounded 483 00:29:39,120 --> 00:29:42,960 Speaker 1: this evening made me very sensible of this, with lack 484 00:29:43,000 --> 00:29:46,920 Speaker 1: of ready information about Anne might have been part of life. 485 00:29:46,960 --> 00:29:50,000 Speaker 1: For a long time, scholarly interests in her work really 486 00:29:50,040 --> 00:29:53,560 Speaker 1: died back quite a bit. What there was of it 487 00:29:53,640 --> 00:29:57,000 Speaker 1: was often riddled with assumptions, are colored by the rumors 488 00:29:57,000 --> 00:29:59,760 Speaker 1: of madness that had sprung up while Anne was still 489 00:29:59,800 --> 00:30:02,920 Speaker 1: al live. The texts of her books had been the 490 00:30:02,960 --> 00:30:06,160 Speaker 1: bulk of what people actually knew and little else. It 491 00:30:06,200 --> 00:30:09,520 Speaker 1: wasn't until the late twentieth century that biographers really started 492 00:30:09,520 --> 00:30:12,320 Speaker 1: trying to dig deeper into what might be available to 493 00:30:12,400 --> 00:30:16,600 Speaker 1: piece together the otherwise disparate pieces of information that were 494 00:30:16,640 --> 00:30:20,760 Speaker 1: known about her personal life. Literature professor Dale Townsend, writing 495 00:30:20,800 --> 00:30:23,920 Speaker 1: for the British Library in twenty fourteen, points to David 496 00:30:23,960 --> 00:30:28,040 Speaker 1: Puncher's book The Literature of Terror, released in nineteen eighty 497 00:30:28,320 --> 00:30:33,200 Speaker 1: as the spark that reignited scholarly interest in Radcliffe. We 498 00:30:33,320 --> 00:30:37,360 Speaker 1: did find mention of her in major press that predated that, though, 499 00:30:37,440 --> 00:30:39,640 Speaker 1: so it wasn't as though no one was talking about 500 00:30:39,640 --> 00:30:42,960 Speaker 1: Anne Radcliffe in her work. The press mention that I 501 00:30:43,200 --> 00:30:45,240 Speaker 1: found and read was in The Guardian in the summer 502 00:30:45,240 --> 00:30:47,480 Speaker 1: of nineteen sixty four, and it was part of an 503 00:30:47,600 --> 00:30:51,080 Speaker 1: article by Donald Thomas that was titled Queen of Terrors 504 00:30:51,120 --> 00:30:54,840 Speaker 1: and was all about Anne. One of the biographies published 505 00:30:54,920 --> 00:30:58,920 Speaker 1: since then, Mistress of Udolpho, was written by historian Richter 506 00:30:59,120 --> 00:31:02,080 Speaker 1: Norton in nineteen teen ninety nine, and it offered up 507 00:31:02,120 --> 00:31:05,680 Speaker 1: details which had not been known until Norton hunted them 508 00:31:05,720 --> 00:31:09,200 Speaker 1: down in obscure places. One of the things that Norton 509 00:31:09,280 --> 00:31:11,560 Speaker 1: points out, which is often left out of the more 510 00:31:11,640 --> 00:31:16,560 Speaker 1: brief narratives regarding Radcliffe, is that she was definitely a classist. 511 00:31:16,640 --> 00:31:19,640 Speaker 1: She could be really condescending to people that she perceived 512 00:31:20,080 --> 00:31:24,200 Speaker 1: as of a lower class than herself. Yeah. He shares 513 00:31:24,240 --> 00:31:27,800 Speaker 1: some examples of them, and it is a little like 514 00:31:30,640 --> 00:31:34,680 Speaker 1: that's a pity. In twenty fourteen, there was a surprise 515 00:31:35,000 --> 00:31:37,320 Speaker 1: in the Anne Radcliffe story when a letter that she 516 00:31:37,400 --> 00:31:40,120 Speaker 1: had written her mother in law was found amongst a 517 00:31:40,160 --> 00:31:43,640 Speaker 1: batch of other miscellaneous letters by Greg Boswell, a British 518 00:31:43,680 --> 00:31:47,720 Speaker 1: Library curator. That letter, which is dated August thirty first, 519 00:31:47,760 --> 00:31:51,720 Speaker 1: seventeen ninety seven, reads, Dear Madam, we are concerned to 520 00:31:51,840 --> 00:31:56,040 Speaker 1: hear such frequent complaints. The reasonableness of things in Yorkshire 521 00:31:56,080 --> 00:31:59,280 Speaker 1: is well known, but without insisting upon that if you 522 00:31:59,320 --> 00:32:02,720 Speaker 1: cannot be acommodated with the necessaries of life, and without 523 00:32:02,800 --> 00:32:06,080 Speaker 1: being a burden to anybody. If the supplies which William 524 00:32:06,200 --> 00:32:09,200 Speaker 1: sends are not sufficient, we can only desire you to 525 00:32:09,280 --> 00:32:12,200 Speaker 1: come and live with us, where you shall always find plenty. 526 00:32:12,560 --> 00:32:16,760 Speaker 1: Whatever you may do elsewhere, you will recollect the unwillingness 527 00:32:16,760 --> 00:32:19,960 Speaker 1: which William formerly expressed to send money to you at Broughton, 528 00:32:20,280 --> 00:32:24,320 Speaker 1: and your positive desire and assurances upon the subject. In 529 00:32:24,400 --> 00:32:26,960 Speaker 1: my last I assured you we did not for a 530 00:32:27,080 --> 00:32:29,840 Speaker 1: moment suppose you had received a two pound note when 531 00:32:29,840 --> 00:32:32,640 Speaker 1: you assured us to the contrary, and it was therefore 532 00:32:32,760 --> 00:32:36,920 Speaker 1: unnecessary for you to vindicate yourself again. He joins me 533 00:32:37,000 --> 00:32:39,360 Speaker 1: in love and good wishes to you, and I remain 534 00:32:39,480 --> 00:32:43,520 Speaker 1: dear Madam your affectionate A Radcliffe. So it seems like 535 00:32:43,560 --> 00:32:47,440 Speaker 1: William and Ann had sent William's mother Deborah Radcliffe some money, 536 00:32:47,440 --> 00:32:50,680 Speaker 1: but it had not arrived. So Anne's essentially saying, this 537 00:32:50,720 --> 00:32:52,280 Speaker 1: would be a heck of a lot easier if you 538 00:32:52,320 --> 00:32:54,640 Speaker 1: would move to London so we could take care of you. 539 00:32:55,560 --> 00:32:58,800 Speaker 1: Mister Buzzwell believes this may be an indicator that Anne's 540 00:32:58,840 --> 00:33:04,200 Speaker 1: relationship with Zabra Burah had informed the strained relationship between 541 00:33:04,200 --> 00:33:07,200 Speaker 1: the character of Elena Rosalba in the book The Italian 542 00:33:07,680 --> 00:33:11,240 Speaker 1: and her fictional mother in law. I do love that 543 00:33:11,320 --> 00:33:13,560 Speaker 1: bit at the end of like you told me you 544 00:33:13,600 --> 00:33:15,640 Speaker 1: didn't get it. I believed you. You don't have to 545 00:33:15,720 --> 00:33:22,560 Speaker 1: keep telling me. There are two quotes that make the 546 00:33:22,560 --> 00:33:24,880 Speaker 1: most sense to me, at least to end on when 547 00:33:24,920 --> 00:33:28,000 Speaker 1: summing up the life of Anne Radcliffe. The first is 548 00:33:28,040 --> 00:33:31,719 Speaker 1: by Sir Walter Scott, and it sums up her literary life. Quote. 549 00:33:32,040 --> 00:33:35,520 Speaker 1: Missus Radcliffe as an author has the most decided claim 550 00:33:35,800 --> 00:33:38,120 Speaker 1: to take her place among the favored few who have 551 00:33:38,200 --> 00:33:41,200 Speaker 1: been distinguished as the founders of a class or school. 552 00:33:42,080 --> 00:33:45,000 Speaker 1: She led the way in a particular style of composition, 553 00:33:45,160 --> 00:33:48,360 Speaker 1: affecting powerfully the mind of the reader, which has since 554 00:33:48,440 --> 00:33:51,000 Speaker 1: been attempted by many, but in which no one has 555 00:33:51,040 --> 00:33:55,640 Speaker 1: attained or approached the excellencies of the original inventor. In 556 00:33:55,680 --> 00:33:59,360 Speaker 1: his biography of Anne Radcliffe, Richter Norton wrote this description 557 00:33:59,480 --> 00:34:01,120 Speaker 1: of her, which it seems like a good place to 558 00:34:01,280 --> 00:34:03,400 Speaker 1: end things, since it sums her up not so much 559 00:34:03,400 --> 00:34:06,640 Speaker 1: as a writer, but as a person. Quote. The public 560 00:34:06,640 --> 00:34:09,520 Speaker 1: image of Missus Radcliffe as a mad genius and the 561 00:34:09,520 --> 00:34:12,680 Speaker 1: sensational nature of her novels are in sharp contrast to 562 00:34:12,719 --> 00:34:17,000 Speaker 1: the ordinary preoccupations of her middle class domestic life. She 563 00:34:17,120 --> 00:34:21,520 Speaker 1: loved dogs and music, enjoyed excursions to Dover and Worthing, 564 00:34:22,160 --> 00:34:24,359 Speaker 1: was fond of the sound of Greek, though she could 565 00:34:24,400 --> 00:34:27,120 Speaker 1: not understand a word of it, and felt it was 566 00:34:27,200 --> 00:34:30,399 Speaker 1: at least as important to be considered a gentlewoman as 567 00:34:30,440 --> 00:34:34,200 Speaker 1: a genius. Anne Radcliffe, I hope we find tons more 568 00:34:34,239 --> 00:34:36,920 Speaker 1: stuff of hers, but I doubt we will. Yeah, like 569 00:34:37,000 --> 00:34:39,399 Speaker 1: somewhere there's a cash of letters where she's like those 570 00:34:39,440 --> 00:34:46,719 Speaker 1: mean girls. I doubt it. I have listener mail. This 571 00:34:46,760 --> 00:34:49,480 Speaker 1: is another one that goes back to William Morgan, the 572 00:34:49,480 --> 00:34:52,200 Speaker 1: gift that keeps giving because lots of people have thoughts 573 00:34:52,200 --> 00:34:54,920 Speaker 1: about William Morgan. This one is from our listener Alice, 574 00:34:54,960 --> 00:34:57,120 Speaker 1: who writes, thank you Holly and Tracy for the recent 575 00:34:57,160 --> 00:35:00,520 Speaker 1: podcast on William Morgan. I listened to with special interest 576 00:35:00,600 --> 00:35:03,040 Speaker 1: remembering a news article I'd seen on my second great 577 00:35:03,080 --> 00:35:07,680 Speaker 1: grandfather's connection to Morgan. Judge Moses Taggart Esquire, my second 578 00:35:07,680 --> 00:35:10,600 Speaker 1: great grandfather, was credited with a part in the Memorial 579 00:35:10,600 --> 00:35:13,640 Speaker 1: to Morgan in eighteen eighty two. I'm including a link 580 00:35:13,719 --> 00:35:17,640 Speaker 1: to one article citing Taggart's participation. My ancestors have a 581 00:35:17,640 --> 00:35:21,640 Speaker 1: long history as judges, postmasters and attorneys in Batavia. I 582 00:35:21,719 --> 00:35:23,879 Speaker 1: sincerely wish I could get back there to visit. Thank 583 00:35:23,960 --> 00:35:25,760 Speaker 1: you for helping to bring this bit of my history 584 00:35:25,800 --> 00:35:30,680 Speaker 1: to life. A little from that paper, she includes a quote. 585 00:35:31,120 --> 00:35:33,399 Speaker 1: A few weeks later, it is reported in the same 586 00:35:33,480 --> 00:35:37,120 Speaker 1: paper that the Wetland Ladies had supplemented Missus Morgan's little 587 00:35:37,160 --> 00:35:40,600 Speaker 1: New Year's gift with twenty dollars. Her card of acknowledgment 588 00:35:40,719 --> 00:35:44,320 Speaker 1: is worth reading. The undersign tenders to the Ladies of 589 00:35:44,360 --> 00:35:48,359 Speaker 1: Wheatland her warmest expressions of gratitude for their friendly condolence 590 00:35:48,600 --> 00:35:53,040 Speaker 1: and benevolent and well timed donation. Such expressions of kindness 591 00:35:53,120 --> 00:35:56,080 Speaker 1: serve to gladden the heart of a disconsolate and helpless 592 00:35:56,120 --> 00:35:59,600 Speaker 1: female suffering under one of the most singular and distressing 593 00:35:59,640 --> 00:36:03,120 Speaker 1: bereavings that has ever befallen her sex. She is a 594 00:36:03,160 --> 00:36:07,200 Speaker 1: stranger in a strange land, and dependent on charity for support. 595 00:36:07,600 --> 00:36:11,080 Speaker 1: This affecting epistle was written, it is said, by mister Taggart, 596 00:36:11,120 --> 00:36:14,240 Speaker 1: a lawyer of Batavia, who, at the dedication of Morgan's 597 00:36:14,280 --> 00:36:17,919 Speaker 1: monument at Batavia September eleventh, eighteen eighty two, was among 598 00:36:17,960 --> 00:36:23,120 Speaker 1: the liveliest in his reminiscences of that martyr. Alice also 599 00:36:23,480 --> 00:36:27,840 Speaker 1: attaches pictures of fur babies. Yeah, Gandolf, the Gray and 600 00:36:28,120 --> 00:36:33,960 Speaker 1: Bonds who are twelve years old and very beautiful babies, 601 00:36:34,480 --> 00:36:38,239 Speaker 1: both of them. I don't know. We have twelve year 602 00:36:38,239 --> 00:36:40,279 Speaker 1: old cats that I think are speeding up. I'm a 603 00:36:40,280 --> 00:36:44,960 Speaker 1: little scared of it, but we'll see what happens. Alice, 604 00:36:45,000 --> 00:36:47,040 Speaker 1: thank you so much for sharing this. I always love 605 00:36:47,400 --> 00:36:50,080 Speaker 1: when people have connections to the stories that we tell. 606 00:36:50,800 --> 00:36:53,520 Speaker 1: If you have such a connection, maybe you have a 607 00:36:53,560 --> 00:36:55,960 Speaker 1: secret letter from Mann Radcliffe, please write us. If you do, 608 00:36:56,360 --> 00:37:00,000 Speaker 1: you can do that at History Podcast at iHeartRadio dot com. 609 00:37:00,080 --> 00:37:02,279 Speaker 1: You can also find us on social media as missed 610 00:37:02,320 --> 00:37:05,560 Speaker 1: in History and it's a great time to subscribe to 611 00:37:05,600 --> 00:37:07,400 Speaker 1: the show if you haven't already. You can do that 612 00:37:07,440 --> 00:37:09,680 Speaker 1: on the iHeartRadio app or anywhere you listen to your 613 00:37:09,719 --> 00:37:17,759 Speaker 1: favorite podcasts. Stuff you Missed in History Class is a 614 00:37:17,800 --> 00:37:22,200 Speaker 1: production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the 615 00:37:22,200 --> 00:37:25,719 Speaker 1: iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your 616 00:37:25,719 --> 00:37:28,279 Speaker 1: favorite shows.