The year Gothicism was born (when The Castle of Otranto was published in 1764) was the same year the major Gothic author, the one who popularized and revolutionized the genre, was born.

Fate!

We're talking about Ann Radcliffe.

How'd she revolutionize the genre? Well, during the long, lonely nights she spent waiting for her husband to come home from work she carefully crafted Gothic tales in which the supernatural phenomena were given non-supernatural explanations—convoluted and kind of implausible explanations, but explanations nonetheless. Her twist opened the floodgates to all sorts of genre blending and literary experimentation including psychologically-driven narratives and proto-science fiction.

The Mysteries of Udolpho

Technically her fourth novel, The Mysteries of Udolpho is still Radcliffe's most famous. It's also the most referenced, parodied, and emulated by authors like Jane Austen, Robert Luis Stevenson, and William Makepeace Thackeray. Radcliffe used the income from her earlier novels to travel with her husband, and this text displays her trademark: lush descriptions of far-off landscapes. Plot-wise, it's pretty typical: little orphan, creaky castle, super-evil sexual predator, dungeons…you know the drill.

The Romance of the Forest

The Romance of the Forest was Radcliffe's first work, and it catapulted her into success. Set in France, it's yet another winding tale of intrigue, mistaken identity, abandoned abbeys, and young lovers. What makes Radcliffe's text stand out, though, is that her complicated plot seems interwoven rather than just overloaded. The coincidences she supplies have related connections and link up a little more smoothly than previous Gothic novels with suspenseful scenes that often seemed haphazardly tacked-on.

Chew on This

They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. We're not sure that's exactly what Jane Austen meant with her parody of Udolpho, but Northanger Abbey is actually one of the main gateways for readers to discover Radcliffe's work. What do you think? Can mockery be a form of celebration?

The epigraph of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow combines three of our favorite things: epigraphs, the inter-connectedness of literature, and…The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. Go check out how four little lines can thread together so much great literature.