Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-gb8f7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-22T10:13:07.394Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Chapter 3 - Imitating Ann Radcliffe

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 May 2023

Hannah Doherty Hudson
Affiliation:
Suffolk University, Massachusetts
Get access

Summary

If the Minerva Press is the publisher most strongly associated with fictional excess, then the gothic is surely excess’s most representative genre. Readers decried the great length of these novels, their numerousness, their unoriginality, and the over-the-top emotions they depicted. This chapter tracks the phenomenon of ‘imitation’ in the late eighteenth-century heyday of the gothic, first in its role as a convenient denunciation hurled at new gothic novels, and then as a broad and flexible authorial practice that, the chapter argues, allowed gothic novelists to capitalize on their strength in numbers and their dedicated readerships. Minerva Gothic novelists, including Regina Maria Roche and Eliza Parsons, used imitation to define and expand the norms of their genre, and publishers like William Lane used the recognizability of certain genres to creatively advertise their new books, while even highly successful authors like Ann Radcliffe had to grapple with charges of unoriginality.

Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2023

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

  • Imitating Ann Radcliffe
  • Hannah Doherty Hudson, Suffolk University, Massachusetts
  • Book: Romantic Fiction and Literary Excess in the Minerva Press Era
  • Online publication: 04 May 2023
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009321921.004
Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

  • Imitating Ann Radcliffe
  • Hannah Doherty Hudson, Suffolk University, Massachusetts
  • Book: Romantic Fiction and Literary Excess in the Minerva Press Era
  • Online publication: 04 May 2023
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009321921.004
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Imitating Ann Radcliffe
  • Hannah Doherty Hudson, Suffolk University, Massachusetts
  • Book: Romantic Fiction and Literary Excess in the Minerva Press Era
  • Online publication: 04 May 2023
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009321921.004
Available formats
×