- University of Sheffield-led researchers have launched a new project to help readers fall back in love with the works of Ann Radcliffe - a pioneer of Gothic literature
- Radcliffe - whose writing inspired the likes of Wordsworth, Coleridge, Keats, the Shelleys, Byron, Austen and Scott - was once a central figure in English literature, read across the world and considered by some critics as better than Shakespeare at creating a sense of terror and suspense
- Despite her huge success in the late 18th century, Radcliffe is now relatively unknown and not well read beyond academic circles
- On the 260th anniversary of Radcliffe's birth, the Sheffield-led project is set to bring the works of 'the great enchantress' to a new generation of readers
260 years on from her birth, Ann Radcliffe, the English novelist whose writing firmly established the Gothic literature genre, could be making a return to people's bookshelves as part of a project led by researchers at the University of Sheffield.
The initiative, headed by Professor Angela Wright from Sheffield's School of English and Professor Michael Gamer from the University of Pennsylvania, is set to bring the works of Ann Radcliffe - which inspired the likes of Jane Austen, Mary Shelley and the Brontë sisters - to a new generation of readers.
Born in Holborn, London on 9 July 1764, Radcliffe published five novels in her lifetime, however it was the success of The Mysteries of Udolpho - the story of a young woman kidnapped by a heartless villain and forced to endure the terrors of the Castle of Udolpho - that saw her popularity skyrocket in the 1790s.
Contemporary reviewers compared Radcliffe to Shakespeare, with some hinting at the idea that she might be better than the bard at creating a sense of terror and suspense.
