Ann Radcliffe ~ July 9, 1764

Today is the birthday of Ann (Ward) Radcliffe, author of various Gothic romances, one of the authors cited and parodied in Austen’s Northanger Abbey -  most known for The Mysteries of Udolpho [1794] and The Romance of the Forest [1791], where “terrified heroines hold on to their religion and reason; natural laws are never infringed; human imagination creates the apparent supernatural, and audio-visual effects are important…” [1]

Ann Radcliffe was born in London on July 9, 1764, the only child of a tradesman, and a well-connected mother.  She married William Radcliffe in 1787 – he was a journalist who later edited and owned The English Chronicle.  Radcliffe began to write to pass the time, and her first novel, The Castles of Athlin and Dunbayne, A Highland Story, was published anonymously in 1789.  This was followed by A Sicilian Romance in 1790.  But is was The Romance of the Forest, published in 1791 that generated a public following – it was “one of the earlier novels to construct a narrative of mystery, suspense, and ever-impending horror and terror.” [2]  Romance is today less well known that her two subsequent novels, The Mysteries of Udolpho in 1794 [which earned the author £500] and The Italian in 1797 [earning an unprecedented £800] – made famous of course as two of the “horrid” novels noted by Isabella Thorpe in Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey [see my post on these novels here].

 

Not much is known of Radcliffe’s life – she was very private and shunned the spotlight  – indeed there is no extant portrait or likeness of her.  She did travel with her husband, writing A Journey made in the Summer of 1794 through Holland and the Western Frontiers of Germany [published in 1795].  The Italian was her last published work in her lifetime; she wrote her last novel in 1802, Gaston de Blondeville, which was published posthumously in 1826.  Her later years were as mysterious as the tales in her novels – there were many rumors of her death, her mental illness, but it is likely she suffered a fatal asthma attack in 1823 – she is buried in a vault in the Chapel of Ease belonging to St. George’s, Hanover Square in London.

Radcliffe “created the novel of suspense by combining the Gothic romance of Horace Walpole [The Castle of Otranto, 1765] with the novel of sensibility, which focused on the proper, tender heroine and emphasized the love interest.” [3]  She was an innovator in her use of the supernatural and landscape [4] [see Radcliffe's work  "On the Supernatural in Poetry"], while making “strong political statements on the oppression of women in patriarchal society,” [5] but in her particular form of the Gothic, mysteries may confound for pages, spectral figures, distant groans and ghostly music may haunt the heroine, but eventually all is explained and reason prevails.” [6]  Today, Radcliffe is not widely read – but in her day, she was one of the most popular of novelists, and her work lies at the forefront of the Gothic tradition.  Time for a re-read I think!

 

1. Blain, Virginia, Patricia Clements, Isobel Grundy. The Feminist Companion to Literature in English  [Yale University Press,  1990] p. 884
2.  Radcliffe, Ann; edited by Chloe Chard. The Romance of the Forest [ Oxford University Press, 1986]  p. viii.
3.  Melani, Lilia.  “Ann Radcliffe” at: http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/english/melani/novel_18c/radcliffe/index.html, p.1
4.  Ibid, p. 6.
5.  Facer, Ruth.  “Ann Radcliffe”, Chawton House Library Biographies at: http://www.chawton.org/library/biographies/radcliffe.html, p. 2.
6.  Ibid, p. 4.

Further reading:

The Works:

• The Castles of Athlin and Dunbayne (1789) -  e-text at Internet Archive and UPenn.edu
• A Sicilian Romance (1790) – e-text at the Literature Network
• The Romance of the Forest (1791) – e-text at Adelaide.edu.au and Questia.com
• The Mysteries of Udolpho (1794) – e-text at the Literature Network, and atGirlebooks
• The Italian (1797) – e-text at Adelaide.edu.au
• Gaston de Blondeville (1826) – e-text at Internet Archive [ The Posthumous Works of Anne Radcliffe ]
• Journey through Holland and the Western Frontier of Germany (1795) – e-text at Internet Archive [vol.1], and e-text at Internet Archive [vol. 2]
• Poems of Mrs. Ann Radcliffe [London 1816] – the collected poems from the novels  [a pirated edition],  e-text at upenn.edu
• “On the Supernatural in Poetry”  [from The New Monthly Magazine and Literary Journal, vol 16, no. 1, 1826, 145-152]

Online Sources:

• Ann Radcliffe Biographyby Ruth Facer at the Chawton House Library
• Ann Radcliffe at the Victorian Web
• Ann Radcliffe at The Literary Gothic
• Ann Radcliffe overview by Lilia Melani at CUNY/ Brooklyn College
• Reference Sources at Infography
• “Mrs. Radcliffe’s Novels” by Andrew Lang at Adelaide.edu.au
• Smith, Chris. “Raising Radcliffe: The Roots of Gothic Tradition,” The University of Maine [2003]

 

Summer Reading Lists

We all love booklists – over at The Bookshop Blog, Nora O’Neill has posted a summer reading list, a compilation from various high schools in Connecticut.  I post here just the books listed – see the full post for her commentary on each title. [I was especially pleased to see my two favorite books on the list :  The Grapes of Wrath and Pride and Prejudice!] – there is hope in the land!

1. John Steinbeck: The Grapes of Wrath  [“This is by far the runaway winner for reading assignments.  Big surprise with it being about the Great Depression. East of Eden and Of Mice and Men also made it onto the list this year.  Several years ago, the only Steinbeck to make it onto the lists was Travels With Charlie”]
2. Ellison: Invisible Man
3. Mark Haddon: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime
4. John Irving: A Prayer for Owen Meany 
5. Jane Austen: Pride and Prejudice  [“Jane Austen seems to be a hot topic of late, spawning various modern… variations.  The most bizarre of these is Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, which I did actually see on one reading list.”] 
6. Friedman: The World is Flat
7. Alvarez: In the Time of the Butterflies
8. Larson: The Devil in the White City
9. Martel: The Life of Pi
10. Sinclair: The Jungle
11. Picoult: My Sister’s Keeper
12. Thomas Hardy: Jude the Obscure
13. Albom: Tuesdays with Morie
14. Gaines: A Lesson Before Dying
15. Bill Bryson: A Walk in the Woods
16. Baker: Growing Up
17. Hosseini:  Kite Runner
18. Angelou: “I Know why the Caged Bird sings”
19. Wilder:  Our Town
20. Rand:  Anthem, The Fountainhead, & Atlas Shrugged
21. Golding:  Lord of the Flies
22. Orwell:  1984
23. Adams:   Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
24. Brown:  Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee
25. Guterson:  Snow Falling on Cedars
26. Hugo: Hunchback of Notre Dame
27. Junger: The Perfect Storm
28. McCourt: Angela’s Ashes
29. McEwan: Atonement
30. Morrison: The Bluest Eye
31. Remarque: All Quiet on the Western Front
32. Stoker:  Dracula
33. Walker: The Color Purple
34. Plath: The Bell Jar
35. Courtenay: The Power of One

Auction Results ~ John Steinbeck

The Steinbeck Bear Flag Cafe manuscript I posted on here did not sell at the Bloomsbury Auction on June 23, 2009.  Of Mice and Men did sell over the estimate of $2000 – $3000 for $3200.

433. STEINBECK, John (1902-1968). Of Mice and Men. New York: Viking, 1937. Original black and orange-decorated tan cloth with dust jacket. Condition: tape residue to free endpapers; slight rubbing at head of jacket spine.  First edition, first issue inscribed by Steinbeck, “For Katherine Lowry/ John Steinbeck” on endpaper. With the bullet on p. 88. Goldstone & Payne A7a.

est. $2000 – $3000  Sold for $3200

For full auction results, go to the Bloomsbury Auctions website.

[The Sea of Cortez I mention in the previous blog will be for sale at the June 30th New York Bloomsbury Auction.  The catalogue for this sale can be found at the No Reserve Bibliophile Sale, featuring property from Heritage Book Shop, Colonial Williamsburg and The Metropolitan Museum of Art]

Steinbeck on the Block

Bloomsbury Auctions has announced the availablility of the following Steinbeck manuscripts for sale at auction on June 23, 2009, New York:

432.  STEINBECK, John (1902-1968). The Bear Flag Cafe/Sweet Thursday Archive Steinbeck’s abandonment of his libretto for a stage musical based on his book “Cannery Row” yielded instead a sequel to that novel, published as “Sweet Thursday….”
an extraordinary collection of primary material from May to September 1953 including two manuscripts relating to the development and writing of the work originally begun as the stage production “Bear Flag/Cannery Row” and transformed by Steinbeck into “Sweet Thursday.”

Containing two manuscripts of major importance, including a virtually complete original typescript of the novel chapters 1-28 and 33-40, and an earlier, substantially complete holograph manuscript of either complete chapters or major portions of 29 of the published novel’s 40 chapters, the archive represents a fascinating insight into Steinbeck’s composition and revision of a work from its initial outline to its final completion. Writing in a self-imposed seclusion in Sag Harbor, the author’s struggle with the work’s major transformation is evident from letters within the archive as is his sadness and depression at finally finishing the manuscript, ending his relationship with the characters.
Major character and plot changes are represented in both the typescript and the manuscript with 35 pp. of original or carbon typescript of unused material including an unpublished introduction to the novel, a another involving illegal Mexican immigrant workers, a different version on Joseph and Mary’s run-in with the Los Angeles police and lengthy scene with most of the major characters in Doc’s laboratory
.
Steinbeck’s initial vision of the work, begun as the play “The Bear Flag Café” is extensively represented with over 120 pp. of the initial plot outlines and characters for the play in two titled versions (as “Bear Flag” and as “Cannery Row”) and includes both original holograph manuscripts and original or carbon typescripts as well as untitled or unassigned material originally meant for the stage production, the dialogue from some of which appears in the published novel. Included also are Steinbeck’s sketches for the stage design.
Adding to the depth of material are 12 letters written towards the novels completion to a variety of correspondents providing further insights to Steinbeck’s emotional connection to the work and its characters as well partial fragments and notes unrelated to the novel or play.
Given the institutional holdings of original manuscripts of Steinbeck’s major works, the present represents the most comprehensive and important archive of any remaining in private hands and provides remarkable opportunities for research into the author’s process.

estimate:  $200,000 – $300,000

• For further details see the Bloomsbury sale catalogue
• An article in the New York Times on the manuscript

 

There are also two other Steinbeck works in the sale:

134. STEINBECK, John. Sea of Cortez. NY: The Viking Press, 1941. 8vo. Original plain brown wrappers in half morocco clamshell case. Condition: Slightly rubbed. advance copy of the first edition. The result of Steinbeck and Rickett’s trip to the Gulf of California on the Western Flyer. This printing is not the “first edition in wrappers” described in Goldstone & Payne, but rather an advance issue omitting the illustrations and scientific appendix. Goldstone & Payne A15a. — America and Americans. NY: The Viking Press, 1966. 4to. Photographically illustrated. Publisher’s cloth in dust jacket. Condition: jacket with small chip to outer corner, light darkening. first edition. — The Collected Poems of Amnesia Glasscock. San Francisco: Manroot, 1976. Original printed wrappers, paper dustwrapper. Condition: one minor chip to upper panel at foot. one of 250 numbered copies. (3)  [estimate:  $800. - $1200. ]

 

433. STEINBECK, John (1902-1968). Of Mice and Men. New York: Viking, 1937. Original black and orange-decorated tan cloth with dust jacket. Condition: tape residue to free endpapers; slight rubbing at head of jacket spine.
first edition, first issue inscribed by steinbeck, “For Katherine Lowry/ John Steinbeck” on endpaper. With the bullet on p. 88. Goldstone & Payne A7a. [Estimate:   $2000 – $3000 ]

 

 

 

 

 

 

[all data from the Bloomsbury Auctions Sale Catalogue - New York, June 23, 2009 ]

Further Reading:

• The National Steinbeck Center
• The Martha Heasley Cox Center for Steinbeck Studies at San Jose State University

[Personal note:  Steinbeck is my favorite author AFTER Jane Austen - a sure sign of my sagitarrian / schizoid personality (he was after all my undergraduate / graduate thesis and one does not forget this immersion), and a collection of his books sits proudly on the shelves next to "Dear Jane" [though I will not be adding any $300,000.  manuscripts anytime soon!], but I am surprised not to find a blog solely devoted to him – lots of posts, just no blog [there IS a Facebook Page with over 14,000 fans!, as well as numerous blogs on "Steinbeck ruined my summer" etc...] – if there is one out there that I have not stumbled upon, please let me know…! [I cannot possibly take on yet another blog...]

Orange Prize Announced

 

Britain’s Orange Prize, an annual literary award for women writers, was bestowed this evening on Marilynne Robinson for her novel Home.  Robinson, winner of the Pulitzer Prize in 2005 for her novel Gilead, revisits the setting and some of the characters from her previous work, creating in Home, as described by the judges,  “a kind, wise, enriching novel, exquisitely crafted.”

Click here for more information on the Orange Prize.

 Some reviews:

• The New Yorker review by James Wood
• The New York Times Book Review by A.O. Scott
•  NPR review
• an article on the Orange Prize award at Bloomberg.com
• reviews and information at Amazon.com

The five other finalists were:

Ellen Feldman – “Scottsboro” (Picador/Norton), a fictionalized account of a notorious Depression-era event in Alabama in which nine black youths were accused of gang-raping two white women.

Samantha Hunt - “The Invention of Everything Else” (Harvill Secker/Houghton Mifflin) imagines the last weeks of the Serbian- born scientist Nikola Tesla and his odd relationship with a chambermaid at the Hotel New Yorker.

Samantha Harvey – “The Wilderness” (Cape/Talese), the story of a man in his 60s who struggles to hold onto his memories and identity under the onslaught of Alzheimer’s disease.

Deirdre Madden - “Molly Fox’s Birthday” (Faber), a meditation on the nature of identity and relationships built around the lives of a playwright, an actor and a mutual friend.

Kamila Shamsie - “Burnt Shadows” (Bloomsbury), an epic narrative stretching from Nagasaki in 1945 to the prisoners held at Guantanamo Bay after 9/11.

[from Bloomberg.com]

 

Huntington Library Exhibit on Samuel Johnson

Samuel Johnson (1709-1784)—one of the greatest moralists, poets, biographers, critics, essayists, and correspondents of all time—so dominated literary and intellectual life in the last half of the 18th century that the era is frequently referred to as the “Age of Johnson.”  As a conversationalist and writer he was so insightful and adept in the use of language that only Shakespeare and the Bible are quoted more often.

Samuel Johnson: Literary Giant of the 18th Century, a new exhibition opening May 23 and continuing through Sept.  21 in the West Hall of the Library, tells the story of Johnson’s life and achievements through a display of rare books, manuscripts, and portraits drawn from The Huntington’s holdings and from the Loren and Frances Rothschild Collection.  The exhibition is curated by noted Johnson scholar O. M. “Skip” Brack, professor emeritus of English at Arizona State University.

[from the Huntingon Library Website - see for more information on the exhibit]

 

[title page of Johnson's Dictionary from the Vassar Library website]

Further Reading:

• The Samuel Johnson Sound Bite page
• Samuel Johnson Page by Jack Lynch [updated to 2005] – see also Lynch’s introductory Guide to Samuel Johnson
• Johnson E-Texts online [by Jack Lynch at 18th-century e-texts]
• E-text of Dr. Johnson and Fanny Burney 
• Boswell’s Life of Johnson at Google Books
• Article at the Pasadena Star-News.com
• Review of the two new biographies of Johnson by Peter Martin and Jeffrey Meyers at the NYTimes.com
• And, because I must, one article on Jane Austen and her “Dear Dr. Johnson” at Persuasions, No. 11, 1989, by Gloria Gross

 

Johnson Portrait by Reynolds

The Espresso Book Machine

The latest and greatest in book publishing, the Espresso Book Machine 2.0 by Jason Epstein, a Time Magazine ”Invention of the Year”:

What Gutenberg’s press did for Europe in the 15th century digitization and the Espresso Book Machine will do for the world tomorrow.

 

Library quality paperbacks at low cost, identical to factory made books, printed direct from digital files for the reader in minutes, serving a radically decentralized world-wide multilingual marketplace. In essence, an ATM for books.

 

• For more information, go to the OnDemandBooks website
• See this 5 minute demonstration on YouTube
• For various news articles on the new machine, click here.
• And click here for locations where you can find one of the new machines…

[there is one at our very own Northshire Bookstore in Manchester Vermont!]

 

At least it is still a BOOK… though what I could not find was the cost of one of these 5 minute wonders [one article mentions about 15c / page which would equal $37.50 for a 250-page book...]

Fore-Edge Painting

See this online exhibition at the Boston Public Library: 

On the Edge – the Hidden Art of Fore-Edge Book Painting

This website highlights a special collection of more than 200 high-resolution images of fore-edge paintings housed in the Rare Books Department of the Boston Public Library.  Includes articles on the history of fore-edge painting by Anne Bromer and Martin Frost, and an essay on the BPL collection by Muriel Figenbaum.

[and for a look at contemporary fore-edge painting, click on this link to Martin Frost's website]

Charlotte Bronte ~ April 21, 1816

I refer you to my Jane Austen In Vermont Blog for a short post on Charlotte Bronte, born April 21, 1816 in Thornton, Yorkshire…

Austen on the Block ~ Bloomsbury Auctions

[I am repeating this from my Jane Austen in Vermont blog]

Bloomsbury Auctions-New York  announces the exhibition and auction of

 

The Paula Peyraud Collection, Samuel Johnson

and

 Women Writers in Georgian Society

Wednesday, 6 May, 2009 • 10:00 am

 

Bloomsbury Auctions, the world’s leading auction house for rare books and works on paper, announces The Paula Peyraud Collection, Samuel Johnson and Women Writers in Georgian Society with over 480 lots of books, manuscripts and paintings tells the fascinating story of English society in the middle and late Georgian periods. This extraordinary sale focuses on the artistic and literary women who came to the fore in the period 1750-1840.

 

 

 

 A highlight in the sale are the following five titles from Jane Austen: 

• Emma-1816- 3 volumes: $8,000-12,000
• Mansfield Park-1814- 3 volumes: $7,000-10,000
• Northanger Abbey-1818- 3 volumes: $5,000-8,000
• Pride and Prejudice-1813- 3 volumes Carysfort copy: $20,000-30,000
• Sense and Sensibility-1811- 3 volumes: $25,000-35,000 

 

There are a total of 483 lots for sale, to comprise books, autograph letters, engravings and watercolors of the era:  Johnson and Boswell, and Walpole, etc., and many women writers are represented:  Frances Burney, Maria Edgewoth, Hannah More, Hester Thrale Piozzi, Charlotte Lennox, Charlotte Smith, Charlotte Bronte, Ann Radcliffe, Marguerite Blessington, to name a few.

 

 

And see this watercolor of Elizabeth Bridges, Austen’s sister-in-law:

Bloomsbury Auction – May 6, 2009 Lot No.127

 

127. [AUSTEN, Jane (1775-1817)] – Thomas Hazlehurst (1740 – 1821). Portrait miniature of Elizabeth Bridges Knight wearing a white dress with a blue ribbon tied under corsage. Watercolor on ivory, oval.
2 1/2 x 2 inches (6.5 x 5 cm).
Initialed “T.H.” (lower right).
A fine portrait miniature of Jane Austen’s sister in law, Elizabeth Bridges (1773-1808) who married Edward Austen, the brother of Jane Austen. Edward took the name of his second cousin Mr. Knight on inheriting in 1812 his estates in Kent at Godmersham Park. They had 11 children.
This lot sold with an uncolored print of Godmersham Park by Watts.
Literature: Country Life. 27 July 1987, ill. p.111.  Est. $2000 – 3000.

 *********************************************

Viewing hours for the Paula Peyraud Collection are:  

• Friday May 1- By appointment
• Saturday May 2- 10-5 p.m.
• Monday May 4- 10-7 p.m.
• Tuesday May 5- 10-5 p.m.

Bloomsbury Auctions is the world’s leading auction house for rare books and works on paper and is headquartered in London with salerooms in New York and Rome.

 

 For further information call Bloomsbury:  212-719-1000 or email at newyork@bloomsburyauctions.com

 

You can view the full catalogue at the Bloomsbury website.