the mighty enchantress

Ann Radcliffe, the Gothic romance and more

A painting of the eerie castle at the center of Ann Radcliffe’s The Mysteries of Udolpho (image via Wikimedia Commons)

Heroines wandering haunted estates. Ghosts stalking the castle ruins. Lovers torn apart when buried secrets come to light.

We owe these hallmarks of the Gothic romance genre to 18th century novelist Ann Radcliffe, the woman whose enormous popularity earned her the envy of contemporaries and even comparisons to Shakespeare. Critics called her “the mighty enchantress.”