`His figure was striking, but not so from grace ... and as he stalked along, wrapt in the black garments of his order, there was something terrible in its air; something almost super-human.' First published in 1797, The Italian is one of the finest examples of Gothic romance. The fast-paced, narrative centres on Ann Radcliffe's most brilliant creation, the sinister monk Schedoni, whose past is shrouded in mystery. From the novel's opening chapters the reader is ushered into a shadowy world in which crime and religion are mingled. In the church of Santa Maria del Pianto in Naples, Ellena Rosalba and Vincentio di Vivaldi first meet; but their love is ill-omened. Leagued against them are the proud and ambitious Marchese di Vivaldi and her confessor Father Schedoni. When Ellena vanishes on the death of her guardian, Vivaldi sets out in pursuit of her across the mountainous regions of southern Italy before himself falling prey to the Holy Inquisition. This revised and expanded edition explores the novel in the context of British attitudes to Italy and Roman Catholicism in the late eighteenth century with close attention to the novel's style and form.

'His figure was striking, but not so from grace ...and as he stalked along, wrapt in the black garments of his order, there was something terrible in its air; something almost super-human.' First published in 1797, The Italian is one of the finest examples of Gothic romance. The fast-paced, narrative centres on Ann Radcliffe's most brilliant creation, the sinister monk Schedoni, whose past is shrouded in mystery. From the novel's opening chapters the reader is ushered into a shadowy world in which crime and religion are mingled. In the church of Santa Maria del Pianto in Naples, Ellena Rosalba and Vincentio di Vivaldi first meet; but their love is ill-omened. Leagued against them are the proud and ambitious Marchese di Vivaldi and her confessor Father Schedoni. When Ellena vanishes on the death of her guardian, Vivaldi sets out in pursuit of her across the mountainous regions of southern Italy before himself falling prey to the Holy Inquisition. This revised and expanded edition explores the novel in the context of British attitudes to Italy and Roman Catholicism in the late eighteenth century with close attention to the novel's style and form.

E. J. Clery is Research Fellow in English at Sheffield Hallam University and author of The Rise of Supernatural Fiction 1762-1800 (1995). She has edited Horace Walpole's The Castle of Otranto in Oxford World's Classics.

2001-09-27 Wicked abbesses and scheming monks

Once again, Radcliffe has succeeded in making the setting, Naples with Vesuvius lowering in the background, the Alps and the islands of Ischia and Capri the real heroes/heroines of her novel. The descriptions are magnificent,quite surprisingly, as Radcliffe had only ever glimpsed the area from a distance, having been turned back at the border.
There are not so many ghoulies and ghosties in this book as there are , for instance, in 'The Italian'. The menace , here, is of a more earthly kind provided by Schedoni, the corrupt monk and the scheming Marchesa di Vivaldi.
The plot centres on Ellena and Vivaldi's love affair and the attempts by others to keep them apart. Needles to say, they are united in the end but have to survive kidnapping by various unsavoury characters, inclucing the officers of the Inquisition. There are many characteristic gloomy castles ,dank churches and crumbling ruins.
There were those, when novel was first published, who considered it unsuitable for women to read. One critic dismissed it as a book that would only be read by young women who 'wanted to frighten themselves to death'.It does not have the same impact in our more cynical age but is still capable of making the reader a little bit tense. Romantics among us will enjoy the final reunion of the lovers.