Romance of the Forest, The by Ann Radcliffe

Ann Radcliffe (1764–1823) published five gothic novels in her lifetime: The Castles of Athlin and Dunbayne (1789); A Sicilian Romance (1790); The Romance of the Forest (1791); The Mysteries of Udolpho (1794); and The Italian (1797). Of these, The Romance of the Forest presents Radcliffe’s signature style in its most polished form. The story concerns Adeline St. Pierre, who has been abandoned by her father and seeks protection with strangers. She travels through France with Monsieur and Madame La Motte and their servants Peter and Annette. They come upon a ruined abbey in the forest, where they take up residence. Soon, Adeline is pursued by the proprietor of the abbey, the Marquis de Montalt. She is rescued by Theodore Peyrou, a soldier, but he is then put into prison. Adeline finally escapes with Peter, and they travel to his hometown of Leloncourt, where she lives with the kind La Luc family. News of further crimes of the Marquis reach them and lead to Adeline discovering her true parentage. She inherits a fortune and is happily married at the end of the novel. Radcliffe’s conjunction of an admirable heroine and an eerie location inaugurated an influential paradigm for gothic fiction.