This weekend I read Ann Radcliffe's short story, "The Haunted Chamber", which is found in an anthology of horror and supernatural tales called The Witches' Brew (edited by Marcia Muller). The Gothic tale is the forerunner of the modern horror story, and Radcliffe seems to be the the most famous of Gothic writers. In the introduction to the anthology Muller writes:
"...Ann Radcliffe, whose novels of terror and suspense brought the Gothic into the vogue it has enjoyed for close to two hundred years. While employing the standard Gothic trappings of moldering castles, tormented noblemen, evil suitors, and beleaguered maidens, Mrs. Radcliffe added both a terrifying sense of the unknown and a realistic resolution that finally accounted for her stories' eerie events. Her novels, which are considered landmarks in the field, create an atmosphere of terror by the use of well-selected sinister details that have apparent supernatural causes. The shadow suddenly falls over the shoulder of the heroine or the strange notes of music heard in the dead of night are no less frightening because they are rationally explained in the final pages. The best of these novels are probably A Sicilian Romance (1790), in which Radcliffe introduces the mad wife who has been locked away and forgotten in an isolated room of the castle; The Mysteries of Udolpho: A Romance Interspersed with Some Pieces of Poetry (1794); and The Italian; or, The Confessional of the Black Penitents (1797), her most accomplished work, which refines her suspenseful technique of creating dramatic emergencies that repeatedly draw the reader's attention from the central mystery of the plot."
Sorry for such a long quote. As I am reading The Mysteries of Udolpho now, I find all this information interesting. I really enjoyed reading her short story this weekend--I like the idea of reading more than one piece of work by an author and seeing how themes and techniques move and grow from one work to the next. And I do plan on reading more of her novels as I am greatly enjoying what I've read so far. I wouldn't mind reading more short stories as well, but I'm not sure how many others she wrote--that will take a little investigating as there are none on Project Gutenberg.
Muller goes on to discuss Radcliffe's influence on such writers are Charlotte and Emily Bronte. They followed her lead but really perfected the Gothic story in terms of the psychological elements. Now I see where the madwoman in the attic came from. While Radcliffe's characters may lack the psychological depth of the Brontes', Radcliffe started it all. As for the story itself...it wasn't actually very terrifying, but it was certainly very Gothic. Like Udolpho, it is set in a castle in Provence. There is even some crossover of characters between the story and the novel. The castle is haunted of course. The Count who owns it asks that a servant (I think Ludovico is a servant) inhabit one wing of the castle for a night. Ludovico assures the Count that when he is finished that "no spectre shall disturb the peace of the chateau after this night." He is ensconced in the apartments alone--locked in. There is actually a story within the story. Ludovico takes with him a Provencal Tale of a chivalric knight. This tale is also a tale of the supernatural. I'm afraid I can't say what happens when the Count returns the next morning to discover how Ludovico fared. The ending is nicely tied up, however.
I had also planned on reading a story by Marghanita Laski called "The Tower" from The Oxford Book of Twentieth Century Ghost Stories (edited by Michael Cox), but I was not able to fit it in this weekend. I managed about one page of it, and it is set in Italy. I'll read the rest this week. I'm not sure which other story I will read next weekend, but I have a nice selection to choose from--most likely another story from this collection. I glanced at the introduction and Cox discusses women authors' influence on the ghost story, which I find intriguing. I am sure I will be mentioning more about this as I plan on reading it as well.