The Italian: Or the Confessional of the Black Penitents (Oxford World's Classics)

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Ward Radcliffe, Ann (1833). The Posthumous Works of Anne Radcliffe ... To Which Is Prefixed a Memoir of the Authoress, with Extracts from her Private Journals. (Four Volumes). London: Henry Colburn. OCLC 2777722. Stanley Kunitz and Howard Haycraft, eds, British Authors Before 1800: A Biographical Dictionary (NY: H. W. Wilson, 1952), p. 427. La novela tiene las características típicas de la novela gótica; atmósfera de misterio, ruinas (o lugares muy lóbregos tipo catacumbas), elementos sobrenaturales, personajes atormentados por la culpa o con principios morales casi nulos, protagonista atípica… Miles, Robert. Ann Radcliffe: The Great Enchantress. United Kingdom, Manchester University Press, 1995. Modesty – In the scene where Vivaldi and Ellena meet in a church, Vivaldi falls in love with Ellena because of her beautiful voice and his desire to see her, as she is hidden behind the veil. This unveiling is through nature, not masculine desire as a breeze from the water caught the veil. This is an important scene in relevance to the veil as it shows how Ellena is not passive and does not need to be unveiled by Vivaldi.

Decidí que, al tratarse una figura tan interesante en la literatura en general, debía leerla. Y cuál es mi sorpresa al toparme con una escritora tan intimista y sensible que sabe y plasma la esencia del paisaje con una maestría tal vez nunca antes alcanzada.Reassuring protection and concealment of purpose – Since the veil is given to her by Sister Olivia (later found to be Ellena's mother) it protects her by disguising Ellena as she escapes from her prisons. The veil allows her a means of communicating safely with the other nuns and later Vivaldi. However, the veil is also what keeps her from her immediate marriage to Vivaldi. [30] Radcliffe, Ann (1826). "On the Supernatural in Poetry". The New Monthly Magazine. Vol.16. pp.145–162. Messier, Vartan P. "The conservative, the transgressive, and the reactionary: Ann Radcliffe's The Italian as a response to Matthew Lewis' The Monk". Atenea, vol. 25, no. 2, 2005, p. 37ff. Literature Resource Center. Accessed 12 Dec. 2019.

Tooley, Brenda (2000). "Gothic Utopia: Heretical Sanctuary in Ann Radcliffe's The Italian". Utopian Studies. 11 (2): 42–56. JSTOR 20718173. In her final years, Radcliffe retreated from public life and was rumoured to have gone insane as a result of her writing. [10] These rumours arose because Radcliffe seemingly abandoned writing after publishing her fifth novel and vanished from the public eye. While these rumours were later proven false, they were so popular that Talfourd's memoir actually included a statement from her physician that spoke about her mental condition in her later years. [7] Radcliffe remained secluded for 26 years, with no real explanation available to her many fans. [11] However, this supposed seclusion is contradicted in The New Monthly Magazine, which states that the tenor of Mrs Radcliffe's life was characterized by the rare union of the literary gentlewoman and the active housewife. Instead of being in confinement in Derbyshire, as had been asserted, she was seen, every Sunday, at St James's Church; almost every fine day in Hyde Park; sometimes at the theatres, and very frequently at the Opera. [12] Many themes are explored in The Italian, including romance, discrimination between social classes, and tragedy. As a gothic novel, The Italian includes the typical story elements that define the genre. That is, the hero must rescue the woman he loves by overcoming various odds. Despite the lovers being young, Vivaldi and Ellena showcase a love for one another that is not defined by prejudice or selfish ambition. En aquel documento narra los amores de Ellena Di Rosalba y el hijo del marqués Di Vivaldi, Vicentio. Ella, no es pobre pero tampoco de noble familia, huérfana de padres además. Él, noble, joven, cae rendido nada más ver a Ellena, cubierta levemente con un velo, en los oficios matutinos de la iglesia de San Lorenzo de Nápoles. Pero su unión no es vista con buenos ojos por los padres de él, y ella su orgullo le impide colarse en una familia que no la quiere. Ambos sufren penurias juntos y separados por la familia de Vicentio y acaban descubriendo ciertas verdades sobre el pasado de sus parientes. Repetition is often one of the things that irritates me in novels the most. If a novel finds itself going over the same plot-points and character moments repeatedly, then it shows that either the writer doesn’t know what to do next or are trying to make their story longer than it should naturally be. This is why Richardson’s Pamela is my least favourite novel. For a novel that’s over 200,000 words long (a fair chunk longer than the last Harry Potter book) there is virtually no plot. Similarly, The Italian seems to spend too much time on the characters simply travelling, as well as them getting kidnapped repeatedly. Maybe if Radcliffe had a good editor I would’ve enjoyed reading her book a bit more. Maybe it wouldn’t have felt like such a chore.a b c d McIntyre, Clara Frances (1920). Ann Radcliffe in Relation to Her Time. Yale University Press. a b Norton, Rictor (1999). Mistress of Udolpho: The Life of Ann Radcliffe. London: Leicester University Press. pp.26–33.