A Sicilian Romance.

Third edition. Two volumes. 12mo. [4], 239, [1, blank]; [4], 216 pp. Contemporary speckled calf, flat spines elaborately panelled in gilt, second panels lettered in gilt on black morocco labels, the third panels numbered and decorated in gilt, the rest decorated with black and gilt devices, covers with double-fillet gilt borders, with central decorative black tooling. London, Hookham and Carpenter.

Radcliffe’s second published work following The Castles of Athlin and Dunbayne this being the third edition published a year after the first. It is also the novel in which she “introduced the device she would become famous for: apparently supernatural occurrences are spine chillingly evoked only to be explained away in the end as the product of natural causes.” (Clery). Radcliffe is credited with popularising what is now known as the Gothic genre, and her use of the explained supernatural was emulated by many authors. “Before The Castles of Athlin and Dunbayne only a handful of Gothic novels had been published; by the time Udolpho appeared, the genre accounted for roughly a third of all new novels […] critics were united in saying that Radcliffe had transformed her 'meagre' materials into a new, powerful and 'enchanting' form.” (ODNB). 

A very handsome set, some discreet repairs to joints, and a few marks to the front and back boards of volume two, head and tail caps of both volumes a little chipped. 

Stock Code: 240934