King Henry III is holding court at Kenilworth. Festivities abound, wine flows copiously, and spirits are high as the King and his subjects prepare to celebrate the nuptials of Sir Gaston de Blondeville. But the joyous mood is interrupted when a merchant, Hugh Woodreeve, comes distraught before the King to demand justice. His kinsman, he claims, was murdered, by the very man the King has come to honour -- Gaston de Blondeville!

Suspecting a conspiracy against Gaston, yet obliged to hold a trial to determine the truth of the allegations, Henry imprisons Woodreeve in a tower while awaiting a...

Beautiful young Emily DOrville lives a peaceful existence in the French countryside with her loving parents. But when tragedy strikes and leaves her an orphan, Emily is separated from her true love Angereau and imprisoned in the Castle of Gorgono, her sinister uncles fortress in the Apennine Mountains. Can Emily escape the horrors of Gorgono, or will she fall victim to Signor Androssi and his murderous friends? And what is the mystery of the horrifying picture that hangs in a locked chamber, shrouded in a black veil?

First published in 1802, The Veiled Picture is a chapbook...

Ruined castles, secret passages, perpetually fainting heroines, the vile conniving schemes of the local gentry -- and, of course, things that go bump in the night: Radcliffe's A Sicilian Romance has all of that, and if Radcliffe didn't invent the form, certainly she brought it into full flower. If you haven't read Radcliffe, this first novel is a fine place to start . . .

Ruined castles, secret passages, perpetually fainting heroines, the vile conniving schemes of the local gentry -- and, of course, things that go bump in the night: Radcliffe's "A Sicilian Romance" has all of that, and if Radcliffe didn't invent the form, certainly she brought it into full flower. If you haven't read Radcliffe, this first novel is a fine place to start . . .

This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the original. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions that are true to the original work.

Ann Radcliffe's second novel, A Sicilian Romance, was published anonymously in 1790. This gothic and mysterious plot concerns the history of the fallen aristocrats of the house of Mazzini, in Sicily in the 16th century and includes castles undergrounds, groans heard in the middle of the night etc. A lovely novel.

The Italian has a dark, mysterious and sombre atmosphere, and concerns the themes of love, devotion and persecution by the Holy Inquisition. It also deals with issues prevalent at the time of the French Revolution, such as religion, aristocracy and nationality.

This gothic novel was Radcliffe's first major popular success. It combines mystery and suspense with an examination of the tension between hedonism and morality.

A Gothic novel by Ann Radcliffe, "A Sicilian Romance" was published anonymously in 1790. The plot revolves around the turbulent history of the fallen aristocrats of the house of Mazzini who lived in a castle on the northern shore of Sicily. The tale is told by a tourist who becomes intrigued by stories he hears from a monk he runs into while exploring the ruins of the old castle. The story itself is set in the late 1500s with the main characters being Julia and her sister Emilia, who are daughters of the Fifth Marquis of Mazzini, a haughty, cruel man. The girls mother had been a charming...

Many of the earliest ghost stories, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. We are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.