Ann Radcliffe’s Ruminations on the Ageing Body in The Romance of the Forest (1791)

Abstract

In the third volume of The Romance of the Forest (1791), Ann Radcliffe introduces an ageing clergyman, Arnaud La Luc, who is the philosophical and spiritual foundation of his parish. La Luc’s ill health concerns his parishioners, who convince him to undertake a journey to the south of France for recovery. This article engages with Radcliffe’s reflections on ageing and the end of life through the Gothic. Writing in her twenties, Radcliffe imagines the physical and emotional strains that might “shatter[]” La Luc to “infirmity” as his body gives way to consumption and is further weakened by threats to his son’s life (Radcliffe 2009, 348). Each new setting from the Maritime Alps to the French Coast fails to cure the consumption wrecking La Luc’s body, and yet, in the novel’s closing chapter, Radcliffe grants this ailing figure a miraculous recovery. This choice underscores the value of ageing figures, and the importance of intergenerational exchange. La Luc embodies tradition, experience, terrestrial limits and celestial expanses and symbolises the grace acquired in ageing (Dekker 2005, 108-11). His journey is paralleled with the movements of Adeline, a young heroine trying to escape despair. Through the presentations of the ageing clergyman and the teenage heroine, this article considers how mental strength is tempered by frailty in Radcliffe’s Gothic novel.

Keywords

• ann radcliffe
• ageing
• death
• female gothic
• eighteenth century
• travel narratives