Castles of Athlin and Dunbayne
- Length
- 4 h 23 min
- Chapters
- 12
- Language
- English
- Genre
- Gothic Fiction, Romance
- First published
- 1789
Ann Radcliffe is the founder of the gothic novel. This novel is no exception. The wicked baron murdered the good earl's father twelve years before the novel began. Only twelve years later, free from his mother's wishes, can the earl seek revenge. Meanwhile, Mary, the earl's beautiful sister is falling in love with a peasant. Yet her brother was abducted by the baron and he wants to marry her. She may have to wed him in order to secure his return. We see Mary's conflict along with a description of her brother's captivity. This book has everything: murder, revenge, battles, damsels in distress, aristocrats, captives, secrets, and, most of all, love. It is a love story in every sense: the love to the Scottish highlands in which it is set, the family love that binds almost above all else, and of course the love between men and women. This short work would later influence Radcliffe's other works. Radcliffe had an influence on Jane Austen, Mary Shelley, and many others who wrote popular gothic novels. - Summary by Stav Nisser and Wikipedia
Chapters
From LibriVox, read by volunteers and in the public domain. LibriVox page (opens librivox.org), the text (opens ebooks.adelaide.edu.au), all files on the Internet Archive (opens archive.org).