EDWY: A Poem, in Three Parts

Written by Ann Radcliffe

Narrated by LibriVox Community

In Edwy, Ann Radcliffe gives us a delightful piece of poetic moonshine, whose eponymous hero seeks assistance from the world of faerie in order to spy on his girlfriend, Aura, and see if she really loves him. He does this by venturing unseen into Windsor Forest at night to trap the love-fay, Eda, who, once spellbound, must reveal all and let him remotely view Aura's activities by means of a magic mirror cut from crystal. In addition to this early form of cyberstalking, Edwy, on his night-journey into the forest gets to witness a royal procession of the Fairie Queen, followed by midnight revels of elves and spirits. What seems like a mid-summer night's dream turns into a comedy of errors, though, as Edwy suffers memory loss, makes a false start, and unintentionally looses a mischievous wood sprite in the course of his romantic quest. Puckishly playful, Mrs. Radcliffe imbues her tale with a remarkable sense of the glimmering feyness of the nighttime forest, making a principal appeal of the poem's dreamlike world the inscrutability and ultimate indeterminacy of events glimpsed by moonlight. (Summary by Grant Hurlock)

• Language: English
• Publisher: LibriVox
• Release date: Aug 25, 2014

Ann Radcliffe

Ann Radcliffe (1764-1823) was an English novelist. Born in London, she moved with her family to Bath in 1772 and was known as a shy girl in her youth. In 1787, she married Oxford graduate William Radcliffe, who owned and edited the English Chronicle. While he worked late to supervise the publication of the evening paper, Ann remained at home working on stories for her own entertainment. Eventually, with William’s encouragement, she began publishing her novels and soon became one of the bestselling writers of her time. Recognized as a pioneering author of Gothic fiction, Radcliffe first found acclaim with The Romance of the Forest (1791) and published her magnum opus, The Mysteries of Udolpho, just three years later. By the end of the eighteenth century, Radcliffe found herself at odds with the growing popularity of Gothic fiction and withdrew from public life almost entirely. While several biographers, including Christina Rossetti and Walter Scott, have attempted to piece together the story of her life, a lack of written correspondence and her overall pension for privacy have made her a figure whose mystery mirrors that of her novels.