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Popular Culture Review
^ For a more thorough evaluation of the sales of Gothic novels, see: Miles, Robert. “The
1790s: the Effulgence o f the Gothic.” Cambridge Companion to Gothic Fiction. Ed.
Jerrold E. Hogle. New York: Cambridge UP, 2002.
^ Radcliffe’s refusal to use realized supernatural forces in her novels has long frustrated
critics. Robert Miles, in summing up such frustrations notes, “The usual complaint is that
the prosaic explanations for her terrific goings-on produce bathos, or, worse, cheat the
reader through the creation of unfulfilled expectations” (“Ann Radcliffe and Matthew
Lewis” 49). Deborah D. Rogers asks, “Why she should have hesitated to admit o f actual
spiritual agency it is difficult to discover” (132). Some critics, however, have found
power in her use of the explained supernatural. Yael Shapira is quick to point out,
“Ghosts, for example, were much more likely to achieve the desired effect if suggested,
but never shown; hence the delicate, evasive presence o f the supernatural in Radcliffe’s
fiction” (453).
^ Susanne Grusse picks up on the labyrinth-like elements as well, especially the
staircases. She refers Ѽ