Zofloya / Edition 1

by Charlotte Dacre, Adriana Craciun

Overview

The protagonist of Charlotte Dacre’s best known novel, Zofloya, or the Moor (1806) is unique in women’s Gothic and Romantic literature, and has more in common with the heroines of Sade or M.G. Lewis than with those of Ann Radcliffe, Charlotte Smith or Jane Austen. No heroine of Radcliffe or Austen could exult, as Victoria does in this novel, that “there is certainly a pleasure … in the infliction of prolonged torment.”

The sexual desires and ambition of Dacre’s protagonist, Victoria, drive her to seduce, torture and murder. Victoria is inspired to greater criminal and illicit acts by a seductive Lucifer, disguised as a Moor, before she too is plunged into an abyss by her demon lover. The text’s unusual evocations of the female body and feminine subject are of particular interest in the context of the history of sexuality and of the body; after embarking on a series of violent crimes, Victoria’s body actually begins to grow stronger and decidedly more masculine.

Among the documents included as appendices to this volume are a selection of Dacre’s poetry and excerpts from Bienville’s Nymphomania, a medical treatise of the time aimed at a lay audience that focuses largely on the dangerous powers of women’s imagination; inspired by improper novels, it is alleged that women may plunge into madness, violence and death—much as does the protagonist of Zofloya herself.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781551111469
Publisher:	Broadview Press
Publication date:	06/10/1997
Series:	Broadview Literary Texts
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	303
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.56(d)
Lexile:	1330L (what's this?)

About the Author

Adriana Craciun formerly of the University of California at Davis, now teaches in the English Department at the University of Nottingham.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements
Introduction
A Note on the Text
Charlotte Dacre: A Brief Chronology

Zofloya

Appendix A: From Nymphomania

Appendix B: Select Contemporary Reviews of Zofloya

Appendix C: Poems from Dacre’s Hours of Solitude

Appendix D: The Dæmon of Venice

Select Bibliography

Editorial Reviews

Through Victoria, the femme fatale heroine of her powerful Gothic novel, Charlotte Dacre revels in the uninhibited expression of female desire; for sexual consummation, for psychological and political power, for religious transgression. This novel is superbly edited and introduced by Adriana Craciun.” — Anne K. Mellor, UCLA

“Like other editions in this fine series, this one provides an informative critical introduction, as well as several appendixes featuring notable sources for Dacre’s novel and selections from the reviews it received in 1806.” — Nineteenth-Century Literature

From the Publisher

"Like other editions in this fine series, this one provides an informative critical introduction, as well as several appendixes featuring notable sources for Dacre's novel and selections from the reviews it received in 1806."

Nineteenth-Century Literature

"Through Victoria, the femme fatale heroine of her powerful Gothic novel, Charlotte Dacre revels in the uninhibited expression of female desire; for sexual consummation, for psychological and political power, for religious transgression. This novel is superbly edited and introduced by Adriana Craciun."

Anne K. Mellor University of California