In 1794, Ann Radcliffe, one of the best known and most popular novelists of the late eighteenth-century, set off on a tour of the Lake District. She was at the very height of her fame, having already published three of her most successful Gothic novels. The account of her experiences in the region appeared the following year as Observations during a Tour to the Lakes and provides an important stepping-stone in the journey from picturesque tourism to Wordsworth's development of a poetics of place from 1799 onwards. Though Observations has been marginalised within subsequent accounts of Lakes literature, it was well-known in Romantic contexts and remained at the forefront of cultural accounts of the Lakes for many years, informing both John Keats and Thomas De Quincey's expectations about the region prior to their own encounters with this landscape. This edition of Observations provides a new generation of readers with an opportunity to experience Radcliffe's literary perspectives on a landscape which was still in the process of imaginative discovery. The volume includes suggestions for further reading, editorial notes on the text, and an introductory essay. The latter provides background on Radcliffe's life and work, and considers the ways in which Observations contributes to developing ideas about the cultural significance of the Lake District. Dr Penny Bradshaw is an Associate Professor of English Literature at the University of Cumbria. She has written extensively about Romantic regional contexts and place-writing.
